Dark Nights: Death Metal

Dark Nights Saga #2

by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo (Illustrator)

Get ready for the earth-shattering encore as writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo, the legendary team behind Dark Nights: Metal and Batman: Last Knight on Earth, reunite for one last tour of DC's Dark Multiverse.

When the DC Universe is enveloped by the Dark Multiverse, the Justice League is at the mercy of the Batman Who Laughs. Humanity struggles to survive in a hellish landscape twisted beyond recognition, while Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman have all been separated and must fight to survive. Along the way, Wonder Woman roars across the horrifying Dark Multiverse landscape in the world's most demented monster truck, with Swamp Thing riding shotgun! And when the Justice League launches its assault on New Apokolips, the team's goal is to free Superman from his solar prison--but it all goes off the rails when they learn that the Man of Steel is gone for good thanks to the Anti-Life Equation. Collects Dark Nights: Death Metal #1-7.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Batman, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

232 pages, Hardcover

First published April 6, 2021

About the author

Scott Snyder is the Eisner and Harvey Award winning writer on DC Comics Batman, Swamp Thing, and his original series for Vertigo, American Vampire. He is also the author of the short story collection, Voodoo Heart, published by the Dial Press in 2006. The paperback version was published in the summer of 2007.

Reviews

[James DeSantis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'll be honest I couldn't even finish this.

I'm so glad Scott Snyder is stepping away from most of DC for awhile. I'm eager to get back to his American Vampire series when the newest volume drops. I'm eager to see what else he can create indie wise. I'm even excited to see if he does do more DC. But he needs a break. He needs to be away from Batman. He just needs to stop trying these big, over the top, grant morrison style stories.

Scott Snyder can be very talented. His early Batman work, American Vampire, Wytches, and so on prove this. So I don't know why he won't return to that. There's glimmers of it here or there but otherwise this book is everything I dislike in comics. Big explosive over the top storyline with millions of characters and a storyline so stupid it makes no sense in the end, with trying to be Meta-commentary but failing, on top of exposition so thick it might aswell have the words just cover the entire page instead of showing the little art it does.

Anyway, enough of my rant. I hate this storyline. The art is good as always but even that can't save this. I hope these two very talented writer/artist combo go back to what made their earlier stuff so special.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is insane and absurd, but as long as you're OK with that it's actually a lot of fun. A lot of the insanity works, I like the Mad Max version of our heroes. Some of it definitely doesn't work, like Wonder Woman's invisible chainsaw and the Justice League band at the end.

The main impetus of the story is the culmination of Snyder's bloated Justice League story of Perpetua and the Totality that's been going on for years. It's the Batman Who Laughs versus Perpetua with everyone else stuck in the middle. It all was really just an excuse for DC to blow up its universe for 5G which got toned down into two months of Future State after Dan Didio got fired. Some of the best parts of this series were actually some of the one offs. All of the Elseworld stories that spin out of this are so much fun.

Greg Capullo just keeps getting better and better as an artist. His redesigns for Wonder Woman and Superman were excellent. So were a lot of other characters like Swamp Thing. The art really pops on the page.

I am hoping this is Snyder's last DC work for awhile. Hopefully he'll keep American Vampire going for awhile instead. He's better at telling smaller stories instead of this multiverse spanning stuff. Still, this part of it wasn't half-bad. It was the morass of the years wading through the stuff you need a road map to follow between the two Dark Nights: Metal events that really had soured me on this story up to when this started.

[Khurram · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a big epic story. I liked the artwork and the story, but despite being over 200 pages, the book still felt a bit rushed. Maybe I missed something but I did not see the point of Sargent Rocks sermons, I think if these were taken out and the space given to the main characters it would have been a better use of the space.

The book took me a bit by surprise as I did think this might have been a bit of a gag book rather than the conclusion to the Metal storyline. The Batman Who Laughs unleashes his most ambitious end game. I really like the continuity by including the Doomsday book storyline here as well. Even though the heroes or even the world is no longer at it's best this world is not going down without a fight. However, how many losses can even the greatest warriors that before they start to lose heart.

