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13 Thoughts About Dark Nights: Metal #1 By Scott Snyder And Greg Capullo

Published Wed, 16 Aug 2017 03:42:36 -0500

So. It's out! All the pages now! Honest. But what have we been learning? Aside from that this is Scott Snyder, not Zach Snyder, that he and Greg Capullo love the batshift craziness, channelling Kirby and injecting that spirit into Batman to see what pops out the other side. And filling the comics with details, each one that could spin off into its ongoing series…

1. Origin Of Species.

As we saw in the previous Dark Days books, the House Of Bat is the introduction of grim and grittiness into storytelling. It is also the eating of the Tree Of Knowledge. Free will – but choosing the dark side. Or, potentially, the Darkseid. And some great messiness from Capullo, Glapion and FCO Plascencia to give the story its structure. And Rorschach style, what do you see in the blood splatter? Apparently the most common response to Rorschach tests is to see a bat… oh damn, no one tell Geoff Johns that one.

2. The Devil Is In The Details

How to capture a Justice league, beat by beat by beat. Red sons prevent Superman from gaining strength, but everyone has a custom made weakness embedded in their armour. It is Metal vs The Justice League.

Black holes, heat and… what is a Cassandra Engine? Potentially something that can see the future in a technological/Greek myth fashion, and counter Wonder Woman?

3. A Little More Rebirth Rewriting

Aquaman lost his hand again, as the New 52 rewriting of that is done away with. As for the Transformer/Voltron/Fulcrum as[ects – that's another article. Something bigger is going on.

4. Danny The Mountain

The city seemed to… make room for the mountain? That's very Danny The Street – or even Danny The World of it. Given everything else that is getting referred to in this comic, would the Doom Patrol, even with Young Animal, be too much of a stretch?

5. No Google Results.

It's unknown! Challengers of the unknown! And they are unknown!

6. Ninja Continuity

Scott Snyder has been hiding some lead ups to Metal in plain sight, with All-Star Batman. Sneaky sneaky Scott Snyder. Looks like we are going to have to have a reread and look for any Hawk references…

7. You Get An Island, And You Get An Island, Everyone Gets An Island

Okay, there's stuff on that table. Anything we are meant to recognise?

8. A Twister In The Tale

Red Tornado, now a part of The Metal Men and of the Challengers Of The Unknown. Red Tornado is embedded deep within superheroes, originally the first parody superhero in the thirties and possibly the first lead female superhero, before she was recreated for the Justice Society in the sixties as a male robot wind generating superhero, before being deleted by the New 52 reboot, while Lois Lane became a new Red Tornado over in Earth 2. Like Aquaman's amputated arm, he's back….

And the WW2-styled history of the Blackhawks and the Hawkpeople is now firmly underlined too, after being done away with or rewritten away so many times. The Carters now have a history in the DC Universe and not just a mythological one. With TO Morrow, Will Magnus and the Metal Men, and the Will Payton version of Starman, we are getting a rewriting of the entuire DC Comics story. Who does Scott Snyder think he is, Al Ewing?

9. The Map Makers Missed A Bit

Gives a new meaning to "crossing over to the other side". Rian Hughes who designed this map basically made it all up from some Grant Morrison notes. He would love the increasing importance given to the Multiversity map now.

10. Gods And Monsters And Batman

Talking of Grant Morrison, Barbatos is the great bat demon from Morrison's Batman run, who is now being tied directly into the Dark Multiverse stuff and the Dark Judges to come. The ancient bat demon summoned by Thomas Jefferson, a monster summoned by Darkseid sent to hunt Batman through history, Terminator style, but ending up creating both Batman and shaping Gotham. Silly silly Darkseid.

11. What's Inside An Easter Egg?

Oh, and they really are the Dark Judges aren't they? And now linked to Doctor Fate, the Metal Men and the Plastic Man Easter Egg. Remember, the egg isn't just Plastic Man in that form. Eggs have things inside them. Spawn of Barbatos?

12. A Critical Mass

That's… Final Crisis. Does Barbatos have a new target now? And a total Watchmen hands close to midnight reference as well. I suppose everyone else has been making one…