Scott Snyder’s latest big event miniseries gets an explainer as James Tynion IV tells more stories about the battle with the Dark Multiverse.
Dark Nights: Death Metal Multiverse’s End 1
Written by James Tynion IV
Pencils and Inks by Juan Gedeon
Colors by Mike Spicer
Everything about Scott Snyder’s Dark Nights universe within the DC Comics universe has been building since his run on the New 52 iteration of Batman. It shows in every issue of the Death Metal miniseries, as it feels like every panels calls back to something else that’s happened in the last decade or so. From Batman to the Justice League and its various spinoffs to references and allusions to past major Crises, Death Metal is a dense story.
So, I suppose, it shouldn’t be a surprise that one-shot specials like this one – which explores various aspects of the DC Universe that aren’t as important to the main discourse – require a certain amount of exposition to help explain what’s happening.
Since we haven’t had a new issue of the main miniseries since August, the two months between issues are all about these off-shoots expanding on an already-huge universe with somewhat absurd concepts to give a sense of whimsy in a serious story about the end of worlds as we know them.
Multiverse’s End gives us crazy scenes like a rainbow corps of Batmen, an intelligent Batman who hasn’t aged beyond a baby and Guy Gardner and Captain Carrot teaming up to beat up on Nazis from Earth-X.
The crux of the story rests on the heroes of the DC Multiverse banding together to push back on Perpetua’s Doom fighters, attempting to destroy the antimatter tuning forks on the darker worlds of the main multiverse. Perpetua is counting on the Crime Syndicate of Amerika, the Nazis and the Justice Lords – among others – to keep the resistance fighters away, but of course the CSA’s Owlman has his own agenda, and he cuts a deal with Green Lantern John Stewart to foil her plans.
Tynion does a great job of weaving a whole lot of different aspects into the story. Part history lesson, part exposition, part Grant Morrison imitation, Multiverse’s End is a fun read that may be the best part of the Death Metal experience thus far.