Dark Nights Death Metal: Legends of the Dark Knights #1
DC Comics
Written by: Snyder James Tynion IV & Joshua Williamson; Peter J. Tomasi; Marguerite Bennett; Frank Tieri; Daniel Warren Johnson; Grant Morrison
Art by: Tony S. Daniel; Riley Rossmo; Jamal Igle; Francesco Francavilla; Daniel Warren Johnson; Joelle Jones
Colors by: Marcelo Maiolo; Ivan Plascencia; Chris Sotomayor; Francesco Francavilla; Mike Spicer; Jordie Bellaire
Letters by: Tom Napolitano; Rob Leigh; Dave Sharpe; Andworld Design; Russ Wooton; Rob Steen
As good as the main Dark Nights: Metal story was, the Dark Knights Rising origin stories of the Dark Multiverse Batmen may have been the best part of the event.
Scott Snyder and company have now given us something similar with Dark Knights Death Metal: Legends of the Dark Knights #1 — and this has a few stories that are better, believe it or not.
Dark Knights Death Metal: Legends of the Dark Knights #1 is a collection of short stories about other Dark Multiverse Bruce Wayne’s we’ve met in the first two issues of Dark Knights Death Metal, along with an update on a certain evil Batman who’s undergoing a pretty significant change.
Dark Knights Death Metal: Legends of the Dark Knights #1 provides some important detail as the Dark Knights Death Metal story moves forward, and just when we thought we’d already seen the most messed up versions of Bruce Wayne DC has to offer, we find out things can always get darker.
“I Am Here” is the first short story of the issue, and it’s the only one written by Snyder. “Mind-blowing” would be the best way to describe it. We all know DC’s heroes have a tough fight ahead, but after reading “I Am Here,” I don’t know how Snyder comes up with a fitting explanation for how the bad guys lose.
Also, we get to see a few other cool-looking Batmen from other worlds.
“King of Pain” was written by Peter J. Tomasi, and this could be the darkest DC story I’ve seen yet. It’s the second-longest story in the issue, but still about have the size of “I Am Here.” Still, I found this jarring.
And I love Riley Rossmo’s art for this story. With this being such a unique Batman story, Bruce needs to look a little different than he normally does.
“Batmanasaurus Rex” was pretty good, nothing crazy, though — the story is just too short to be anything more than that.
The next story, “This Man. This City,” was a little longer and that made all the difference. Possibly the most deranged Bruce we’ve ever seen.
“Road Warrior” was different. Again, super short, so that limits things.
“I shall become…” is probably the only story I didn’t like, but I think there are definitely those who would. Use not for me.