Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Dark Nights – Metal #1 [of 1]
Scheduled to arrive in stores: December 29, 2020
Cover date: February 2021
Writer: Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Scott Snyder
Artist: Karl Mostert
Reviewed by: Craig Boehmer
Batman failed to defeat Barbatos and became the conduit through which Barbatos could conquer and destroy all worlds. This left only Duke Thomas alive. Duke has spent the last several years travelling from world to world as the sole remaining Monitor trying to defend the Multiverse. He returns to Earth-0 after failing on every single planet. He is confronted by the Barbatos’ dragons, corrupted monstrous versions of Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Superman. Superman begins to eat him, when Dick Grayson arrives and stuns them with his axe, allowing Duke to escape. Duke follows Dick back to the old Justice League base where Dick, Kendra, Hawkman, the skeleton remains of the Flash, and a Hybrid of Bobo and Red Tornado live. He is able to convince them that they can defeat the dragons, Hawkman reveals that death is coming anyways so they set off to fight. The group attacks the Batman Who Laughs freeing the Joker Dragon to join them in fighting the dragons. They attack the dragons and are each able to defeat a single dragon while dying in the process. This leaves just Duke and Barbatos. Duke uses teleportation to enter Barbatos and kills a shackled Bruce that Barbatos is using for power. Duke then leaves to hunt monsters in the Multiverse, including DC’s version of the Watcher that has been narrating all of these tales.
Story – 4: I enjoyed this little tale more than the Dark Nights Metal event. Probably because it told a simplified and streamlined story. Getting the spotlight on Duke and Dick was a surprising treat. I have always loved Dick Grayson, but have not read many stories of Duke. After reading this I am scratching my head as to why Future State is using one of the Fox family members instead of Duke. Duke is a great character that DC introduced recently and has not really used in anything. It seems like a major miscue to not make him the future Batman, but I am willing for DC to prove me wrong. As far as this story is concerned, it is not really a Superman centric story at all, but it is still an interesting alternate world story.
Art – 5: The art style for this book was not my favourite, but it works very well for this type of tale. The monstrofied versions of the Justice League are grotesque and terrifying, especially Superman. And Dick’s redesign is awesome, very reminiscent of Superman’s look in Death Metal.
Cover Art – 4: This is a fun cover showing Duke and Dick riding the Joker Dragon into battle along with the rest of the remaining Justice League members. The Bat symbol faintly in the background is a cool touch, though I don’t really like the heavy use of yellow for this cover.
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