Review: Dark Nights- Death Metal
Quick Summary
Pros: The main narrative is incredibly fun and brings out a lot of cool concepts. The book centers around a compelling theme. The heroes’ struggle is well-written and serves as a great meta-commentary on DC’s comic book history. Wonder Woman, in particular, shines throughout the event. The artwork is gorgeous from start to finish.
Cons: The villains are a bit disappointing.
Overall: This is a fun event that easily lives up to expectations. It has a wild and entertaining storyline, a variety of well-written characters, and wonderfully creative visuals. Plus, the entire volume explores an interesting theme that reflects on the comic book industry and life itself. The only downside is that the villains are slightly disappointing. In the end, this is a book for readers who want a fun event that still takes some time to say something meaningful.
Story
Dark Nights: Death Metal, by Scott Snyder, advertised itself as being the comic book equivalent of a rock concert. It promised over-the-top action, daring feats of heroism, and devilishly cool concepts. In these ways, and several others, the book easily succeeds.
This is a comic that absolutely revels in pure fun. The narrative is outlandish and wild, packed with awesome levels of creativity, yet never feels downright ridiculous. On the contrary, it use its outlandish premise to make a meaningful reflection on society and provide some great meta-commentary on the history of the DC Universe. Though the villains aren’t as well-written as I was hoping, the heroes are fantastic and easily make up for the flaw. Together, all of these factors create a read that should prove more than worthwhile for any reader interested in a fun DC comic.
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Dark Nights: Death Metal achieves its biggest and most obvious successes from the wild and incredibly fun narrative. This book is packed with creative ideas, cool concepts, and a general sense of action and energy that works wonderfully. One minute, Wonder Woman is negotiating with alternate version of Batman, the next she’s cutting one in half with an invisible chainsaw. It is a crazy ride that seeks to simply emphasize the comic book medium’s potential for pure fun.
However, Death Metal isn’t just about over-the-top action, as it also centers around a solid theme. Over the course of the read, the heroes are pushing the Multiverse into the future yet still celebrating everything from the past, while the villains are attempting to stagnate progress in order to retain their view of a perfect world. This is an apt criticism of the way in which individuals often glamorize the past in a way that prevents society from making progress. However, at the same time, the theme celebrates the way in which each human’s contributions help form the greater fabric of human history.
This theme also extends its metaphor into a meta-analysis of the comic book industry. The entire event is billed as an “anti-crisis”, where elements of the past are brought back into continuity instead of being erased. This turns into a celebration of DC’s history that suits this particular moment in time.
In addition to all of this, I also really appreciated the fact that Wonder Woman takes center stage for this event. Previous DC events have primarily centered around Batman or Superman, with Wonder Woman simply completing the Trinity. So seeing her take on the spotlight here is just great.
The villains are the biggest and only significant letdown in Death Metal. The book starts with Perpetua as the big bad. Perpetua received setup and character development leading up to this event and I was looking forward to finally seeing the continuation of plotlines surrounding her, the Apex Predators, and the concept of Justice vs. Doom. However, instead, the Batman Who Laughs takes over and generally dismisses these concepts. The Batman Who Laughs still ends up being fun but his characterization fits poorly with this volume’s themes. Sometimes he seems like a force of destruction, other times chaos, and occasionally his goals are pretty similar to Perpetua’s. The heroes still shine throughout this event though, which, for the most part, helps make up for this flaw.
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Art
The artwork in Dark Nights: Death Metal is fantastic from start to finish. Greg Capullo’s work is typically impressive and this volume is no exception. Together with inks from Jonathan Glapion and colors from FCO Plascencia, Capullo’s work makes the actions within this event look great and is laid out in a way that flows well. This volume is also particularly noteworthy in how Capullo really pulls out all the stops when it comes to creativity. This is seen in the regular character designs, which feature fresh takes on familiar faces, and through characters introduced within this event, all of whom add something to the visual diversity of this book. The volume also closes with some great contributions from Yanick Paquette and Bryan Hitch. Altogether, this makes for an absolutely beautiful book where the creativity within the visuals add to the creativity within the storytelling.
Continuity
Dark Nights: Death Metal is the climax of the Justice League series by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV. This saga runs from Justice League Vol. 1: The Totality (Review) to Justice League Vol. 5: The Doom War (Review) and also includes the Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen (Review) miniseries. For more information see our “Justice League by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV Reading Order“. In addition to all of this, Dark Nights: Death Metal is somewhat of a sequel to Dark Nights: Metal (Review) (Reading Order).
The narrative from this event mostly continues in the Infinite Frontier event. However, elements of the conclusion also help set up the Future State event.
For more details on what to read before this event, what to read after this event, and how the tie-in issues relate back to the main issues make sure to check out our “Dark Nights: Death Metal Reading Order“.
This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:
- Many mentions are made to the invasion of the Dark Multiverse and the aftermath of its attack. This occurred in Dark Nights: Metal (Review) (Reading Order).
- Dr. Manhattan’s attempt to rewrite history is detailed in Doomsday Clock (Review) (Reading Order).
- The story surrounding Wally West’s (Reading Order) recent activities is told in Flash Forward (Review).
- The references to Batman shooting Darkseid and being sent back in time are referring to the Final Crisis event.
- Dark Nights: Death Metal #4 directly relates to the Crisis events from the DC Multiverse’s past. These include: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Final Crisis, and Infinite Crisis.