Dark Nights: Death Metal The Secret Origin #1

Secret Origin

Scott Snyder and Geoff Johns Writers

Jerry Ordway (pp 1-7, 35-38) • Francis Manapul (pp 8-13, 32-34) • Ryan Benjamin & Richard Friend (pp 14-21) • Paul Pelletier & Norm Rapmund (pp 22-31) Artists

Hi-Fi (pp 1-7, 35-38) • Ian Herring (pp 8-13, 32-34) • Rain Beredo (pp 14-21) • Adriano Lucas (pp 22-31) Colorists

Rob Leigh Letterer

Ivan Regis, Joe Prado, & Alex Sinclair Cover

Gary Frank & Brad Anderson Variant Cover

Andrew Marino Editor

Superman created by Jerry Siegel with Joe Shuster. By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover shows Superboy-Prime battling The Batman Who Laughs (or as Prime calls him, The Batman Who Barfs).This is a solid, dynamic cover, bringing me back to the old Infinite Crisis days. It also answers the question of what to do when confronted by an impossibly invincible villain — you throw another impossibly invincible villain at him.

This story makes no sense, and it really doesn’t involve Impulse, so we’re not going to worry about it too much. Suffice it say, Superboy-Prime has been recruited to battle The Batman Who Laughs and the 52 evil worlds he has created. Prime is shunned by heroes and villains alike, especially our own Superboy, Conner Kent. Curiously, though, Krypto has taken a liking to this somber, reflective Superboy-Prime, even though Prime nearly killed the dog back in Infinite Crisis.

Anyway, The Batman Who Laughs actually seems kind of scared by Superboy-Prime and tries to cut him a deal, offering to give him his own world where he is accepted and loved as a hero. I’m not sure if The Batman plants this image in Prime’s head, or if it’s just Prime using his own imagination, but either way, we see a happy world that oddly includes the original Teen Titans, members of the Green Lantern Corps and our lovable Impulse.

But Superboy-Prime refuses the offer and ultimately destroys all the evil worlds created by The Batman Who Laughs. The effort of this fantastic feat kills Superboy-Prime, but he suddenly wakes up in his old bedroom, reading this very comic book. Unlike the last time he was sent back home and everybody knew all the horrific things he did, this world seems to have been reset to before Superboy-Prime’s crimes. His friends and family still love him, and he even still has his powers, making this the perfect paradise for this troubled character.

I like how Superboy-Prime’s vision of an ideal world shows him happily frolicking with the very heroes who imprisoned him during Infinite Crisis — first the Flash family, then the Green Lanterns. But I wish we could have had a reminder of how Superboy-Prime is terrified of Bart Allen. And I always wish that somebody at DC had the courage to tell the story of how Prime escaped the Speed Force and acquired the Anti-Monitor armor. But we’ll never get that. As for Superboy-Prime’s “redemption” — I’m not opposed to it, but I don’t think this issue was big enough to do justice to an event that monumental. Overlooking the insane incomprehensibleness of this Death Metal story, what we got in this issue was actually pretty nice — especially the Francis Manapul and Paul Pelletier art, as always.

Now for the new house ads:

DC Future State: Teen Titans. Meet the new Nightwing and his partner … Red X. 

The Flash. Can the fastest men alive outrun their destiny? (A version of Bart Allen will appear in this one.)

Legion of Super-Heroes. A Legionnaire betrays the entire galaxy!

Shazam! The power of Shazam corrupted and possessed by Raven!

DC Future State: Harley Quinn. She’ll have to secure her freedom and the future of Gotham!

Suicide Squad. Peacemaker goes to war with the Justice League!

Swamp Thing. He must wipe out humanity to save the planet.

Happy holidays from DC. Enjoy the season wherever you are in the multiverse!

Next time might be our final stop in the sprawling, obnoxiously titled Death Metal event. Unless Bart’s cameo is too small to be worth mentioning. In that case, we’ll skip ahead to Future State.

Dark Nights: Death Metal The Last Stories of the DC Universe #1

Together

Written by: Joshua Williamson, James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder

Art by: Travis Moore

Colors by: Tamra Bonvillain

Letters by: Andworld Design

Our cover by Tula Lotay with Dee Cunniffe is a bleak, rather ugly image of some of the most famous former Teen Titans surveying the wreckage of Dark Nights: Death Metal Obnoxious Title. Wally is dressed in his weird, blue Metron suit here, but he’s not in the inside story. That’s a tiny continuity complaint within a larger series (and company, frankly) that has turned its back on the very idea of a shared-universe continuity. How did all of our favorite characters get to this point from the last time we saw them? Nobody knows and nobody cares. Scott Snyder’s bloated “metal” story will not be diminished!

The main story of this comic bookends six separate stories about various heroes spending what may be their last day on Earth, in preparation of their final battle against the Batman Who Laughs. They’re all fairly forgettable vignettes, except for the Superman story told by Impulse creator Mark Waid and one of my favorite artists of all time, Francis Manapul. And that story is enough to justify the cost of picking up this comic. Impulse, however, is not involved in that story, but only the framework of the comic, so let’s get started.

We begin on what once was Themyscria, but now has become The Hellscape after the destruction caused by the Batman Who Laughs. Donna Troy is sitting on the beach feeling sorry for herself, until Beast Boy arrives and shows her that almost every former Teen Titan has gathered together for one last time. As Beast Boy and Donna work their way through the crowd, we’re given glimpses (reminders? memories?) of previous incarnations of the Teen Titans, including Bart Allen’s first stint as Kid Flash and the disastrous Bar Torr era of the New 52.

Wally West arrives fashionably late, and for a moment, everyone think Donna is going to fight him. But they just hug instead, while Bart awkwardly says that he should have told everyone he saw Wally before he left the Speed Force. But nobody responds to Bart because nobody cares — just as the three writers of this story don’t care about how Bart left the Speed Force or what happened to the rest of the Flash family. But we do get plenty of speeches on hope and perseverance (I’m looking at you, Joshua Williamson) before closing with a heroic shot of dozens of characters charging off to fight a vast, vague, nearly invincible force.

I guess the main point of this issue was simply to remind readers that all these characters used to exist and do things. Now, many of them do exist, but they’re not really doing anything. Like Arrowette, for example. She’s here, standing around silently, waiting for a giant action sequence that may or may not include her in the background of one or two massive group shots. We may as well be looking at statues in the Flash Museum.

I wish I felt something for this event. Back in the day, DC used to integrate their big events into the individual monthly titles. Even lame events like Genesis were reflected in the regular issues of Impulse. I wish Brian Michael Bendis’ Young Justice tied into this Death Metal nonsense. While investigating the major reality shift they all experienced, our heroes could have stumbled across this dumb, but significant continuity-altering crisis. At least that way, I would have actually been invested in this story, instead of merely saying, “Look, somebody drew Impulse in a comic book!” Let’s close with the new ads:

Future State: Wonder Woman. An Amazon warrior for a new age!

Future State: Superman of Metropolis. The son of Superman is the all-new Man of Steel!

DC Nation spotlight on Batman Black & White.

Next time: More Death Metal! Yay …