As Dark Nights: Death Metal’s final battle kicks off, Batman endures a horrific injury as he fights against the Darkest Knight’s armies.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal #6, by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia & Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
As Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs have laid waste to the DC Multiverse throughout the crossover event Dark Nights: Death Metal, they have left plenty of familiar heroes and worlds broken in their destructive wake. From whole scores of heroes brutally massacred by the Robin King to entire cities overrun by monsters in their service, the Dark Multiverse forces have inflicted heavy losses on the DC Universe.
And as the final battle between the forces of good and evil starts taking place in Dark Nights: Death Metal #6, Batman endures a particularly gruesome injury as he faces off against the villains: the loss of one of his arms.
While the heroes of the DCU joined forces with many of their greatest villains, united against the common enemies of Perpetua and the Darkest Knight, the Dark Multiverse overseers quickly made it clear that they were unfazed by the deadly alliance. Instead, the Darkest Knight marshaled an army from the multiverse he created with his new cosmic power to rise up and confront the assembled heroes and villains. An all-out war erupted between the two armies, with Batman using his Black Lantern Power Ring to raise a legion of the undead to bolster the heroes’ numbers. While the heroes were able to repel an initial attack, the Caped Crusader lost one of his arms in the battle.
As pointed out by Superman, Batman is completely unfazed by the grievous injury, owing to his new nature as one of the undead himself. The Dark Knight reveals that he actually was killed in the initial invasion of the DCU by Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs’ forces. After rising from the grave, Batman’s new undead nature allowed him to wield the full power of the Black Lantern Corps. However, he maintained the secret of his death from his allies until shortly before the final battle as the heroes finally became honest with one another as they faced the potential end of existence.