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Review: Dark Nights- Metal: Dark Knights Rising

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Quick Summary

Pros: Most of the Dark Knights have incredible backstories that make them more compelling than ever before. The Red Death, the Merciless, and the Batman Who Laughs are the highlights of the collection. The Wild Hunt chapter gives a good conclusion to story elements from the tie-in chapters. Most of the artwork here looks beautiful.

Cons: The Dawnbreaker’s story is a bit generic. The Wild Hunt chapter might not resonate with readers who have not read some of the other tie-ins.

Overall: This is an amazing story all on its own and easily the best tie-in collection from the Dark Nights: Metal event. It presents multiple twisted versions of Batman in a way that makes them relatable and terrifying all at the same time. This leads to a number of intense and emotional stories that are almost all high-quality. In addition, the collection looks good throughout and helps complement aspects of the event as a whole. Anyone who even slightly enjoyed Dark Nights: Metal should consider picking this book up.

Story

Dark Nights: Metal: Dark Knights Rising is a wonderful collection of separate stories that provide the origin for a host of incredibly compelling characters. Here, readers get to see the origins behind each of the villainous Dark Knights, all of whom end up being fantastic and well-developed villains. Not every evil Batman’s story is incredible but the vast majority of them are, especially in the case of the Red Death, the Merciless, and the Batman Who Laughs. Plus, the Wild Hunt story helps further their story and the event as a whole. Overall, this collection is great and is easily the best tie-in to the Dark Nights: Metal (Review) event.

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Each of the individual chapters in Dark Knights Rising accomplishes a variety of goals. Each one starts out by establishing the fact that Batman is not perfect and, if pushed in the right way, he could crack under the intense pressure of it all. It reminds readers that even heroic members of the Justice League have a breaking point and that they are human after all. Each chapter also helps develop sympathy for the Dark Knights as a whole. It shows that they did not start out bad but were simply pushed there in ways that no one could have predicted. This makes them more developed villains, whose actions make sense in the grand scheme of things. Having impressive villains like these makes the Dark Knights: Metal event better as a whole and makes these individual stories even more entertaining.

The standout chapters of Dark Knights Rising are the ones that truly drive these points home and make for some fantastic villains. This can be seen in the Red Death, the Merciless, and the Batman Who Laughs, all of whom are absolutely terrifying in their own way but are still sympathetic at their core. This makes watching Bruce Wayne kill Barry Allen, Wonder Woman, and Superman a more intense experience, especially when you consider the fact that he has Superman kill his own family before dying. These characters are the highlights and make this volume worth reading all on their own.

The only chapter which feels lackluster on its own is the Dawnbreaker chapter. This particular Dark Batman doesn’t distinguish himself in any significantly unique way and feels a bit too predictable. All of the other stories are imaginative and unique, yet this one plays out exactly as one would expect it to. It is still an entertaining read but one that fails to really live up to the expectations set by its cohorts.

This collection also includes The Wild Hunt, which proves to be another exciting adventure. It has the heroes go head to head with the Dark Knights and even features a moment of redemption for the Red Death, which was fantastic to see. The only problem here is that it feels like more of a sequel to the events of The Resistance (Review) rather than the events collected here. It is still a great story but is one that readers unfamiliar with what happened in The Resistance (Review) might not appreciate as much.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Each of the separate chapters in Dark Knights Rising does a fantastic job in emphasizing the tone and theme of the story it complements. For example, Philip Tan and Tyler Kirkham’s gritty attention to detail and 19th century aesthetic make their chapter feel as if it were plucked from a centuries old fairy tale rather than a modern day story. In addition, Francis Manapul’s work on the Merciless makes the character feel even more like a twisted take on a hopeful character, and Tony S. Daniel’s detailed work on the Devastator makes every spike, scale, and shred of cloth more intimidating. The end result is a collection that looks good at every moment and one that significantly enhances the reading experience.

Continuity

Dark Nights: Metal: Dark Knights Rising is a tie-in to the Dark Nights: Metal (Review) event. This book has its origins in Dark Days: The Road to Metal (Review) and the first few chapters from Dark Nights: Metal (Review).

The story here continues in the final few chapters of Dark Nights: Metal (Review) and also plays a part in the Dark Nights: Metal: The Resistance (Review) tie-in.

This volume also makes references to other comic books which we have sorted based on chapter. These references are detailed below:

  • The Red Death
    • Earth -52 seems to be based on Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. This is evidenced by the fact that both comics have nearly identical Batmobiles, Bruce’s character design is similar, and the criminals in Gotham wear the same eyewear.
    • Iris makes a reference to recent events regarding Reverse-Flash. This is shown in The Flash #27, which is collected in The Flash Vol. 4: Running Scared.
  • The Murder Machine
    • Earth -44 seems to refer to the regular version of Earth 44, which has a robotic version of the Justice League.
    • A few quick references are made to Bruce “ringing the bell” to summon Alfred to patch him up. This, most likely, an allusion to Batman: Year One.
    • The “Alfred Protocol” has been brought up before; however it was a backup of Batman’s memories instead of an A.I. version of Alfred. This was from Batman Vol. 9: Bloom (Review).
  • The Dawnbreaker
    • Earth -32 is clearly based on “Batman: In Darkest Night”, an Elseworlds story where Batman received a Green Lantern Ring instead of Hal Jordan. In addition, Multiversity designates Earth 32 as a world where Batman serves as Earth’s Green Lantern.
    • At one point in time a yellow rocket is seen in the sky. This is an homage to Showcase #22, the first ever appearance of Hal Jordan. This issue can currently be found collected in Green Lantern: The Silver Age Vol. 1.
  • The Drowned
  • The Merciless
  • The Devastator
    • Earth -1 seems to be based on the same reality as All-Star Superman. In All-Star Superman #4, a Doomsday Virus is also present.
    • The presence of a Kryptonite tipped spear seems like it may be a reference to the Batman v Superman movie.
    • The monkey Beppo is mentioned in passing. This was the name of a monkey from Krypton who hid in Superman’s rocket when Superman was sent to Earth. His appearances in comics have been extremely minimal since the 1970s and his existence in this current continuity is questionable.
  • The Batman Who Laughs
    • Earth -22 appears to be slightly based on Earth 22, the setting for Kingdom Come.
  • Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt

 

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