Crossover “event” comics. Ah, yes! There is an inherent audacity to crossover “event” comics, isn’t there?
Crisis On Infinite Earths. Invasion. Millennium. Secret Wars. Infinity Gauntlet. Civil War.
All of these titles haven been published by the “Big Two” – DC Comics and Marvel Comics – but rest assured, smaller publishers have gotten into the crossover “event” game as well.
And why not? They make headlines. They increase reader interest. They drive sales. And, when not exhausting, they can sometimes even be fun.
For the better part of a year, DC Comics have been publishing the six-issue mini-series, Dark Nights: Metal, a rock-n-roll romp through Batman’s worst psychosis, featuring every DC hero: from the popular Wonder Woman to the cult favourite Plastic Man, to the downright unknown, Detective Chimp!
Today, with the release of Dark Nights: Metal #6, the series comes to a ridiculously epic conclusion!
Dark Nights: Metal #6
Written By: Scott Snyder
Illustrated By: Greg Capullo
Published By: DC Comics
I say “ridiculous” because that’s really what this series has been: downright preposterous, to the point of being audacious.
The DC Universe, through its many event series, has always been known as the comic book universe that contained 52 distinct universes, all existing at the same time. It’s pretty awesome, pretty far-flung, deep, physics, actually. A multiverse! Fifty-two distinct universes with 52 distinct earths, complete with 52 distinct heroes and villains – all versions of the Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman and all the other DC characters you know and love.
But underneath those 52 distinct universes, is a bubbling morass of nightmare creations – a dark multiverse full of everyone’s worst and most terrifying version of themselves. All of these creations are vying to escape the dark universe and leak into the other 52, turning those worlds into shattered mockeries.
Dark Nights: Metal has been the series that has centered around the most powerful of those nightmare creations – the nightmare Batmen – that have been able to bring our heroes’ world to it’s knees.
The nefarious aspect of publishing event comic books is all of the spin-off, tie-in titles that come alongside the main, overarching series. They are meant as a deeper dive in to the story, featuring, often, lesser-known characters and their trials and tribulations during the “event” and sometimes serving as a springboard for a new series. Last November, we featured one of this comics in this very column, The Batman Who Laughs #1, which you can read right here. That comic highlighted the evil ringleader of the Dark Multiverse, a version of Batman inspired by his archenemy, the Joker. Thankfully, it was a pretty memorable comic.
Written and illustrated by fan favourites Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, Dark Nights: Metal #6, wraps up, finally, the crazy, ridiculous, stupefying and altogether rock-n-roll series with an emphatic bow.
It’s something you gotta see to believe. And, like the best of DC Comics event comic book crossovers, the multiverse – dark or otherwise – will never be the same!
Make the run to your local comic book shop today and pick up Dark Nights: Metal #1 – and discover where all the audacious dark and the crazy goes!
