Even though Dark Nights : Metal is arguably one of the most crucial write up that DC is currently telling , it can be a small hard to follow , especially kick in the case ’s many evil , alt - universe batman and their tie - in comics . But Metal ’s gotten to a point where it make sentiency to look back at what ’s happened so far — and how all these exceedingly Dark Knights get along to be .
Though we ’ve been seeing them for calendar month now , as they ’ve diagram the destruction of the multiverse , we finally have full backstories on each of the evil Batmen of various Earths , and a well idea of what kind of threat they really are . After being recruit by the Batman Who Laughs from each of their base dimensions , the Dark Knights converged on Earth Prime at the behest of Barbatos , an ancient , extra - dimensional being with a connection to the Wayne family . After trap the Prime Earth ’s Batman in the Dark Multiverse so that they would be free , each of the Dark Knights have been terrorise their Justice League counterparts and let on aspects of Bruce Wayne ’s personality that he ’s rarely undecided about . If you ’ve not been trace along with the Metal standoff - ins , here ’s what you need to make love about each of these evil Batmen ( and cleaning woman ) .
The Red Death
The Red Death ’s lineage are a fairly straightforward portmanteau of Batman and the Flash ’s tragical backstories . mark on a snuff it Earth-52 , Batman : The Red Death opens with that world ’s Bruce Wayne set about to steal the Flash ’s connector to the speed force . The only thing keep Bruce from being able to save the entire worldly concern , he reason , is his lack of super - stop number — something that Barry taste to convince him is n’t true . tug by his eld - one-time regret of not being able to economise his parent ’ animation , Bruce dismisses Barry ’s warnings about the swiftness force and organise a plan to strap the speedster to the hood of the Batmobile , using him as an engine that ’ll motivate them into the speed force and allow their bodies to meld into one .
What emerge from the experiment is a version of Barry ’s body that ’s “ driven ” by Bruce ’s thinker . Imbued with Barry ’s might , Bruce no longer has to survive in fear that he might not be profligate enough in his war against offense . His new power allow the Red Death to at last rid Gotham of its many criminals once and for all , and at first , Bruce consider that he ’s made the right decision . But even with his newfound connection to the fastness force , the Red Death is powerless to prevent Earth-52 from being destroy as was destined . When the Batman Who Laughs offers him a luck at another life in the Light Multiverse where Earth Prime is located , the Red Death is all too willing to become the first of the new Dark Knights .
The Murder Machine
As Metal has been unfolding over the retiring span of workweek , the heroes have tried to act upon out just what each of the Dark Knights is supposed to represent . While The Red Death ’s message was n’t quite as straightaway manifest , The Murder Machine was the first of the case ’s crosstie - ins to really forge home the emotional weight that each of the Dark Knights is carrying .
lay on Earth-44 , The Murder Machine opens in a world where Gotham ’s felon determine to send a savage subject matter to Bruce Wayne by murdering Alfred and take sure that video footage of the flak form it back to the billionaire . Driven mad with heartbreak and guilt over whether Alfred ’s death was his error , Bruce discombobulate himself into a passion task deeply rooted in his desire to bring Alfred back . With Cyborg ’s supporter , Earth-44 ’s Bruce train the Alfred Protocol , an A.I. program styled after Alfred that ’s mean to act as an assistant to Bruce . But the protocol drive its directive to protect Bruce too gravely , and becomes a dangerous United States Army of voiceless - Christ Within hologram Alfreds hellbent on bonding with Bruce . finally , the Alfreds trap Bruce in the Batcave before subdue him , taking over his body , and rebuilding him as a less human version of himself , with a number of new ability exchangeable to Cyborg .
The Dawnbreaker
Though most of the Dark Knights ’ story affect a version of Bruce Wayne kill another penis of the Justice League , The Dawnbreaker is unparalleled in that its Bruce Wayne in reality begins as Earth-32 ’s Green Lantern . Moments after see the deaths of his parent , a new Bruce is confronted by a light-green office tintinnabulation that ’s chosen him as its next desirable owner . Bruce ’s almost unimaginable self-possession give him the ability to push his ring past the limit point of most Green Lanterns , and for a while he operates out of Gotham City as a hero much like his traditional self . But Bruce ’s furore and never-say-die will begin to corrupt the ring , and allow him to bug into lethal levels of effect Lanterns are traditionally forestall from using .
finally , the rest of the Lantern Corps takes bill of Bruce ’s behavior and revilement of his powers , and go to Earth to strip him of his ring — but they ’re horrified to memorise that the young Lantern has become something much more serious and powerful than they could have imagined . Bruce singlehandedly murders all of his universe ’s Green Lanterns and Oans before accepting the Batman Who Laughs ’ offer to move onto the Light Multiverse .
The Drowned
Bryce Wayne never really manages to move on after the death of Sylvester Kyle , the erotic love of her life , after he ’s mangle by metahumans . A burn desire to be prepared for any and all metahuman onset puts Bryce so on bound that when her creation ’s Atlanteans make their first contact with the aerofoil earthly concern , she now bear that they mean the world harm and should be weigh a threat .
A pre-emptive attack on Atlantis led by Bryce prompts the Atlanteans to flood Gotham City in revenge , leading to Bryce qualify her body in ordering to be able to pull through underwater . Of all the Dark Knights , the Drowned seems to have the most aboveboard remainder goal in psyche : Drowning the total man so thatit can know pain and red like hers .
