Dark Nights: Death Metal has been a rollercoaster ride since it started. When it’s at its best Dark Nights: Death Metal has exceeded all the highs you expect from a big multiverse-scale event from DC Comics to hit. Then there are those unexpected dips where not every plot element has clicked as intended. That’s mostly come from the sub-plots like Robin King that heavily rely on the tie-ins to fully develop. But now that we are in the final stretch with two issues remaining Dark Nights: Death Metal I do feel I’m as hyped as I can be for however Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo plan to end things. Let’s see how the march to the end goes with Dark Nights: Death Metal #6.
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Greg Capullo
Inker: Jonathan Glapion
Colorist: FCO Plascencia
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: In the passage to the Forge of Worlds Wonder Woman uses her lasso to light her and the Lobo army way forward. As they speak about what’s ahead for them Wonder Woman and the Lobos are attacked by the extension of Batman Who Laughs power taking shape.
Elsewhere in the Multiverse, Batman Who Laughs taunts Perpetua over the fact that the remaining Crisis Energy has been redirected into him. With this additional power Batman Who Laughs has no problem overpowering Perpetua when their attacks clash. Perpetua says she is the only one protecting the Multiverse from allowing “them” from coming to end everything.
Back on Earth 0, Batman and Superman lead all the remaining heroes and villains in fighting against Batman Who Laughs forces from the Dark Multiverse.
As that goes on Wonder Woman and the Lobos fight off the creations of Batman Who Laughs that are attacking them in the passage to the Forge of Worlds. Eventually Lobo tells Wonder Woman to head straight to the Forge of Worlds as he and his clones hold of Batman Who Laughs forces.
Just then Batman Who Laughs is able to steal Carter Hall’s journal from Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman suddenly arrives at the Forge of Worlds. There Darkseid tells Wonder Woman that the Forge of Worlds power is dimming as Batman Who Laughs power is leading to the death of everything.
Baby Mobius starts to cry in Darkseid’s arms. Wonder Woman tells Darkseid that there has to still be a way for them to win.
Back in the Multiverse, Batman Who Laughs uses the fragments of the destroyed Source Wall to imprison Perpetua. As he does that Batman Who Laughs taunts Perpetua about how she’s created a false narrative that others want to be saved when its really the Gods that want to be saved from them. Batman Who Laughs ends by saying that they all just laugh at the Gods as Perpetua is completely incased by the fragments of the Source Wall.
Back on Earth 0 the heroes have been able to fight back all of Batman Who Laughs forces. Through his Black Lantern ring Batman senses that something is off.
Just then Robin King, the Dark Knights, and other villains from the Last 52 Multiverse suddenly appear. Batman Who Laughs appears over the sky an tells all the heroes says these villains from the Last 52 Multiverse are the ones he has been saving for the heroes to face their darkest nightmares at the end.
As Batman is about to tell Superman how much he treasures their friendship Superman says he already knows and feels the same way. Superman then tells everyone behind him for everyone to gather together in their families because if they are going down they are doing it together.
At the Forge of Worlds Wonder Woman stares at the forge unsure how to build the machine to make everyone remember all of their history without Lex Luthor’s designs and Carter Hall’s journal. Darkseid says that humankind does not want the truth because that would just be realizing that their lives are tiny and don’t matter in the greater scope of things, which is what evil springs from. Wonder Woman that is not true because when they know all of their history and how all life is part of one story they will know that the truth and love connects them all even when fear of evil rising is part of all that knowledge.
Wonder Woman suddenly realizes that the machine she needs to create is the one that forces them all to see the truth. She then throws down her lasso straight into the Forge of Worlds.
Back on Earth 0’s final battlefield Batman, Aquaman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and Superman lead in the gathering of all the families and say “One Universe” all at the same time. As Superman thanks Lois Lane for the life she has given him other survivors on Earth 0 show up ready to make their final stand alongside the heroes.
Suddenly some sort of energy starts to flow into everyone on Earth 0 that causes them to remember everything about their history.
At the Forge of Worlds Darkseid is left stunned at Wonder Woman’s success in creating the machine they all needed and the history he is remembering.
Wonder Woman then appears on the Earth 0 final battlefield in a new golden form. Wonder Woman then tells Batman Who Laughs “ONE WHO LAUGHS! YOU WANT TO FIGHT SOMEONE…..I’M RIGHT HERE.” End of issue.
The Good: Now this is what I am talking about for a penultimate issue in a big event. Was Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 perfect? No but it did not need to be. With how much has gone on in this event already Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 needed to make sure it hyped fans as high as possible heading into the final issue. And Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo were certainly successful in accomplishing that.
Dark Nights: Death Metal has been an event with a lot going on as there have been several major players all with their own sub-plots. At some point all those sub-plots needed to converge together with the main plot around the now God-like being that Batman Who Laughs has become. Over the course of the last few issues Snyder and Capullo have started bringing those things together. But now with Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 it finally felt that everything that has gone on in both this main series and the tie-in comics have all converged together.
