in the beginning this workweek , DC Comics revealed amajor , improbably unexpected return of a character that many fan thought they ’d never see again , thanks to the last pageboy of Dark Nights : Metal # 1 . It was definitely a shocking moment in a comics event that ’s been promise to be a bonkers exploration of the DC mythos for a while now . But I ’m here to tell you : This comedian is so much crazier than you ’re imagining .
compose by Scott Snyder and with nontextual matter from Greg Capullo , Jonathan Glapion , and FCO Plascencia — the creative squad that reason a triumphant run on Batman last year — Metal ’s first issue has a wonderful insanity to it , but it ’s also kind of a mess . This is especially true if you ’ve not mentally groom yourself by read the antecedently - released prologue offspring The Forge and The cast ( if you have n’t learn then , here ’s the deal : basically , Batman detects a weird energy theme song occurring everywhere and he thinks it mean something bad is about to happen — and he ’s ripe ! )
From its first Thomas Nelson Page , Metal prioritizes its craziness over everything else . It opens with the Justice League in the middle of a bloody struggle against giant robotlike devil in a far - put away alien arena , which somehow include them briefly father aVoltron - esque mecha , and is quite wonderful . This is when Alfred predict Batman to let him cognize a giant mountain and suddenly and inexplicably erupted in the inwardness of Gotham City .
While the League investigates Gotham ’s new turning point , the Blackhawks appear . They ’re an old school radical of pilots from DC ’s Silver Age best bang for fight down Nazis from their island base during World War II . When the New 52 start , they had their own their own title and were reimagined as sort of an elite regime chore force ( like you do ) , but this variant is much , much close to its original Silver Age version — with the sole exception of the leader of the Blackhawks , who unmasks herself as Hawkgirl .
Let me make this clear : Despite the fact the hero and the team both have “ peddle ” in their name , Hawkgirl and Hawkman have never had any connection to the squadron . In fact , this Hawkgirl — a character with one of the mostcompletely bonkers histories in the DC universe — is Kendra Saunders , a version of Hawkgirl that has n’t existed in the New 52 DC cosmos previously , outside of an Earth-2 edition of the persona .
This , really , is where Metal begins belong off the thick final stage of its assumption , as Kendra takes the League to Blackhawk Island to give away just what is behind those strange energy signature Batman obtain : Nth Metal , the exotic substance that has traditionally only been found on Thanagar , the home planet of Hawkgirl and Hawkman ( when they ’ve presented as extraterrestrial ) , and the center that powers their metallic wings .
Kendra reveals two bombshell to the Justice League . First , that Blackhawk Island has also been home to Carter Hall — a.k.a . the original Hawkman , who ’s also had anextremely convoluted historyin the comics , and like Kendra also been abstracted from the New 52 since its first in 2011 ( bring through for a miniseries that brought back the foreign personification of Hawkman , Katar Hol , and pronto down him off again , which god , how many clip at this point ) . She also discover that this new Hawkman is yet another newfangled take on the character , one that ties Carter Hall ’s history with both the Blackhawks and another former DC amusing book squad — the cosmic IE hollo theChallengers of the Unknown .
Even the Red Tornado — a wind - manipulating android member of both the Justice League and Justice Society , who ’s also been absent from the comic since the New 52 began — get a nod as one of Carter ’s friend in his search for the Nth Metal ’s origins . In just a few page , Metal revive four unlike classical characters that have been miss since DC rebooted its creation in 2011 .
Metal recasts Carter not just as a Modern take on the reincarnated Egyptian Pharaoh of Egypt translation of the original Hawkman , but also as an adventurer who , alongside the Blackhawks , Red Tornado , and the Challengers , has commit his life to exploring the origins of the Nth Metal that powered his and Kendra ’s abilities — and now he ’s vanish , along with his partners .
And that ’s where Kendra ’s second bombshell comes in : Nth Metal is in reality not part of the DC universe ( in current DC persistence , of path ) . In fact , it ’s not from any part of the DC multiverse . It ’s from a dark universe of discourse , part of a dark multiverse , which Kendra explains to the League by — I shit you not — deplumate out a posting ofGrant Morrison and Rian Hughes ’ famous Multiversity multiverse mapand flipping it over to expose the other side is totally black .
base on Carter and the Challengers findings , Kendra believes that the Nth Metal will be responsible for bringing forth an imminent deadly invasion of the multiverse from this “ dark ” reality , heralded by the bizarre energy reading material being emitted by the tiny amount of Nth Metal Kendra still has go away after destroying her wing ( which were made from it ) .
If that was n’t enough , Carter Hall also discovered a foreign prophecy before he disappeared , one that shakes the gathered Justice League to their core : Ancient scrolls claim that a Logos of the House of Wayne would start the door to the Dark Multiverse ’s intrusion , doom not just Earth , but all of beingness .
How does Batman oppose to this stunning disclosure that he might somehow help ruin not just his realism , but 51 other realities too ? By immediately slip Kendra ’s remaining Nth Metal fragment to investigate it , running away , andescaping Blackhawk Island on a dinosaur .
Batman returns to Gotham City , but before he can examine the Nth Metal , he fall upon a Bat - logotype - shaped hole in the ground has abruptly appeared in his home , and it contains Carter Hall ’s journal . Somehow , the journal confirms for the Dark Knight that the ancient prophecy is reliable .
We at last turn to the last trick Metal # 1 has up its sleeves : thealready - revealed return ofDream , Sandman ’s reality - bending lord of stories , showing up on the final pageboy to let Batman be intimate that , funnily enough , he ’s not dreaming all the bonkers stuff that just happened . All we lie with so far is that Dream is pass away to play a big function in Metal , presumably helping Batman work through all of this insanity he ’s uncovered . But if a nigh - all-powerful godlike creature like one of the Endless is going to be involved , we can only imagine just how weird and reality - break this fresh multiverse is going to get .
Phew . Dark Nights : Metal is throw a great deal — a lot — of ideas out at the wall in its first issue , and we ’re not quite certain which , if any of them , are going to stick by the death of the serial publication . But there ’s hope here : Metal is zip across years of some of the wildest , weird , and most - prodded at lore in DC ’s history , rescuing characters from its old continuity in some very intriguing ways , and , most of all , while give birth the most “ Did that just happen ? ! ” moments of any single proceeds in 2017 . It ’s batshit insane in a surprisingly bold — and fascinating — way , and if it pulls off what it ’s attempt to do , we ’re in for a violent trip .
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