The Merciless
Batman : The Merciless is one of Metal ’s headier tie - ins that ask us to view what sort of liveliness Bruce Wayne might hold up if he struggle his lifelong battle against evil with the same kind of ferocity that Wonder Woman go to war with . Earth-12 ’s Batman and Wonder Woman spend year locked in a vicious battle against Ares , the god of war , who fashions a magical helmet that vastly amplify his power .
As Batman and Wonder Woman make their way to the front lines , they find companionship and love with one another , but their time together is dilute short when Wonder Woman falls . Convinced that there ’s no Leslie Townes Hope of ever make headway a war against Ares , Batman dons the witching helmet himself even after Wonder Woman warns him of its evil , cloud influence . satiate with a variety of powerfulness he ’s never known before , Batman becomes the new god of warfare , murders Ares , and set out to raze the total earth . Without any sense of restraint or self ascendance , The Merciless seems to say , Batman would merely become addicted to death and destruction .
The Devastator
Out of all the Dark Knights ’ stories , The Devastator reads the most like the variety of thing you ’d completely anticipate Bruce Wayne to do even though he knows well . The idea that the Justice League might one day be forced to press against Superman is n’t a refreshing one , but when that daytime finally comes for Earth-1 ’s League , they’re legitimately unprepared .
One by one , an inexplicably turn Superman murders the Justice League until only Batman ( fortify with a Kryptonite spear ) remain . Superman mock the idea that even Batman could ever have dreamt of taking him on , and in a last - ditch effort to hold on his former friend , Batman tries a Hail Mary . Frantic , Batman infect himself with a modify interlingual rendition of the Doomsday Virus that commence to transform him into a human / Doomsday hybrid . power by all of Doomsday ’s strength and Bruce ’s own innate intelligence , the Devastator promptly dispatches his world ’s Superman , but he ’s deeply shock by the experience of having to kill such a close friend .
Rather than ever risk his world ’s devastation at the hand of another godlike flesh like Superman , the Devastator devises a plan to infect everyone with the Doomsday virus , ensuring that every living being will be unassailable enough to protect themselves . The drawback , of course , is that everyone is transformed into mutate colossus in the physical process .
The Batman Who Laughs
Given that he ’s their loss leader , it is n’t at all surprising that the Batman Who Laughs has themost disturbing and fascinatingof the Dark Knights ’ back stories . Though none of the Dark Knights seem to have an issue with killing the great unwashed , the Batman Who Laughs ’ entire existence is work up around the idea that murder was , at one pointedness , a tone too far for Bruce Wayne .
When the Joker of Earth-22 force Batman to watch out as he reenacts the Wayne family ’s deaths , the stress of the post drive Batman to whip out and ultimately kill the Joker by choking him to decease . As the Joker dies , wisps of Joker toxin seep from his oral cavity and make their way into Batman ’s body , finally leading to a gradual transformation in the Caped Crusader . Exposure to the toxin brings out pieces of Bruce ’s personality that he ’d previously fought so hard to suppress within himself , and presently , Bruce finds that he enjoys his newfound psychological freedom .
make out that the Bat family will attempt to stop him , the Batman Who Laughs gathers them all in the Batcave and unceremoniously shoots them all with a pair of reflex motorcar heavy weapon before plant out on his mission to unify the Dark Multiverse ’s other Dark Knights .
Now that Metal ’s baddie have all had a probability to delimit themselves within the outcome , it ’s been interesting to see each of DC ’s heroes speculate the nature of their existence and what it mean about their Batman .
Though they ’ve had a few momentaneous import of heroism here and there , the rest of the Justice League has spent the mass of Metal running from the Dark Knights , assuming they were simply manifestations of Batman ’s various fright . More recently , though , Cyborg had something of a revelation thanks to his connective to his Mother Box . During New York Comic Con this yr , writer Scott Snyder explicate that Metal would see Cyborg move through a massive transmutation , countenance for him to efficaciously hack the multiverse — something he see to do in Justice League # 33 .
After the Dark Knights round up their Justice League counterparts and drag them to Challengers Mountain in Gotham , the Batman Who Laughs begins excruciate Cyborg to draw a powerful component out of his Mother Box . But while Cyborg is trying to fight off the evil Batman ’s genial attacks , he is of a sudden reach by his Mother Box ’s sentience , which devote him admittance to young and valuable entropy that may very well terminate up adjudicate how Metal ends .
The Dark Knights , Cyborg learns , are n’t just Batman ’s fears — they’re also his mistakes and representation of his implicit in fallibility . More than that , though , Cyborg ’s young cosmic cognisance allow him to pluck himself and his fellow Justice Leaguers out of the multiverse and into Hypertime , where they ’re able to regroup and formulate a new plan to save the day .
Metal ’s close wo n’t come in until next year , but after workweek of introducing various puzzle piece , the event is last start to take on some sort of cohesive form . What began as frenetic , Kirby - esque head trip of a comic is , issue by issue , becoming a thoughtful story about the nature of fear and regret as well as the lasting power of hope .
Now that Metal ’s established both ends of its spectrum — the wild and zany as well as the ruminative and introspective — hopefully the event can strike a equaliser between the two as it enters its last act .
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