[Comics] Dark Nights: Metal (DC Comics event)

Recently, DC Comics released "Dark Days: The Forge," one of the prelude issues to their next event that begins in August, Dark Nights: Metal.

A few of us here have read The Forge. It's clearly setting up a mystery, not just across the DC universe, but the DC multiverse, as different characters meet with Batman to chip in on some grand investigation to which only he holds all the pieces.

It's a fun issue, but being the first part of a mystery, it introduces many elements without much clear correlation between them, and to be fair, unless you're well-versed in pre-New 52 continuity, some of it's going to be like "Why did this page seem to focus on the thing in this panel? What is it?" I knew certain items were a big deal, but I needed more DC history-savvy people to tell how they related to

Plastic Man or the Anti-Monitor.

Some comic sites/videos are saying this is pretty much a DC Crisis, though DC has said they're not calling it one because it won't be altering continuity. Fair enough. Future solicits point the way to what this event is going to be, though branded under some stuff that says "aging dad who was really into Zeppelin and Rolling Stones," especially when one goofy cover has the Justice League standing in a way that looks like a hand throwing up the horns.

But I'd argue that's kind of the point here. This is more fun, light-hearted DC story than has gone on in recent years, while still being a multiversal threat from essentially the New 52. Y'know, back when DC wanted every hero to be Batman to increase sales? Well, that's what the antagonists appear to be from the solicits. That said, the solicits have already been a little misleading. The Forge suggested Batman had a secret weapon that would threaten the multiverse, but really he's been investigating a potential threat to the multiverse Sneaky DC.

So for the first issue, Dark Days: The Forge doesn't offer much in the way of what's ahead, but raises a lot of possibilities and has a lot of potential. I promise to keep this one updated, though I won't be reading every tie-in.
 
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Might as well throw the list into this thread too:


They're not making a secret of the New 52-ized Batman-like characters, but like I said in the OP, I'm not putting it past them to be misleading. Hawkman's involvement is teased from the very first page of The Forge, but no idea what that will pertain to overall in the end. "Something in the metal" I'm sure :p.

My tentative checklist--I may do less or more depending on my enjoyment of other titles, but I don't see myself picking up tie-ins for books I'm not already subscribed to.

(Sorry for overusing this image, but regardless of the ultimate quality of the event, I really appreciate DC putting out a checklist. It says to me they're not planning to spur of the moment add extra issues and bullshit a la Civil War II/Secret Empire ... hell, if this was a Marvel event, the checklist would be three pages long.)
 
Dinosaurs are one of Diana's Favorite Things. :D
I forgot that. That makes it even better.


(though I'm going to be the most nitpicky nerd and note that while pterodactyls and its ilk co-existed with dinosaurs, biologically they were not dinosaurs and were instead winged reptiles)

I'll escort myself to my locker ...
 
I forgot that. That makes it even better.


(though I'm going to be the most nitpicky nerd and note that while pterodactyls and its ilk co-existed with dinosaurs, biologically they were not dinosaurs and were instead winged reptiles)

I'll escort myself to my locker ...
Somewhere in the DC archives is that panel where she lists her loves and includes dinosaurs and cake. I remember seeing it on tumblr somewhere. I want to find it again. :)
 
Gives me a reason to buy a Teen Titans comic again. That's not saying the new run is horrible mind you, BUT-it does feel a bit like character regression for Damian's character. I feel Patrick Gleason and Peter Tomasi are just better at writing him in all honesty.
 
Gives me a reason to buy a Teen Titans comic again. That's not saying the new run is horrible mind you, BUT-it does feel a bit like character regression for Damian's character. I feel Patrick Gleason and Peter Tomasi are just better at writing him in all honesty.
I'm hoping that the next of Super Sons arc doesn't end with Jon Kent joining the Teen Titans or else I'll feel compelled to start reading and I'd really rather not.
 
I'm hoping that the next of Super Sons arc doesn't end with Jon Kent joining the Teen Titans or else I'll feel compelled to start reading and I'd really rather not.
Hyoo boy, not sure how I feel on that myself. On the subject of the next Super Sons-ANYONE ELSE-fearing the possible "What, you expect a KID to join out team" dialogue? I know its Tomasi, but it JUST feels like its going to happen, and it'd feel just as stupid as when they initially rejected Aqualad because of his water powers.
 
Hyoo boy, not sure how I feel on that myself. On the subject of the next Super Sons-ANYONE ELSE-fearing the possible "What, you expect a KID to join out team" dialogue? I know its Tomasi, but it JUST feels like its going to happen, and it'd feel just as stupid as when they initially rejected Aqualad because of his water powers.
I think (hope) that's just setting up the arc of Jon trying to join. It would make sense for him to join, unless Superdad intervenes, because the kid's a powerhouse, but I'd rather he didn't.

We'll know through solicits by the time Teen Titans has its Dark Nights tie-in.
 