I did really like this book the bit that did a note about it us that in between certain chapters it seen there was another mini story or book. If these are small things on fine, you can get the book to fill in the details, but some of these things were big. All I'm all quite a satisfying conclusion or a new beginning, depending on the point of view.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The very epic finale of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's universal saga, which started with the flagship New 52 Batman and concludes past DC Rebirth into a meta-crisis of all crises. Note also you should have read all of Snyder's Justice League and Year of the Villain before this.

The thing of it is, DC has too much of this. Every crossover these days is about how a Crisis muddles with continuity and history. It's certainly a unique take to have a heavy metal music aesthetic, and Capullo's art is absolutely incredible. It's even an improvement on the Dark Nights: Metal of a few years ago--this time the plot being a bit easier to follow.

But enough of these. Can DC just have a consistent world, and not make all the stakes so damn infinitely complex all the time? There has to be a better way to tell stories than this.

So nice ending, we all love a cosmic Bat-themed story and yeah also that's where the money is, but let's move on already and do something new and purer with the superhero genre.

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow this was a lot to take in.

I read: Death Metal 1-7, Metal Guidebook, Trinity Crisis and Secret Origin.

The book was not bad but its like it felt good to read and its the culmination of 3-4 years of work that Snyder had been doing in his books and the endpoint and the precursor to Infinite frontier. And its alright for a one time big event read.

The story is pretty much the JL lost their war against perpetua, the earth is a wasteland almost mad max fury style and well its Wonder Woman to save the world and she organizes and marches the heroes to fight against the Darkest Knight and Robin King and some crazy shenanigans and uniting all the heroes of P, P and F and go to war one last time becoming the embodiment of truth and the final fight and the final judgement.

What I liked is some moments like the final redemption of Superboy prime or when they go to different crisis to gather energy and all this is cool to see but they are tie-ins but then again they compliment the whole story well but someone who doesn't read them will be lost.

The speech at the end Diana gives and the way it leads to Infinite Frontier and all is solid and is a good prelude to things to come but it also sort of it is like "so thats the ending after this much build up" like a deus-ex-machina but then again I think its the message that Snyder wants to give which is pretty much the thesis of his entire run "It all matters".

Overall its not bad and the art is freaking awesome, Capullo goes from good to better and he does every moment justice and has evolved as an artist tremendously. So yeah its a good one time read and I will highly recommend it and it makes for a great one-time evening read!

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo turned the dial up to 100 for Dark Nights: Metal, but Death Metal smashes the dial in half, destroys the machine with an axe-that-is-also-a-guitar, and laughs maniacally as it does so.

The Batman Who Laughs wages war against Perpetua, the goddess that created the DC Universe, and all of DC's heroes and villains are trapped in the middle. It's high concept at times, completely bonkers always, and a rollicking good time. Event comics are often so melodramatic in their stakes, but Death Metal manages to revel in its insanity, with Snyder throwing out insane idea after insane idea across seven issues.

I do think some of the tie-in one-shots should have been collected here - some of them were kind of essential to the overall story, and I'm not sure how Death Metal itself will read alone without them, but the same was true of standard Metal, so I'm not entirely surprised.

And Greg Capullo is of course on top form. He and Snyder work superbly well together, and his crisp visuals manage to depict everything Snyder throws at him with relative ease. The book may be off the wall nutso, but the visuals keep it grounded without detracting from the crazy.

If you're a fan of Scott Snyder's particular brand of insane, then Death Metal's going to be right up your alley. This is a culmination of his Justice League story, taken to its ultimate conclusion with a heartfelt ending that shows that everything matters, and that Snyder understands the DC Universe in a way that only scribes like Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison can attest to.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another turn of the wheel in DC's never-ending cycle of collapsing and expanding its multiverse. It's like watching middle management at every corporation everywhere thinking they are innovating when they introduce decentralization to undo the previous management's centralization scheme. Change for the sake of change that allows the next person to change back. I guess I've seen too many of these DC crises to really care anymore.

And that's funny because I actually enjoyed Snyder's Dark Knights: Metal. The dark, gonzo cheese that worked there has gone bad here. It's all shock and no awe. What really ruins it for me is the terrible narration provided by an insultingly awful version of Frank Rock. (Similarly, I disliked Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins because I felt it did James Gordon dirty, reducing him to Batmobile-driving comic relief.)

