An infamous group of Batman villains from Batman: Dark Knight Returns are thriving in the world of Dark Nights: Death Metal.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for “Queen of the Desert” from the Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook, by Chip Zdarsky, Khary Randolph, Emilio Lopez, and Dave Sharpe, on sale now.
Of all the criminal groups that exist in the DC Universe, some of them have proven more resilient than others. While some have fallen to the wayside during major events like Dark Nights: Death Metal, others have been able to carve out entire swaths of the world for their personal brand of chaos. Such is the fate of one infamous group from Frank Miller, Lynn Varley and Klaus Janson’s seminal The Dark Knight Returns, who’ve thrived as the events of Dark Nights: Death Metal and have adapted to the world around them.
The Mutant Gang, which originally introduced in The Dark Knight Returns, thrives in the chaos of the Death Metal world, and it’s little mystery why the group seems to be doing so well. Like many of the characters in this altered timeline, the Mutant Gang isn’t exactly what readers have seen from them before, but the characteristics they do retain make them the perfect survivors for this twisted version of the DC Universe.
WHAT IS THE MUTANT GANG?
The Mutants were first introduced in The Dark Knight Returns. Taking place in a grim potential future version of Gotham City, the Mutants quickly became one of the city’s most dominant gangs. A brutal and bloodthirsty group of teens, the Mutants brought such a level of violence and crime to the city that Gotham becomes a more dangerous city. Their presence is one of the factors that motivates an elderly Bruce Wayne to re-don his cape and cowl.
Although his technology makes him a formidable opponent despite his age, Batman is overwhelmed and defeated by the Mutant Leader, who lures Batman into a fist-fight that ends with the Dark Knight almost killed. It’s only after Carrie Kelley is able to help rescue Batman that he gets enough of a reprieve to try again. This time, Batman breaks the Leader and defeats him with his superior fighting style. This leads to the dissolution of the Mutants and and the rise of a new gang, the Sons of Batman, who direct their extreme violence onto criminals.
HOW DID THE MUTANTS SURVIVE INTO THE METALVERSE?
The Mutants have appeared a few times in the core DC Universe in minor roles, which teases their eventual potential fate as one of the most dangerous groups to come to Gotham. They even fought Dick Grayson confronted them during his brief tenure as the Dark Knight. The Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook reveals that they’ve survived into the twisted Metalverse, where their numbers are thriving. Harley Quinn encounters a number of them while traveling through the radioactive Arkham Wastelands, which has transformed them into hulking brutes.
Counting a transformed Captain Boomerang among their number, the Mutants come surprisingly close to killing Harley, but she’s able to escape them thanks to her trusty hyena. While some Mutants always seemed to border on the superhuman, the radiation of the Wastelands truly seems to have pushed them into metahuman territory, at least in terms of pure strength.
While there’s no indication if the Mutants will stick around after the world of Death Metal is reconfigured once again, these upgraded Mutants could dramatically change the shape of Gotham City’s underworld if they continue on after this crossover’s conclusion. But even if these villains do disappear, it’s almostcertainly only a matter of time until their eventual return.
