Dark Knights

by Peter J. Tomasi
Dark Knights
From the pages of DARK NIGHTS: METAL, the seven Dark Knights of the Dark Multiverse take center stage in these one-shots furthere exploring the Nightmare Batmen from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s epic graphic novel saga!The Red Death. The Devastator. The Merciless. The Murder Machine. The Drowned. The Dawnbreaker. And the Man Who Laughs. These seven Batmen—seven twisted mirror images of the Dark Knight himself—have been unleashed upon Earth-0 and the Justice League with only one thing on their minds: total devastation. How can the World’s Greatest Heroes stop a horde of deadly beings that appear to be powerful nightmare versions of familiar figures?Written and illustrated by some of the best creators in the industry, this tie-in graphic novel is a must-have for every fan of DARK NIGHTS: METAL and any BATMAN reader! Collects the following special one-shots: BATMAN: THE RED DEATH #1, BATMAN: THE DEVASTATOR #1, BATMAN: THE MERCILESS #1, BATMAN: THE MURDER MACHINE #1, BATMAN: THE DROWNED #1, BATMAN: THE DAWNBREAKER #1, THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS #1 andDARK KNIGHTS RISING: THE WILD HUNT #1.

Dark Knights Details

TitleDark Knights
Author
LanguageEnglish
ReleaseJun 26th, 2018
PublisherDC Comics
ISBN-139781401277376
Rating
GenreSequential Art, Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Dc Comics, Batman, Comic Book