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is what, the fifth crisis? the sixth? the seventh? I did like it, but ...

DC seems really close to disappearing up its own butt. Again, it's kind of interesting that they're defining a comprehensive cosmology with all kinds of super-powered fields, but reading this comic, which seems to thumbnail every major point, that talks about crisis-energy and anti-crisis-energy and that touches bases (yet again) on a few major past Crisis ... it just gets old. I've seen this before, done it before, it was old 15 years ago. It would be entirely incomprehensible gibberish to a new reader.

This one is saved by pretty good writing. There's a weird and charming narrator, wacky foes, unexpected people working together, and touchbacks to past continuity (too much, one might argue). One of the goals of the comic is clearly to unravel the problems caused by Flashpoint, which horribly broke DC history, so that's good.

But there are too few character moments, too little characterization, and when the big changes happen at the end, we don't see a single person's reaction to them (and I'm not convinced we ever will).

I guess this kind of tasted good, but it doesn't feel that filling.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this enough to stick with it until the end, but at times a lot of it went over my head. And it seems quite dense. I found the original Metal series to be similar, but with this being the sequel it has to go even bigger than that. So at times it’s a little 🤯

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clicking "I'm Finished" in Goodreads felt very cathartic just now. I'm done reading Scott Snyder's Justice League morass. From Dark Nights: Metal to The Batman Who Laughs to Justice League: No Justice to Justice League and now finally to Dark Nights: Death Metal.

I'm done, by god. I am hanging up my cleats.

I thought I understood what Scott Snyder's plan was somewhere in the midst of my Justice League read-through. Villainous Perpetua created the multiverse, but wanted it to be fueled by bad, mean stuff. By the end of the Justice League series, she has spurned Lex Luthor, defeated the Justice League, and appears to be primed to tear it all down. Then the Justice League gets sucked through a big door to...Death Metal.

Where, abruptly, all that knowledge about Perpetua stops mattering. Instead, you need to recollect the Batman Who Laughs (my least favorite character in DC history), as well as all the various Crises events that have taken place in the DC multiverse over the past 30 years. Because, you see, it's not metals or cosmic forces or even "good vs. evil" that is fueling Perpetua. It's crisis energy vs. anti-crisis energy. Cool cool cool!

So the Batman Who Laughs becomes all-powerful and he fights Perpetua and the Justice League fights him and it's all beautifully illustrated by Greg Capullo, but none of it makes a lick of sense. Half the story takes place off-screen in the extras to be published separately. At least a page in every issue is devoted to recapping the story because it's so bloated that the reader can't be expected to remember what's going on 24 pages later. It's so fast-paced and manic that you can't even ignore the blathering and enjoy the fisticuffs. It truly is Dark Nights: Metal on speed.

Ultimately, hope and faith and "trying just a little bit harder" save the day, as usual. The multiverse is restored and reset, now with the characters remembering "everything." Presumably, some of them are going to be a bit yucked out by the circumstances of their births.

[Tom Ewing · Rating 1 out of 5]

I keep hearing whispers that DC is Good Again and I’m keen to find out if that’s true, but it’s unfortunately also the case that its flagship events are egregious bullshit. There’s an episode of Father Ted where Ted gets a new car but there’s a dent in it - he decides to tap it out but this makes a second dent appear: cut to half an hour later and the entire car is an unusable wreck. This is what DC continuity is like - one little tidy up in 1985 with the best intentions leads eventually to this farrago of nonsense in which Crisis Energy must fight Anti Crisis Energy so that the Dark Multiverse can be defeated in favour of the Omniverse and oh Jesus is that the time??

I’ve been reading this stuff for 35+ years. I am, by experience and demographics, the bullseye in the target market for DC continuity porn and I still found Death Metal barely comprehensible. I even read Scott Snyder’s terrible Justice League run, the lead in to this, except it turns out there’s another two or three comics in between - miss those and Death Metal is completely baffling. Snyder and the very capable Greg Capullo are trying to have their cake and eat it here: they’re doing a purposefully over the top version of a DC meta event full of gonzo nonsense, with the deliberately annoying Batman Who Laughs as lead baddie, but they’re also trying to get readers to invest in the idea that this time - no really! - they’re unravelling all the previous continuity snarl ups and setting up a status quo that’ll last. Riight.

