[Editor’s Note: Dark Knights: Metal is rated 15+ Only and is aimed at more mature audiences.]
Dark Knights: Metal was a DC Comics event published as a monthly comic from June 2017 through April 2018, with trade paperbacks coming out in summer 2018. The core series is six issues from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, which are collected in a single volume. Two essential prelude issues, Dark Days: The Forge and Dark Days: The Casting, can be found in Dark Days: The Road to Metal.
Dark Knights: Metal builds upon Synder’s previous work, and would probably be most enjoyed by those who have read his Court of Owls, Death of the Family, and Endgame arcs. There are also references back to Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, and especially Final Crisis, although it can certainly be enjoyed by those who have only minimal familiarity with those stories. It also builds upon certain ideas from Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. Dream (from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series) also appears, but prior knowledge of that character is not essential. Finally, while the title Metal comes from the use of metal substances as a plot element, it is also a running pun with metal music.
In the prelude issues, the story begins, like many good Batman stories, as a detective story. Batman is following clues related to a series of strange, otherworldly metals. These clues lead him to suspect the existence of a coming threat, something lurking in the dark unknown, and he goes to great efforts to look into the darkness to see what is out there: without much success for Batman, but the reader gets hints of what is coming.
The main series launches with the Justice League off-world, dealing with a mostly-unrelated threat. As they approach Earth, Alfred informs them of the sudden appearance of a mountain in the middle of Gotham City. The Justice League begins to look into it together, but Batman abruptly takes off on his own, pursuing a lead. Batman ends up being pulled into the Dark Multiverse, a chaotic realm outside of the usual DC Multiverse, where dreams and fears of the “real” worlds come to life.
As soon as the real Batman is off the table, the remainder of the Justice League finds itself fighting the Nightmare Batmen, twisted versions of Batman from failed worlds in the Dark Multiverse. As the heroes and their various allies fight back, the Nightmare Batmen are a step or two ahead of them every time. One of the elements of the storyline I found persuasive is that the evil Batmen, while corrupted, have Bruce Wayne’s knowledge of the Justice League and his talent for planning. As a result, measures that seem like they should work, instead play into the hands of the enemy, because the Nightmare Batmen are able to anticipate them. Even Superman’s desperate attempt to rescue the real Batman from the Dark Multiverse ends up contributing to Earth sinking down into the darkness, although it also ends up leaving Batman and Superman free inside the Dark Multiverse.
At this point, Dream appears, and gives the pair of heroes what he calls the most powerful weapon in all of creation: a story. I am not sure whether the authors intended it, but I hear echoes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s thought here, from “On Fairy Stories,” where he proposes that God saves us by a story. We learn that the core of the Dark Multiverse is the World Forge, where new worlds are created and also where unstable worlds are supposed to be returned to the heart of creation to be remade. However, that is not happening, and instead of the nightmare worlds being re-forged, they are lingering, and the Forge is going dark. Dream tells them he can give them a passage to the World Forge, but only if they can walk with “hope and wonder.” Batman, however, has experienced his days in the Dark Multiverse as thirty years of failures and mistakes, and initially has doubts as to whether he has hope left.
Superman, while never, to my knowledge, an allegory or symbol of Christ, is a type of Christ, in the same sense that Old Testament figures such as Moses or David are types of Christ: characters that exist for their own reasons but that also foreshadow or echo another reality. Kal-El comes to earth from above, but is raised in a normal human family. He lives humbly among humans, but also possesses immense power. He engages in cosmic struggles of good versus evil, and sacrifices himself to save the world. Both in the comics and in the DC Extended Universe, he dies and is resurrected. As such, Superman in a sense represents the theological virtues: faith, hope, and love. In Man of Steel, he tells Lois Lane that the symbol on his chest means “hope” on his world. Superman’s iconography is bright colors and bold stances. He is faith and hope, because he inspires people to believe, and he is charity, in his relentless and selfless pursuit of helping others.
Batman, on the other hand, is the cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Prudence, because Batman has a plan for everything. Justice, because he stands for a strict moral code and making things right. Fortitude, because he consistently and courageously stands against overwhelming odds and against beings who are much more powerful than he is. Temperance, because for a mortal man to do all that would require intense self-discipline.
In the core of Metal, Superman fulfils his mythic role, asking Batman what still fills him with wonder, and restoring hope to him, almost like an infused virtue. With hope reignited, Batman’s human virtues also return, and he and Superman do head to the World Forge. However, the World Forge seems to have gone dark. Batman responds that he will not lose hope again. Batman’s perseverance and courage change the dynamics, inspire others, and help redeem a fallen hero. The conclusion plays off the idea of Batman, and the redeemed character, as detectives: always seeking the truth, but also holding hope that discovery does not lead back to the darkness.
Overall, I loved Metal. If you liked Snyder’s previous work on Batman, or if you enjoy Justice League stories with big cosmic threats, you should try it. In addition, Metal was clearly designed to set up some changes and expansions in the DC cosmology, so if you are a continuity buff, it is required reading. As far as cautions, there is some implied strong language at a few points, and some slightly disturbing violent imagery. Perhaps most worth noting are the Nightmare Batmen; as corrupted versions of a character that we are used to associating with justice and a commitment to not killing, the evil actions of these Nightmare Batmen are particularly jarring. I would not recommend the story for sensitive or less mature readers. However, the ideas that the greater evil is from corruption of the greater good, and that our greatest enemy might be a corrupted version of ourselves, are right. Mature readers might thus find this to be among the more compelling parts of the story. For them, I recommend the tie-in Dark Knights Rising, which gives an origin story to each of the Nightmare Batmen.
G.K. Chesterton said that “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” Likewise, many of us have felt that the darkness exists; as a combat veteran, I have. Stories that remind us to keep hope in the midst of the darkness are needed. For me, Dark Knights: Metal was one of these.
Matthew Heffron
Matt Heffron is an Iraq veteran and an attorney. He lives with his wife and nine kids in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and loves Catholic tradition, practicing martial arts, riding motorcycle, and superheroes.