Review: Batman: The Devastator

Quick Summary

Pros: The main story is fantastic. The theme of a Superman gone rogue is expertly done. The artwork is incredibly, especially when depicting the Devastator himself.

Cons: Nothing significant.

Overall: This is a solid comic book on its own but an even better piece of the Dark Nights: Metal tapestry. Heroes and villains are written well and clash in a way that proves powerful in terms of emotion and raw action. The overall theme is also expertly crafted and ends with a message as dark as one would expect. Anyone reading the Dark Nights: Metal series would be remiss to skip this issue.

Story

Batman: The Devastator is another successful issue in this series of evil Batmen one-shots. It starts off with twisted subversion of Superman’s character in a way that hasn’t been explored too often. Then it goes on to tell the Devastator’s origin and show what effect he is having on the world of DC Comics. It is an issue packed with intense action and a cohesive and frightening theme.

(spoilers start here)

This issue follows two separate but related storylines, one features the origin of the Devastator in his home dimension and the other features the Devastator’s first mission after making it into our dimension. We learn that this Batman was forced to turn himself into a monster after fighting an evil Superman in a battle to the death. Then we see him in the main DC universe, infecting the city of Metropolis with a virus that turns people into monsters like him.

This story works remarkably well on many levels. It gives the Devastator a tragic and relatable origin, while also setting him up as an incredibly powerful villain. It also fits well into the overall Metal storyline as it explains what happened in Metropolis at the beginning of Dark Nights: Metal #3 (Review) and what happened to the cosmic tuning fork from the Fortress of Solitude. This ensures that readers only focusing on this issue will be entertained while readers of the entire Metal event will derive more.

The best part of this issue was how well the dark version of Superman encapsulates fears that Batman and readers clearly hold. Stories about Superman turning evil have existed since near the birth of his character and have always managed to pull audience attention. But this is no Red Son or Injustice Superman where his motives and actions are justified by a righteous cause, this is a Superman driven by evil and nothing else. It makes the story darker and more terrifying than others because his actions aren’t sugarcoated or justified. This is the Superman of nightmares, which is exactly what he should be.

There really was only one point to this book that bothered me, the fact that we don’t get to see what caused the other universe’s Superman to turn evil. After thinking about it though, I came to realize that this fits perfectly with supporting the book’s theme. Reader’s don’t learn what happened to Superman because it doesn’t matter. What matters is that he went rogue somehow and that no one saw it coming. If the writers had given a reason to his madness then readers could justify why “our” Superman will never turn evil. However, by not giving a reason, they allow the nightmares and imagination, of readers, to run wild and suggest that what happened in this universe could easily happen in ours.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Tony S. Daniel’s artwork is always a treat and in this issue he really seems to be in his element. The detail going into the environments and characters here is excellent and makes the comic seem more impressive overall. However, it is the way that Daniel draws the Devastator himself that is truly impressive. Every spike, scale, and shred of cloth on the Devastator is clear and helps in making him seem like an even more intimidating monster than he already is. Every page he is on feels the weight of his presence and solidifies this as his issue.

Continuity

Batman: The Devastator is part of a series of seven one-shots designed as tie-ins to Dark Nights: Metal. Most of the events in this issue flow out of Metal #2 (Review), however the conclusion seems to happen right after Metal #3 (Review).

For more information on the timeline of the Metal event see our “Metal Timeline” right here and our other “Metal Reviews” right here.

This issue also references the stories from other comic books, all of which are detailed below:

• The concept of an evil Superman and a Doomsday Virus harkens back to issue #4 of All-Star Superman, where both of these concepts are present.
• The presence of a Kryptonite tipped spear seems like it may be a reference to the Batman v Superman movie.
• The monkey Beppo is mentioned in passing. This was the name of a monkey from Krypton who hid in Superman’s rocket when Superman was sent to Earth. His appearances in comics have been extremely minimal since the 1970s and his existence in this current continuity is questionable