The one good thing to be said about this is that Capullo does a decent job - he actually is bringing the metal while Snyder provides the progressive rock concept triple LP, and he brings some of the wilder concepts to cartoonish life: on his best day there’s a Kevin O’Neillish verve to his art. Shame what he’s drawing is such pluperfect bollocks.

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.

It all started when Batman was driven by an insurmountable determination to solve one of the greatest mysteries of the DC Universe. Culminating into the multiverse cracking open and unleashing an enemy that no one was prepared for, it is now time for the stories to wrap up in a spectacular fashion as the fate of the universe is once again in the hands of these heroes who will have to think outside the box if they are to survive their final revolution. The massively epic crossover event introduced by writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo now comes to an end with their last rodeo presenting a cataclysmic and reality-bending finale where the last survivors of a familiar world go up against an ever-growing powerful foe to save the universe from extinction.

What is Dark Nights: Death Metal about? With the Batman Who Laughs unleashing the Dark Multiverse onto Earth’s heroes, their reality is now twisted to his mercy and nothing can prepare these heroes of the past for the hellish landscape that is brought upon them. Although the legendary trinity (Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman) are all separated and have their own fair share of chaos to handle on their own, Diana Prince, however, does not plan to give up just yet as she hurdles her way across the defeated and powerless universe to rally these heroes once more to defeat the Batman Who Laughs before he bends and forges a brand-new multiverse to his liking. Not without dependable allies by her side, she will have to face the truth at the heart of this universe if she’s to overcome this calamity.

If you were starting to think that writer Scott Snyder was going overboard with his theological and mythological constructs, allow this latest story to prove you right as he doesn’t hold back in his desire to expand the DC Universe in unprecedented and bizarre ways. Bombastic, ludicrous, and unapologetic. The events that unfold in this seven-issue story arc are ones that set its roots in uncharted cosmic and divine territory, leaving no room for the unversed reader as the narrative draws upon the extremely rich and vast DC lore to ruthlessly portray a chaotic, eccentric, and borderline insane universe. This time around, there is no room for logic. Everything is founded on emotion and instinct. Where wars were once won through strategy, this time around, the answer lies in passion, counter-intuition, and affection.

While there was an underlying interest in Wonder Woman’s character that slowly took more emphasis in the narrative as the Dark Nights saga evolved, this latest story now puts her front and center in what initially seemed like a universe built solely around Batman’s character. Nonetheless, the entire DC Universe is involved in this grand finale and they all bring with them an indisputable amount of history and resilience in an effort to take down the most powerful villain that the DC Universe has ever seen yet. Despite the gravity of the crossover event, they also bring to the table an uncanny sense of humour that does make you wonder if their desperation has pushed them to madness or if writer Scott Snyder just wanted this epic destruction to go out with some silliness.

There’s, however, little that can be reproached in the art department. Artist Greg Capullo brings his A-game in an effort to illustrate the epic, vivid, bloody, and action-packed adventure. His character designs are flawless in that they embrace the berserk state of the universe. From the Swamp Thing to Superman, they all possess a style and demeanour that represents the troubling and anarchic times in which they are. The underlying theme of “heavy metal” is also fully resounding both in style and substance as a sense of massive, distorted, and aggressive storytelling is privileged through words and art. Add in the phenomenal inking by Jonathan Glapion and colouring by FCO Plascencia, and you’ve got yourself a stylish, vivid, and explosive artistic vision to go hand-in-hand with the brutal and imaginative story by writer Scott Snyder.

While this story-arc should put an end to this legendary creative team’s Dark Nights project, it now leads up to the next chapter in the DC Universe, starting with the Infinite Frontier story and followed by the grand slate of Future State titles. If anything, this series has paved the way to an ever-expanding universe where just about anything is now possible.

Dark Nights: Death Metal is a high fantasy finale serving as a love letter to the DC Universe by fully embracing its quirky, cosmic, and expansive scope to crack open worlds of possibilities for heroes and villains.

Yours truly,

Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not only a psuedo-sequel to the amazing Dark Nights: Metal crisis event but also the climax to everything that Scott Snyder has been working on in the DC universe, from his Batman and Justice League runs. And like the first Metal and Justice League, this shit is absolutely MENTAL.

