Dark Nights: Death Metal has taken over the DC Universe, and here’s what you might’ve missed in the penultimate chapter to DC’s crossover epic.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal #6, by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia & Tom Napolitano, and the Dark Nights: Death Metal – Last Stories of the DC Universe special, on sale now.
Since Dark Nights: Death Metal and its predecessor lean heavily into musical motifs, Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 is something of a downbeat prelude. In terms of trivia, Easter eggs and minutiae, there’s not much new in this issue. Many of the characters have already been introduced, the plot is minimal, and overall it largely sets up Death Metal #7’s finale. However, there’s still a good bit to cover in Death Metal #6, so we’ll kick things off by running down the usual details and roll calls.
Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 was written by Scott Snyder, penciled by Greg Capullo, inked by Jonathan Glapion, colored by FCO Plascencia, and lettered by Tom Napolitano. Jared Blando is credited as cartographer, while Darran Robinson designed the publication. The associate editor was Andrew Marino and the issue was edited by Marie Javins.
‘Twas The Fight Before Christmas (Pages 1-3, 8-9, 16-17, 20)
In light of this issue’s conclusion, much of this final(ish) fight feels very ancillary to the real action. Naturally, we begin on Page 1 by noting that the monster-fied heroes are literally mashups on mashups: They have spiked crowns like the Batman Who Laughs, but made out of what looks like Doomsday hide. Moreover, those bony protuberances remind us of the transformed Doctor Death from Snyder & Capullo’s Batman arc “Zero Year,” as seen in January 2014’s Batman #25.
The unidentified green-captioned omniscient narration running through this issue is probably from Sgt. Rock. At one point, it seemed like it could have been from the Spectre – also green and omniscient – but Rock’s been a more constant presence in this miniseries.
On Page 1, Panel 4 we see the bad guys in silhouette. However, their appearance later in the issue makes it looks like they’re actual shadows, reminiscent of the Anti-Monitor’s shadow demons first seen in April 1985’s Crisis On Infinite Earths #1. We get a better look at them on Pages 8-9.