Review: Dark Days- The Road to Metal

Quick Summary

Pros: The newly collected material does a great job in providing an effective prelude to the main event. This material also manages to build a great level of excitement.

Cons: Most of this volume feels unnecessary and collects superfluous material.

Overall: Reading this volume is a great way to prepare for the Dark Nights: Metal event, even if a lot of it ends up feeling unnecessary. The opening chapters collect a true prelude to the event, depicting actions that will directly affect the future and building a wonderful level of excitement and anticipation. Meanwhile, the rest of the volume collects older stories, containing both large and small connections to the event. Though this volume is bulkier than it should be, the material here succeeds as an introduction to Metal, especially the Dark Days chapters.

Story

Dark Days: The Road to Metal is an interesting mix of comic books that provides a solid introduction to the events of Dark Nights: Metal. It starts with two chapters that form a true prelude to the larger event. These chapters are designed to get readers excited for the main event, a goal at which they succeed. They aren’t the most exciting or incredible issues of all time, but they are so filled with potential that they easily instill anticipation in anyone reading them.

The rest of the volume collects material from older DC comics that Dark Nights: Metal will go on to reference later. Though the material is good on its own, its presentation here is a bit scattered and feels unnecessary. Only small portions of these chapters actually help set up the main event, which means the majority of this volume ends up being superfluous. None of these are bad stories but the way in which they are included here seems a bit strange.

(spoilers start here)

The two opening chapters are the only material in The Road to Metal that actually present new content. These chapters begin to assemble the pieces of a conspiracy that will go on to form the basis for Dark Nights: Metal. Since the main event does not directly flow out of any particular comic book, this prelude is a wonderful way to establish context for the event. Fans can read these chapters and be completely ready for the larger event.

In addition, these chapters do a fantastic job in building excitement for Dark Nights: Metal. There are so many character cameos, potential storylines, and villains that it makes it feel as if anything can happen in the future. The actual events taking place here are only moderately exciting but readers are constantly guaranteed more in the comics to come, making it all worth it. I started these chapters with a normal level of interest in Dark Nights: Metal but, by the time I finished them, I was dying to read and discover more.

The rest of the book collects previously published material. All of this helps prelude the event in some way yet, in many cases, this prelude is very small. For example, there are over 70 pages of Final Crisis printed here, yet less than 10 of these pages deal with Batman’s trip to the past. The rest deals with the event itself and has very little impact here. The same can be said for many of the storylines collected here, making this book an unnecessarily bulky volume.

None of this is actually that bad, as more comic is typically better than less comic. It is simply unclear who this material is meant for, as readers familiar with it will find it unnecessary and readers unfamiliar with it will find it too fragmented to be of any use.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The Dark Days chapters feature art from some of DC’s most highly regarded artists, including Jim Lee, Andy Kubert, and John Romita, Jr. These artists bring a detailed and realistic art style that brings out the best in the story. Characters look great, environments look epic, and everything is full of detail and life. The only problems arise in a few of Romita Jr.’s pages, where characters have odd proportions. However, for the most part, this portion of the volume looks good and is unlikely to disappoint.

The rest of the volume collects material from previously published comics. All of this material is good and some of it is even great. The Final Crisis issues look awesome and have a particularly wonderful structure to them, which helps in telling the story. Also, the Batman issues features pencils from Greg Capullo, which always manage to impress. Overall, this is a solid collection visually.

Continuity

Dark Days: The Road to Metal is a prelude to the Dark Nights: Metal event and does not directly follow any specific comic.

The story here continues in Dark Nights: Metal.

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• Duke is confused why Hal Jordan can use his ring on Duke’s yellow costume. This is because Green Lantern rings used to be unable to affect anything yellow. This changed in Green Lantern: Rebirth.
• Elaine Thomas appears in this issue. Her misadventures in Batman Vol. 7: Endgame (Review) and in the backup issues of All Star Batman Vol. 1: My Own Worst Enemy (Review) are mentioned here.
• Batman is surprised to see Mr. Terrific in “our universe”. Him leaving “our universe” is explained in Mister Terrific Vol. 1: Mind Games (Review).
• Batman mentions taking someone “out of the box” and then proceeds to look at some sort of containment egg. This is the same egg seen in Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
• Two different metals are mentioned by the voice talking to Hal Jordan and Duke.
  • The first is Electrum. Electrum is first mentioned and explained in Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls (Review).
  • The second is Dionesium. This is first mentioned and explained in Batman Vol. 7: Endgame (Review).
• The machine Batman has hidden in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude is first shown in Crisis on Infinite Earths and then again in Infinite Crisis.
• Three members of “The Immortals” are identifiable.
  • One is “The Wizard” who has appeared most recently in Shazam! Vol. 1 (Review).
  • The other is Ra’s al Ghul, a long time Batman enemy who’s appearances are too numerous to list here.
  • The final one is Mary Seward, a vampire who’s current continuity appearances started in I, Vampire Vol. 1: Tainted Love (Review)
• Joker makes a variety of references to Scott Snyder’s run on Batman.
  • He mentions the last time he saw Duke. This is a reference to the events of Batman Vol. 7: Endgame (Review).
  • Joker also talks about cutting off his face and trying to kill Batman’s “family.” He cut off his face in Detective Comics Vol. 1: Faces of Death (Review). He tried to kill Batman’s “family” in Batman Vol. 3: Death of the Family (Review).
  • He also mentions the “Owls” and “Crazy Quilt” knowing about this ancient conspiracy. Their knowledge of this is hinted at in Batman Vol. 7: Endgame (Review).
  • Joker mentions a time when he “wasn’t (himself).” This occurred in Batman Vol. 9: Bloom (Review), when he lost his memory.
• The machine Joker destroys in the Batcave first appeared in Batman Vol. 9: Bloom (Review).
• Final Crisis #6-7 are part of the larger Final Crisis event.
• Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1 is the beginning of the Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne.
  • A reference is made, in this issue, to Time Masters: Vanishing Point, which is the companion mini-series to The Return of Bruce Wayne.
• Batman #38-39 are part of the Batman Vol. 7: Endgame (Review) storyline.
  • These issues reference are a few changes to Batman’s typical status quo, such as Julia’s presence. These are explained by the Batman Eternal (Review) series.
  • They also reference Dick Grayson’s current position outside of Gotham, which is explained by Grayson Vol. 1: Agents of Spyral (Review).
• Nightwing #17 is part of Nightwing Vol. 3: Nightwing Must Die.
  • This issue also references a moment from Batman and Robin, Vol. 3: Batman & Robin Must Die!
• The last chapter, in this collection, has Tim Drake reference a number of events that took place at the beginning of the Rebirth era.
  • The events referenced in Nightwing’s life refer to what happens in Nightwing Vol. 1: Better than Batman (Review).
  • The events referenced in Red Hood’s life refer to what happens in Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 1: Dark Trinity (Review).
  • The events referenced in Damian’s life refer to what happens in Teen Titans Vol. 1: Damian Knows Best (Review).