The world has been overtaken by the Dark Multiverse and is the most post-apocalyptic of all post-apocalyptic futures, with sections of the world being run by a variety of Nightmare Batmen, all overseen by the Batman Who Laughs. It’s a world where Wonder Woman is the star of the show as a jail warden wielding a magic chainsaw and driving a sentient Batman monster truck, and a world where Batman uses a damn Black Lantern ring. Wonder Woman and Batman gather the last of the heroes for one last gambit that involves traveling to each of the three main DC crises and weaponizing anti-crisis energy.

Just as the original Metal introduced us to The Batman Who Laughs, this series sees another creepy creation, the Robin King, a dark Bruce Wayne who was sadistic from birth, killed his own parents, before murdering the rest of the heroes. Snyder's got such a twisted mind and I love it.

The event is somehow bigger and crazier and Snyder doesn’t hold the reigns as well as he did in the previous Metal series. It’s messier and doesn’t cohere as well as I’d hoped with tie-ins that aren’t as essential and actually makes everything a bit tedious as times.

Here’s what I think might be the best reading order of the whole event, told mostly in muktiple Justice League and event issues, mixed with a plethora of one-shot specials, with the issues spread across these four books:




Reading Order:

Death Metal #1

Death Metal #2

Death Metal Guidebook

Legends of the Dark Knights #1

Death Metal #3

Justice League #53

Trinity Crisis #1

Speed Metal #1

Death Metal #4

Robin King #1

Multiverse’s End #1

Rise of the New God #1

Justice League #54-56

Death Metal #5

The Multiverse Who Laughs #1

The Last Stories of the DC Universe #1

Death Metal: The Secret Origin #1

Death Metal #6

The Last 52: War of the Multiverses #1

Death Metal #7

[Willow Heath]

Snyder and Capullo are at their best as a creative team when they go batshit insane (pun intended), and Death Metal is very much that. This is a more a creative explosion than it is a story; it’s a heavy metal album cover made flesh, revelling in silliness and insanity. And for that, every moment is a blast.

[Billy Jepma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Do you like dense and incomprehensible plots? Do you like a story that can't stand alone without the help of an unknown number of tie-ins? Do you crave stakes that are ill-defined at best? Oh boy, then have I got a comic for you! ...

The problem with Dark Knights: Death Metal isn't that it's nonstop nonsense, but that it's directionless soulless nonsense. I've read and enjoyed plenty of comics full of nonsense (hell, Snyder's run on Justice League is a prime example, and I enjoyed that a lot!), but this event is just...so empty. The first Metal event was mindless fun backed up by great art from Capullo, who can draw an action scene unlike anyone else. Both that event and this one took themselves far too seriously, of course, but Death Metal lacks the shreds of fun and creativity of its predecessor, leaving just the densely plotted, heartless nonsense that we have here. I wasn't expecting much from this, and it still disappointed me.

Taken on their own, the seven issues in this event rely on stitched together exposition dumps that follow the following format:

1) This is unlike any threat we've faced before!
2) Here's a plan to fix it that involves 17 different steps!
3) Oh no, the plan didn't work!
4) Here's a new plan with even MORE steps!
5) Repeat, repeat, repeat.

If the plans and plots Snyder came up with were exciting, this event could've been fun! If he had let the series embrace the inherent silliness promised in its title, it could've been a goofy, bombastic read! But none of these things happen.

This comic tells you over and over again how important it is, but if you've ever read a comic before, you know events like this are usually undone in some way before the end, so the stakes have to come from elsewhere. Yet, there are no other stakes to be found. Characters die or say they're dying, but the moments have no space to breathe whatsoever before the next nonsense event occurs. It's suffocating, honestly, and the only saving grace the event has are the tie-ins, which are better positioned to tap into some of the potential Snyder introduces and then does nothing with.

Trinity Crisis, Multiverse's End, Secret Origin, The Last Stories of the DCU, and War of the Multiverse are the only tie-ins I read (and there were plenty that I skipped) that have any heart to them, which automatically makes them more enjoyable reads than the main event itself. The art varies on them (except for Francis Manapaul's contributions, because everything he does is awesome), but any shred of meaningful plot development or characterization exists in those pages. The main event is solely for the Plot™️, which means it's often a slog to get through.

