The Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook revealed that a Justice League member lost their life in a manner so explosive it rocked the entire world.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for “The Fall of Earth” from the Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook, by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Doung Mahnke, Jamie Mendoza, David Baron, and Tom Napolitano, on sale now
The Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook one-shot details the fall of the earth at the hands of Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs. One of the big revelations is that the death of Captain Atom, at the hands of Dr. Arkham, is what led to the destruction of the West Coast.
After the events of Dark Nights: Metal, Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs positioned themselves to take over the earth and reshape it into their own dark vision. Dark Nights: Death Metal presents the conquered world and follows a small band of heroes as they try to save the earth. In Death Metal Guidebook, more details are given about how the world fell and became overrun with evil versions of Batman. As it turns out, Captain Atom was pivotal in taking out the West Coast.
The Pre-Crsis Atom is Allen Adam and was created by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko and first appeared in Space Adventures #33. Allen was a technician who was trapped inside an experimental rocket as it is launched. Adam was atomized after the rocket exploded, but instead of killing him, this gave him superpowers.
The post-Crisis Captain Atom, Nathaniel Adam, was reconsidered by Cary Bates and Pat Broderick and first appeared in Captain Atom #1. Here, Adam is a United States Air Force officer and is accused of a crime he didn’t commit. He is offered the choice of either going to jail for the rest of his life or becoming a test subject for a military experiment he has little chance of surviving. The experiment placed him in an alien vessel and detonated an atomic bomb underneath it. The result was the alien metal fastening itself to Adam’s body. Dubbed Captain Atom, Adam could tap into the quantum field as well as absorb immense amounts of energy. He also had the power of flight, super strength, super durability, and the ability to control energy.
Captain Atom was also the leader of the Justice League during the Justice League Europe era, created by J.M. DeMatteis, Keith Giffen, and Bart Sears. Captain Atom appears in 30 issues and is the leader of the team for most of the run. Due to his military background, he is a natural leader who inspired the best in his teammates.
In the first story in Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook, “The Fall of Earth,” Lex Luthor narrates the details of the last days of earth. Luthor relates how quickly the world descends into horror as Perpetua’s forces invade our world from the Dark Multiverse. The heroes band together, but the “twisted minds” of the Dark Multiverse’s evil Batmen were too much for this world’s heroes. The heroes were overrun as the Dark Knights lured them into various traps. One trap in particular had grave consequences.
While defending the West Coast from attack, Captain Atom is drawn into a trap by Dr. Arkham. Not all the details are known, but the trap triggered Captain Atom to explode, and the explosion took out the entire coast. After the West fell, the rest of America and the world followed suit.
Not much is known of Dr. Arkham other than he is “the maddest scientist the Batman Who Laughs had found” among all of the evil Batmen in the Dark Universe. Looking like a combination of Bruce Wayne and Dr. Jeremiah Arkham, Dr. Arkham has the insanity and cunning of Jeremiah Arkham and the intelligence and complete lack of moral compass of the Dark Multiverse Bruce Wayne.
Not even battle-tested heroes like Captain Atom can stand up to the invading forces of Perpetua and The Batman Who Laughs. The death of Atom shows how strategic the Dark Mulitverse forces were as they worked to take over the DC Universe.