Dark Days: The Casting releases this coming Wednesday, but there's a couple neat tidbits before then.

First up, Scott Snyder and his kids made a different Dark Nights checklist that works as more of a reading order, which is handy:



Second, almost in answer (but perhaps just coincidence) to Marvel's raising the price for certain issues pertaining to their current event, DC is dropping the price of the Dark Nights: Metal issues #2 through #6 to $4 without cutting down the page count. It's a small thing, but appreciated.
 
Dark Days: The Casting came out this week, the second and last prelude comic to the main event. Ancient mysteries! Hawkman journalism! The knife of Shazam! Duke Thomas finally gets a superhero name!

This issue wasn't as much fun as The Forge, but it certainly opened the way to the main event.

Through Carter Hall's journal, Batman's investigation, and the Joker's exposition, we learn that an ancient bird cult has been fighting to keep out some evil force from beyond this world, that's been affecting the DC universe through each magical metal. One form of that metal apparently is what makes a metahuman different--the same metal in Duke Thomas's bloodstream. Yep, he's a metahuman, though we don't know what his power is besides reacting to Batman's machine that glimpses the place where the metal and darkness come from.

Opposing the bird cult was a bat cult, and by the end of the book, we discover they're still around, manipulating Batman's natural curiosity and honed detective skills so that he'll inadvertently open the way to this other place, which we know to be the Dark Multiverse.

Way to go, Bruce.

It's not clear how the Outsiders or certain artifacts from Dark Days: The Forge will come into play, but the rift is open. Joker calls this a "dark Crisis" and that seems like what'll happen in the first issue. I'd assumed the Justice League would be heading into the dark, but maybe more of the dark will be headed their way first.
 
I should throw in there that this issue is pretty dense with continuity stuff, beyond my experience. I caught a Sandman reference to Cain and Abel, but missed some other stuff I'm now hearing about, like Vandal Savage and ... it's a lot. Which is cool. And it's yet another instance of hand waving the New 52 in favor of legacy continuity.
 
I read it this evening. DC has definitely opened up their big IP toy box, and Scott Snyder is going to town with it.
 
*SQUEE* THE MULTIVERSE MAP! Fucking LOVING this series.

I'm torn on my favorite part-
Batman riding a dinosaur, the return of Red Tornado(fucking FINALLY), Dream showing up, or Toy man making a god damn Justice League Megazord!

IT'S ALL JUST SO AWESOME!
 
Really wish the last page hadn't been spoiled for me.

Aside from being a conclusion to the journal, doesn't feel like Dark Days were too necessary, since whether or not you read it, you're thrown into

Mongul's pit

with the Justice League. But daaaaamn, that map.

Pulling a Stranger Things. :p I like the idea that the 52 universes they know are just their familiar patch of a grander thing.
 
I know right? Convergence has its critics, but it's lead to stories like these where there are MORE than 52 worlds, because that damn rule makes no sense.
 
No fuck Convergence! DC deserves all the shit they got for that, and Dan Didio was right for personal apologizing to retailers for it (and I give him a lot of credit for it). It was a shitty, pointless event to make their jobs easier for 2 months while they moved their offices across the country. 2 months of basically telling everyone not to read DC comics.
 
I still need to finish Multiversity >_<. Can't remember what distracted me, but I didn't want to pick it up again until I could devote the necessary time and attention.
 
Multiversity was a nonsensical mess that had some cool moments and a couple of good one-shot stories. Which was all the more maddening when I'm pretty sure most of those characters aren't seen outside of those one-shots. The bookend issues felt like a 2-part mini-series and the rest (with some nods here and there) felt like its own thing. It felt like a really disjointed read, honestly. Not Morrison's best work. Seven Soldiers of Victory was a much better use of a similar storytelling method.
 
I like Multiversity for what it is, a trippy as fuck fan story comprised of a bunch of wild ass Elseworld stories covered in multiverse world building!
 
Multiversity was a nonsensical mess that had some cool moments and a couple of good one-shot stories. Which was all the more maddening when I'm pretty sure most of those characters aren't seen outside of those one-shots. The bookend issues felt like a 2-part mini-series and the rest (with some nods here and there) felt like its own thing. It felt like a really disjointed read, honestly. Not Morrison's best work. Seven Soldiers of Victory was a much better use of a similar storytelling method.
I'll have to see if I feel the same by the end. I was only two issues in when I took a break. It's standing there among my to-read books, the coupon-turned-bookmark mocking me.
 
Dark Nights: Metal #2 releases tomorrow, along with the first tie-in. I wasn't going to read the tie-ins at first, just some of the one-shots, but Gotham Resistance seems to have doubled-down on Mad Max craziness, so I'm in all the way.

What I'm unclear on is the reading order. I thought the checklist might help there, but it doesn't feel like events have progressed in the main series for the shit that'll be going on in Teen Titans after just one issue, so probably Dark Nights: Metal #2 immediately follows #1.
 
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