Having Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 be that convergence point for all the storytelling has gone on made the entire final battle scene that was what remained of Earth 0 have a grand scale. Even though there was still Wonder Woman’s journey at the Forge of Worlds and Batman Who Laughs vs Perpetua going on, Earth 0 was still the final battle zone. Both from a dialogue and design perspective, everything we saw go down felt like this was were the final stand for all the remaining heroes was going to happen.
Making this work even better was how Snyder and Capullo moving all the chess pieces into place so that when we did get to the end of Dark Nights: Death Metal each Family was put together. Seeing Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, and Aquaman all assembling their family of characters was an amazing visual. It really got you into how all of the heroes did feel in that moment that if they were going to go down they wanted to do with fighting with their family by their side.
Assembling the family franchises together made everything that Wonder Woman was doing at the Forge of Worlds have an even greater sense of urgency. Throughout Dark Nights: Death Metal Snyder has done a fantastic job building this event around Wonder Woman being the key to restoring everything. She is the hero that is most fitting to not only bring back the DC Universe’s history back but also bind it together into one continuity.
Adding in Darkseid as the witness for Wonder Woman discovering the machine she had to create at the Forge of Worlds was a nice touch. Darkseid played the perfect foil as everything he said to Wonder Woman added to how Diana does see the strength in everyone knowing the truth about their respective histories. Seeing everything click into place for Wonder Woman made her dialogue about how everything from fear to love is what makes life worth living and helps build the story of the universe they live in was a great character moment.
Which made the fact that we did have the DC Universe families assembling as Wonder Woman created the machine even more appropriate. If everyone was to remember their history having those they are closest by their side in this moment made it all that much more impactful. Having all that click as Wonder Woman busted out of the Forge of Worlds in a new golden form made the ending be as hyped as possible.
Batman Who Laughs roll in the success of how strong of an ending Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 had cannot be discounted. Snyder and Capullo have built Batman Who Laughs as the ultimate evil being that even Gods like Perpetua and Darkseid can’t mess with. The whole battle with Perpetua further elevated the incredible level of power that Batman Who Laughs had. Seeing him incase Perpetua with the fragments of the Source Wall really made you further question how our heroes can overcome his threat.
Adding in his forces from the Last 52 Multiverse just further emphasized how an all-mighty threat Batman Who Laughs is. It all builds to being left questioning how Wonder Woman in her new form and our other heroes will overcome Batman Who Laughs. The villain has countered everything that the DCU heroes have thrown at him. What way he is taken down with should be fun to see play out in the final issue of Dark Nights: Death Metal
Capullo’s artwork, along with the inking of Jonathan Glapion and coloring of FCO Plascencia, really elevated that went on in Dark Nights: Death Metal #6. The entire issue looked like we entered the main event battle that this entire event has been building towards. The big battles going on Earth 0 and Batman Who Laughs vs Perpetua had the epic scale you expect to see from a big Multiverse-level event. Capullo also did a great job with drawing character expressions to amplify key character moments like Wonder Woman’s realization of the machine she had to build at the Forge of Worlds and when everyone remembered all of their history.
The Bad: As with previous issues in this event Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 was not without its share of problems. One of the things that was especially problematic for this penultimate issue was how we see a lot of big sub-plots be sidelined like the story around Wally West and Robin King. Both those sub-plots are examples of how we have followed several key plot points only to have them dropped when we get to Dark Nights: Death Metal #6.
Which is a big shame because there was a lot potential in having Dark Nights: Death Metal help resolve a lot of past problems with the DCU. It still can depending on how things end. But having key plot points from past issues of this event does leave you with a bit of an empty feeling what the point of having such a focus on things like Wally West ties with Doctor Manhattan was.
Speaking of Wally, it was odd that the Flash Family was left out of the big shot of the DCU families uniting together. Given that we have seen Wally West, Barry Allen, and Jay Garrick play big parts in the story of Dark Nights: Death Metal it is disappointing that they didn’t get the spotlight the Batman, Superman, and other families got.
A bigger victim of how sidelined they became as Dark Nights: Death Metal went on was Perpetua. After being built up as a major villain to contend with throughout Snyder’s run on Justice League the God-like villain went out like she was nothing. Sure it added to how powerful Batman Who Laughs at this point in the story but it did nothing to provide a proper payoff to how much time was spent building Perpetua up. Her role in Dark Nights: Death Metal wasn’t even that of a sub-boss. Perpetua was just treated as a distraction rather than fully realized character she became in the lead up to Dark Nights: Death Metal.
Overall: Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo hit all the right notes to make Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 everything you expect from a penultimate issue for a big event. Everything that happens here is made to create as much hype going into the ending as possible. The final few pages of Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 certainly showcase that as the stage is set for our heroes and villains to have a final showdown with the fate of the Multiverse at stake.
To comment on this article and other Comic Book Revolution content visit our Facebook page, Twitter feed and Instagram. You can catch up with all of Kevin’s thoughts about comics, anime, TV shows, movies and more over on Twitter. You can also watch the fun and silly videos Kevin is making over on his TikTok.