Death Metal does end on a high note, though, which is a gift, honestly. The final issue resolves everything in a way that's far too clean (which is expected), but it's at least enjoyable and exceedingly pretty to look at, as it gives Capullo to do what he does best. This is gratifying because a lot of the series seems to stifle his creative layouts and visceral action, which is too bad because his style is so distinct that I wish Snyder's script didn't confine the art the way it does.

I knew I wasn't going to love Death Metal, but I was holding out hope for some shred of excitement from it. But other than a few cool moments, some strong bits of art (especially in the final issue), and a couple of fun jokes (I'm so glad Jarro is in this, it's a mostly soulless, breakneck mess of huge ideas that crumble under themselves.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark Nights: Death Metal is a 2020–2021 seven-issue limited series published by DC Comics, consisting of an eponymous central miniseries by writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo, and a number of tie-in books. Dark Nights: Death Metal collects all seven issues of the 2020–2021 limited series.

Perpetua, creator of the Multiverse, is displeased with her creation and has begun plans to restart her multiverse by taking over Prime Earth and eradicating the other universes still in continuity. Aided by her second in command, The Batman Who Laughs, she's already made good progress and there are only eight universes left.

With Themyscira now literally Hell on Earth and Batman Prime dead, DC's finest band together for a final showdown with the remaining members of a rag-tag Justice League and an army of Batmen, all fighting to bring balance to the universe – an Anti-Crisis event.

Scott Snyder penned the entire trade paperback. For the most part it was written rather well. Death Metal is an achievement of multiversal proportions and while it may not succeed in tying up every single loose thread ever, it comes rather close. It is a crazy story, but it would have to be for it to not just have universal change, but a multiversal one. Everything that had happened, un-happened, and now it has re-happened again.

Greg Capullo penciled the entire trade paperback with additional help from Yanick Paquette and Bryan Hitch (Dark Nights: Death Metal #7). Since he was the only penciler, the artistic flow of the trade paperback flowed exceptionally well. For the most part, Capullo's penciling was done wonderful well. Capullo brings a unique blend of the clean, heroic lines and monstrous imagery rather well. Every single panel has clearly been crafted with care and creativity as little space has been wasted and each page exudes purpose, exploding in frenzied ostentation.

All in all, Dark Nights: Death Metal is a nicely written and constructed series that tries to bring the entire history of DC Comics into one reality in this anti-crisis event.

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Madness. Absolute absurdity. After Wonder Woman kills The Batman Who Laughs, his minions takes Dr Manhattans corpse and The Batman Who Laugh’s brain and places it in the empty corpse of Dr Manhattan and he becomes...Batmanhattan! It’s a nonsensical story. I can’t really explain what I just read but it I enjoyed it at least. Black Lantern scythe wielding motorcycle riding Batman was awesome. The other alternate Batmen were really cool. The story has lots of good Wonder Woman moments and a tease to a new superhero team that looks intriguing. Overall all this is another good Scott Snyder Batman story.

[M. J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was convinced I was going to hate this. But I had this urge to understand DC's new phase and Death Metal is the key event to comprehend Infinite Frontier. Snyder is not my favorite writer and Batman is certainly not my favorite superhero, but man I'm glad I was able to overcome my prejudices and give this one a chance. Simultaneously pretentious and unpretentious, dramatic and funny (so funny), cool and unapologetically tacky I could not resist the appeal of Death Metal. This will not be everyone's cup of tea I'm sure, but it's undeniable how much love and care Snyder and Capullo have for these characters and universe (there's even a Death Metal original soundtrack, available on YouTube, Spotify etc, a nice companion for the book... the attention to detail on this project is right on point). Skip this one if you need your comic book events to take themselves too seriously.

[Judah Radd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incoherent, insane, jumbled madness.

Still... pretty cool. Kind of like actual death metal.

At certain points, It feels like coke fueled fan fiction. The ending is basically DC saying “listen guys, we’re just trying to set up something that resembles a shared universe... but bare with us, it’s gonna be weird.

I didn’t mind. I liked the supercharged coolness of the climaxes here, as well as the shamless OP factor that these type of crisis-esque events tend to invoke.

