Review: Dark Nights- Death Metal: The Darkest Knight

Quick Summary

Pros: The vast majority of the stories here are worthwhile. Specific characters, like Jonah Hex, Harley Quinn, Wally West, Owlman, and the evil version of Batman, really shine. The book provides some interesting information about the Death Metal event as a whole. The artwork looks good throughout the book.

Cons: The story focused on the Batman Who Laughs is underwhelming.

Overall: This is a solid collection of Death Metal tie-in stories. This volume manages to tell meaningful, funny, or outright creepy tales about the characters and activities within this event. It also manages to do this while providing additional information about the event and with artwork that suits each story’s tone. Readers who enjoyed the main Death Metal event or who want creative stories about specific characters should consider picking up this volume.

Story

Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Darkest Knight is an almost entirely positive collection of stories that tie in to the greater Dark Nights: Death Metal (Review) event. The stories here are mostly short but each one manages to accomplish something impressive. In some places they explain previously unanswered questions from the main event; in other places they tell heroic stories of characters fighting against great evil; and in weirder places they fully embrace some wildly creative stories about evil versions of Batman. The Batman Who Laughs’ story is really the collection’s only underwhelming point because, besides that, the volume is solid.

(spoilers start here)

The main positives in The Darkest Knight come from the volume’s ability to tell relatively short but immediately entertaining stories. There are stories about the minor characters from the main event, like Jonah Hex and Harley Quinn, contributing in really cool ways. There is a story that takes time to fully appreciate Wally West’s contributions to the DC Universe and give him a moment of victory. And there are wonderfully creative stories about wild versions of Batman. This volume is able to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.

The other positive in The Darkest Knight is the way in which the information provided over the course of the book expands on the Death Metal event as a whole. This primarily comes from quick stories that dive into the origins of the various evil Batmen. I really enjoyed seeing these and appreciated the variety within them, as some were creepy and dark while others were downright funny. In addition, the book, overall, gives a better picture of the small details that go into the heroes’ and villains’ actions during the main event.

The biggest disappointment in this collection ended up being the story centered around the Batman Who Laughs. His story just felt like a rehash of old information with only a few pages of worthwhile story added. Luckily, this is just a very small piece of an otherwise solid book.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in The Darkest Knight comes from a wide variety of different artists but manages to look either good or great in nearly every story. Francis Manapul’s work on the Trinity Crisis issue and Eddy Barrows’ work on the Speed Metal issue are two of the most significant contributions. Both of these chapters are spectacular and do a fantastic job in telling their respective stories. Meanwhile, other contributions are shorter and spotlight a specific character or moment in time. The artwork in nearly all of these stories manages to properly capture the vibe the story is going for, but the pages from Riley Rossmo, Francesco Francavilla, Joëlle Jones, Doug Mahnke, and Dan Panosian excel at this. Altogether, this makes for a collection with visuals that simply don’t disappoint.

Continuity

Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Darkest Knight is a tie-in to the Dark Nights: Death Metal (Review) event.

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• The Batman Who Laughs’ (Reading Order) first attempt at conquering the Multiverse took place across the Dark Nights: Metal (Review) (Reading Order) event.
• The Batman Who Laughs partnered with Perpetua (Reading Order) in the Year of the Villain (Review) event.
• Lex Luthor’s attempt to awaken Perpetua and take over the Multiverse is detailed across the entire “Justice League by Scott Snyder” run. This effort reached its apex across the Justice League: Justice/Doom War (Review).
• Dark Nights: Death Metal Trinity Crisis #1 specifically references three “Crisis” events from DC’s past. These events are Crisis on Infinite Earths, Final Crisis, and Infinite Crisis.
• Dark Nights: Death Metal Speed Metal #1 reviews recent events from Wally West’s (Reading Order) life. These include:
  • Him being lost in the Speed Force, which is explained in the DC Universe: Rebirth (Review) event.
  • Him going on adventures with Barry Allen (Reading Order) and the Titans (Reading Order), which began in The Flash Vol. 1: Lightning Strikes Twice (Review) and Titans Vol. 1: The Return of Wally West (Review)
  • Him fighting with Barry, which is detailed across The Flash Vol. 8: Flash War (Review).
  • Him making a huge “mistake”, which is explained in Heroes in Crisis (Review) (Reading Order). 
  • Him paying for his mistakes and going on a mission to heal the timeline, which is explained across the Flash Forward (Review) miniseries.
• Barry Allen (Reading Order) mentions learning more about Zoom. This happened in The Flash #762, collected in The Flash Vol. 15: Finish Line. 
• Dark Nights: Death Metal Multiverse’s End #1 specifically references several “Crisis” events from DC’s past. These events are Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, and Dark Nights: Metal (Review) (Reading Order).
• Dark Nights: Death Metal Multiverse’s End #1 mentions the times in which versions of Owlman (Reading Order) have died in the past. These include: during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, during the Infinite Crisis event, and at the conclusion of the Darkseid War (Review) (Reading Order) event.
• A version of the Crime Syndicate (Reading Order) was most recently defeated when the attempted to invade in the Forever Evil (Review) (Reading Order) event.