DARK NIGHTS: METAL
Bring the thunder
Details Writer: Scott Snyder Artist: Greg Capullo et al
Publisher: DC Comics Price:£25 Released: Out now
Crossover event comics
can often be serious, hallowed
affairs, but long-term Batman
creative team Scott Snyder and
Greg Capullo put two devil-horn
fi ngers up to tradition with Dark
Nights: Metal – a wildly indulgent
and sporadically entertaining
addition to DC’s library of universe-
threatening miniseries.
Spinning out of the pages of
Snyder and Capullo’s acclaimed
run on Batman, Metal introduces
the Dark Multiverse, the fl ip-side of
DC’s interconnected Multiverse that
is home to nightmarish alternate
versions of the characters we know
and love.
Key to it all is a number of
powerful metals, all of which
have come into contact with
Batman over his many years of
crime-fi ghting. Deep in the Dark
Multiverse, the dark god Barbatos
seeks to sink the world into
darkness, and will harness the
power of the metals, and of Batman
himself, to do it.
Standing up to face him is the
combined might of DC’s best and
brightest, including the Justice
League and a host of cameos from
across the universe, including one
or two surprise appearances that
Snyder and Capullo orchestrate
perfectly, with each chapter
hinging on a delightful, compelling
page-turn reveal.
Stealing scenes throughout,
BOOK CLUB
Dark Nights: Metal092 | W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K
however, are the Dark Knights,
who each represent a version of
Batman drawn from Bruce Wayne’s
personal nightmares. Chief among
them is The Batman Who Laughs,
a monstrous take on the Caped
Crusader who is as ruthless and
cruel as the Joker, and whose
design recalls a Hellraiser cenobite,
Voldo from Soul Calibur and Judge
Dredd’s arch-enemy, Judge Death,
rolled into one creepy package.
Such a character plays to
Capullo’s strengths, and Metal
fi nds the sweet spot between
grotesque horror, superheroics and
gloriously overblown set pieces
packed with hammer-wielding
titans, hellish landscapes, and
the sort of vistas more commonly
found in the lyrics or cover art of
heavy metal albums.
As a genre and a fandom, heavy
metal has been equally dismissed
as morbid or mindless, but Snyder
writes likes a true metal-head, fully
aware that absurdity can be fun,
and anthems can be profound.
Here, he is drawing from the
well of power metal as perfected
by the likes of Iron Maiden, Dio
and Helloween – bands that take
inspiration from the darkest and
most esoteric of topics to create
outsize music that is energetic,
empowering and also earth-
shakingly epic.
You sometimes wish that
Snyder would bend Metal further★★★★★Space Riders, Volumen Uno:
Vengeful Universe
Fabian Rangel Jr. and
Alexis Ziritt
Face-melting, psychedelic sci-fi.IF YOU LIKE THIS TRY...towards the mixture of fantasy and
metatextuality that you’d fi nd in
Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, or Kieron
Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s The
Wicked & The Divine, but there
are plenty of fl ourishes throughout- from cheeky editorial notes
that throw up the devil horns
at key moments, to an integral
communication between characters
transmitted via the medium of a
power chord.
In truth, Meta l’s indulgences
might limit its appeal – especially
when it threatens to become
incoherent in some of its more
convoluted stretches – but it’s an
undeniably unique series. This
collection’s cover, graced with
Batman riding a Joker-faced
dragon into battle, should tell you
everything you need to know. This
is an event comic that demands
that readers headbang along with
every panel.
Michael Leader