Greg Capullo’s art slaps. Snyder commits to his absurd premise, and the result is a lot of confusing fun.

Definitely a mood.

[Mariano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, this is not a two, actually. I think it's more like a 3. But I'm pissed off.

If you read Snyder's Batman run or his Justice League, you know he can write. I like his plots but I especially like how he writes the characters and their relationships. He gives them a unique voice and focuses a lot on them. His JL run is the best example of it. But then you read these events (Metal or Death Metal) and it feels like a completely different writer. And that's on DC, not on him. It's the editorial mandate (at least up to this point, I haven't read other events past this one).

A DC event has to be complicated. It doesn't have to make much sense. A clear narrative arc? Of course not, it wouldn't be an event! Because that's what people love about Grant Morrison, right? That it's kind of confusing? Yeah, they figured it out. So, after reading Snyder's JL I thought "Well, Death Metal can't be that bad if he comes from this, right?". I mean, he explains Metal perfectly in Justice League in three panels. Everything that doesn't make sense from the event. Because that's an event: a story that doesn't make sense. But if you don't get it it's because you are probably not very bright. So it's the Emperor's new clothes in comic book form.

I know, I'm rambling, but I'm mad, because once we get to issue seven of this, SUDDENLY, Snyder appears! Because it's the last issue, right? So suddenly the characters are not flat. They are funny. They have feelings. They interact as characters and not as "plot vehicles". There is a party scene with Supes, Batman, Flash, and Black Canary as the band. So it can be done! But no, this is only about the plot and the infinite scale and the nonsense. The perspective of the story is so bad that you don't get that there are PEOPLE LIVING on this new earth until a short story from Mark Waid in one of the tie-ins.

Metal felt more genuine. It was silly but in a good way. It was fun! It had warm moments, I enjoyed it even when things didn't make much sense. But this is just lazy. It's not because it can't be done or they don't know how. They are choosing to make these things the way they are. I'm not blaming Snyder. It's all DC. And it pisses me off.

[Roman Zarichnyi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Жив собі у Темному мультивсевіті Король Робін. Злий він був і допомагав Бетсу Хохотону у його зловісних планах. А ще у нього було багато злих Робінів. І відбувся бій, де полягли його побратими в бою із Бетменом. І попрохав Король Робін сказати: «Я є Бетмен». І відповів Бетмен, що «Ми є Бетмен». Хочете далі? А чорт його знає, що сталося із Королем Робіном, бо цього не показали. Тільки в голові Скотта Снайдера є відповідь на це. Десь в такому руслі проходила уся ця подія.

Направду вона була ніяка, затягнута, нудна і ще мала 100500 тайінів таких самих. У мене враження, що Снайдер захотів погратися у крутого хлопаку, який знається на вищих матеріях, але просто не стягнув.

Та все ж ми маємо: нову лігу злочинців із онґоїнґом, два центри основного мультивсевіту (основна Земля тепер не основна) і омніверс, що, як я розумію, знищує поняття безперервності усіх подій у всевіті DC.

Але головне, не давайте писати Снайдеру події і командні онґоїнґи. Кінець! Єдине класне в лімітці — малюнок Ґреґа Капулло.

[Joseph Domingo · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only redeemable thing about this book is (in my opinion) the character designs. I really like the metal Superman and the edgy Batman looks, I thought Hell-Swamp-Thing was sick, and that “Kill All” Superman was so cool. But the story was awful. I knew it was going to be bad going in, but good lord was I shocked. The humor felt like how people would make fun of an avengers movie’s writing, the plot was so overly complicated for no reason, and in the end, it kinda felt like nothing mattered, because the entire fucking point of the book was undoing the event. It was literally just “oh man that was crazy! Don’t worry, all done!” I usually am able to justify books I don’t like, or see the good in them, but not this one. I bet you, don’t buy this book. Honestly, there’s no need to even watch a video on it. If you know nothing of the events then you’re technically caught up. If you insist on engaging with this series in some capacity like I did, learn from my hubris and just check out the variant covers.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Capullo's art, so this earns some extra points right off the bat for that. As a story, it is a culmination of years of Snyder's work, but really ends up being like every other major crisis at DC. If I felt like any of it would matter in the long run or like it was actually its own unique story that didn't rely so heavily on the past, I would appreciate this more. As is, I simply expect to see snippets of this event show up with all the other crises in the next big one to rehash the same basic premise and try to fix anything the editorial staff feels has gone awry. There are no stakes here, and any original ideas are overshadowed by all the unoriginal ones piled on top of each other.

[James Bowman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reads like the fanfic of an overambitious and overenthusiastic novice who managed to get professional backing. There are admittedly some fun and interesting ideas here... but they're countered by some really bad ideas, and everything is drowning in "cool" randomness. (The trade - despite being a "deluxe" edition - also appears to be missing some critical pieces of the story. Perhaps they were in other collections, but that choice makes this even harder to follow at times.) Somehow, the storyline is still hard to completely dislike... but that isn't enough to make this a winner. (C+)

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think I could explain what happened in this story if I tried, but at least it looks good. The story reminded me a lot of a 10 year old kid playing with his action figures and trying to out-bombast anything and everything...

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

5

DC has been in a slump for a few years and I'm mainly taking aim at the events they have been pushing out. The initial Dark Nights which introduced the Batman Who Laughs didn't do it for me but it did give birth to one of my favourite series The Terrifics. Getting back on track I decided to pick up the floppies for Dark Nights Death Metal and treat it more like an event series instead of reading it in one go. The issue I have found is the one shot issues and Justice League tie-ins are essential to the overall experience in my opinion. You don't need to read them of course but I honestly feel like you'll miss some of the action and depth that is explored in those issues.

Why the 5?

Dark Nights Death Metal sets the scene for a new DC going forward. The boundaries are taken down and it will be interesting how they take Infinite Frontier into the future. There's been so many Crisis arcs and it's nice to have DC back in a spot where it feels new again. Rebirth had good intentions but it never fully delivered with books like long delayed Doomsday Clock, which I should get around to reviewing. Death Metal is ambitious and flat out weird. It's a book that keeps everything withheld and reviews only at specific times. The issues were delayed with COVID so I had some lags while I was reading these on arrival. I'm happy to say the finale delivers a new horizon for DC and with Future State being somewhat successful, there's finally a great time to jump into DC. Solid writing and art by the guys who had success with Batman N52. I can't recommend this highly enough.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, all right from looking for the book's ISBN (yep another one read as digital floppies) for some reason it says the final issue is not included in this volume. I have zero idea if they are planning to add it to this book, combine it with something else for another trade, or wait until some very large omnibus. Regardless, this review covers all of the issues and tie-ins for the series.

And, I really wanted to like this series. What this, and the prior "event" Dark Nights has left me feeling is that Snyder just should 1) not write other people's IP and 2) he just doesn't appear cut out for the super hero genre.

Which is fine. Go read, please, his American Vampire work for DC Comics. That is a damn fine book, and one I do recommend (and I'm so done with vampires).

Avoiding spoilers, I think I like the final endgame Snyder reaches, and presuming he collaborated with the others on the side stories and issues, there are even some fun tales to be had. The execution just feels so off, and that is kind of a shame. In some ways this could have been like Crisis on Infinite Earths, a celebration of super heroes and the hope they are supposed to represent.

Nope, they didn't make it there. As one of the few people who wasn't wowed by the last two Avengers movies, this was enjoyable in the moment but the afterwards is, "What's with the hype?," feeling.

[Jason Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ordinarily, if you told me you wanted me to read a book, even a comic book, that contained some of the elements and characters this one does, I would pile that recommendation right alongside one to watch Sharknado. For some reason, however, maybe great writing, or maybe my deep-seated love for DC Comics, I found this story fantastically amazing. The entire Dark Nights series has just been thrilling for me. I was always waiting for something more fantastical and crazy to happen. It is a slight struggle to make sense of each and every little thing that is happening without having input from the other events happening in other comics, but I know I'll get to those eventually, and it is wonderful and entertaining if you can let go of those elements for the time being.

[Sans]

I tried. I really did. Several times. This’ll just be a nope for me.

[Travis Duke · Rating 4 out of 5]

all the stars for Capullo, holy crap that art is great. The panels are full of action and detail. The story is really big and sort of silly but I went along for the ride... The ending made me chuckle with the concert... DEATH METAL!!!!! ok I am done