Dark Knights Review

  • Khurram
    January 1, 1970
    “All it takes is one bad day!”That line from the Joker has never been truer. Over the years Batman/Bruce has had a number of “bad days”. Being the hero he is he has always managed to to fight back. However what happens if on one of those days he.Decides the to take the Speed force Is given a Green Lantern ringTakes the power of a “God”Loses his humanity to cold hard logic encased in metalUses a “Doomsday” weaponGains the most evil, sick and twisted sense of humorThese are the variants of the dar “All it takes is one bad day!”That line from the Joker has never been truer. Over the years Batman/Bruce has had a number of “bad days”. Being the hero he is he has always managed to to fight back. However what happens if on one of those days he.Decides the to take the Speed force Is given a Green Lantern ringTakes the power of a “God”Loses his humanity to cold hard logic encased in metalUses a “Doomsday” weaponGains the most evil, sick and twisted sense of humorThese are the variants of the dark hero that live in the Dark Multiverse. A place too evil to exist for a too long until now. Barbatos has given them a purpose destroy Earth 0 and have their worlds “saved”. The nightmare Batmen and woman are here and they plan to stay. Each one is every bit a brilliant, tenacious and single minded as our Batman, but without his moral code. Corrupted to the core. The Dark Knight at his worst times 7.
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  • Sam Quixote
    January 1, 1970
    Oh thank criminey, it’s over! With this fourth and final book, the nightmarishly tedious event Dark Nights: Metal is complete. And speaking of nightmares, here are the origin stories of The Nightmare Batmen. Any of them good? Nope. They add anything to the overall story? Nope. Total waste of time? Yup! And that’s Dark Nights: Metal! I feel like Scott Snyder came up with some arbitrary dark versions of the Justice League with a Batman slant and didn’t think beyond their appearances. Because these Oh thank criminey, it’s over! With this fourth and final book, the nightmarishly tedious event Dark Nights: Metal is complete. And speaking of nightmares, here are the origin stories of The Nightmare Batmen. Any of them good? Nope. They add anything to the overall story? Nope. Total waste of time? Yup! And that’s Dark Nights: Metal! I feel like Scott Snyder came up with some arbitrary dark versions of the Justice League with a Batman slant and didn’t think beyond their appearances. Because these flimsy one-dimensional “characters” are barely more than their visuals and their unimaginative and irrelevant origins are reflective of their overall creative shallowness. The origins largely go: following some contrived traumatic experience, the Batman of a world decides to take a powerful tchotchke - a power ring (Green Lantern), Ares’ helm (Wonder Woman), the Atlantean trident (Aquaman) - and then they become an evil hybrid of Batman and that character. It’s formulaic and gets really repetitive really soon. I liked Ethan Van Sciver’s art on Dawnbreaker (the evil Green Lantern Batman) though I hated the lame and cringey new oath rhyme and everything else about that issue. Tony S. Daniel’s art on Devastator (the evil Doomsday Batman) was similarly impressive, and the idea of the AI Alfred turning Bruce into the evil Cyborg Batman, Murder Machine, was interesting. The Red Death (the evil Flash Batman) has a cool name and design. Everything else though? Just horrible. It’s one badly written, boring comic after another. I’ve already forgotten most of the characters, let alone their origins! The Batman Who Laughs’ origin was the only one I was looking forward to and James Tynion IV flubs it, serving up an utterly underwhelming load of nothing. He may as well have not bothered - in fact that would have been better and more in keeping with the Joker not having a concrete origin story. Grant Morrison unexpectedly shows up at the end to co-write the Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt issue though, despite a decent Detective Chimp side-story, it was another crap and pointless comic that added nothing to the event. The Nightmare Batmen, like the rest of Dark Nights: Metal, is rubbish - avoid the whole stinking mess!
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  • Bookwraiths
    January 1, 1970
    Great omnibus. Loved every page of it. Well, most of it anyway.
  • Lashaan Balasingam (Bookidote)
    January 1, 1970
    This volume collects all the one shot origin stories for each of the nightmare Batmen who are part of the Dark Nights: Metal event (except Barbatos himself). It also ends with The Wild Hunt, the one story that features the return of the great Grant Morrison, to unveil the intention of these Batmen, and to multiply your questions with key events surrounding Bobo T. Chimpanzee; sounds crazy already, right?The only real central thread to this volume is the structure of each story as each origin sto This volume collects all the one shot origin stories for each of the nightmare Batmen who are part of the Dark Nights: Metal event (except Barbatos himself). It also ends with The Wild Hunt, the one story that features the return of the great Grant Morrison, to unveil the intention of these Batmen, and to multiply your questions with key events surrounding Bobo T. Chimpanzee; sounds crazy already, right?The only real central thread to this volume is the structure of each story as each origin story tackles both the driving principle of these Batmen and what ultimately makes them agree to the Batman Who Laughs to join forces. Most of these stories aren't necessary to understand the main event in itself, but there are some little key details thrown within some of the stories that greatly help connect some dots and that's what really makes this volume so worthwhile.And to make things even better, these stories that you'd assume to be of lesser quality are actually pretty decent. Some of my favourites are Murder Machine (the pencil art by Riccardo Federici is phenomenal and the father-son touch to the story was well-done), Devastator (Tony S. Daniel does not disappoint with his artwork and the writing is really solid), Batman Who Laughs (this one was obviously going to make it among the top just for the premise behind the character's personality) and The Wild Hunt (I'm to excited by the return of Morrison on this one to want to hate it and it actually pushes the cosmic-level story to new heights in a formidable fashion).If you've read the original 6-issue event, then you'll most definitely want to pick this one up too. It's complimentary to the event and adds great content worth appreciating. I have to say that the best way to truly appreciate the whole DC event would be read each issue as they were printed out. It might make for a less fluid story, but it will unquestionably answer so many questions that you might have if you were to read the 6-issue event in one shot.Yours truly,Lashaan | Blogger and Book ReviewerOfficial blog: https://bookidote.com/
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  • James DeSantis
    January 1, 1970
    I read most of these when they came out but the Wild Hunt came out so much later I didn't get to it. Now to rate them all together? If want a bigger review on each chapter of the Dark Knights can read my single reviews. Basically these are the origin stories of the evil Batman. We get to find out why Bruce from that Dimension went fucking insane and usually became a killer. Then we get the wildhunt to tie it all up. When we see the final battle about to be all done who will win? And who is the c I read most of these when they came out but the Wild Hunt came out so much later I didn't get to it. Now to rate them all together? If want a bigger review on each chapter of the Dark Knights can read my single reviews. Basically these are the origin stories of the evil Batman. We get to find out why Bruce from that Dimension went fucking insane and usually became a killer. Then we get the wildhunt to tie it all up. When we see the final battle about to be all done who will win? And who is the chimp who might save the day? Good: The dark knights story all vary. Some weaker ones but for the most part there's 5 good-great stories here. The highlights being Red Death and of course Barbatos (joker/Batman mix) and sets up how vicious these bastards could be. All hypes you up for them invading the normal universe. Bad: The Wild Hunt was a letdown. It was long, kind of boring, and not really all that interesting. I was confused and I'm currently reading Metal to NOT be, but damn...too much shit going on. Overall it's around a 3.5 for the collecting. Not amazing, but still pretty solid. For the individual stories alone it's worth checking out. A 3.5 out of 5.
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  • Wing Kee
    January 1, 1970
    Wow this collection is fantastic.World: The art is great, there are a lot of different artists which normally irks me with the different Nightmare Batmen it allows for more creativity and different tone. I love the world building, normally as I said it is filler for me but these characters (and this is a character collection) are interesting and where they end up is the core of the world. The worlds they are from are fascinating.Story: Normally in an event, the tie in books are fairly meh and do Wow this collection is fantastic.World: The art is great, there are a lot of different artists which normally irks me with the different Nightmare Batmen it allows for more creativity and different tone. I love the world building, normally as I said it is filler for me but these characters (and this is a character collection) are interesting and where they end up is the core of the world. The worlds they are from are fascinating.Story: Normally in an event, the tie in books are fairly meh and don’t really offer anything special to the story and are just excuses to make readers buy more books. However, these characters are interesting, the Nighmare Batmen are visually stunning and therefore intrigues me where they come from and why they became what they became, and this series of issues is exactly that. I want to know, it’s framed very as you would expect but it’s still good. The Wild Hunt issue is also fantastic because it tied into Morrison’s Multiversity and it is so huge for the great world building that it blew my brain. The highlights of course if The Man Who Laughed but I really enjoyed Murder Machine for some odd reason as it really ties into Bruce as a character. Good stuff.Characters: The character pieces are so good. It’s their origin story and each issue makes sense and is very entertaining. I really liked it and I won’t say more. If you love the Nightmare Batmen and want to know more about where they come from this collection of stories will not disappoint.It’s really good for a tie in, I’m surprised. Bobo!!!!!!!!Onward to the next book!*read individual issues*
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  • Shadowdenizen
    January 1, 1970
    Huh. Color me suprised. This was actually GOOD! Compelling and interesting, and way better than the ACTUAL "Metal" mini-series.
  • Chris Lemmerman
    January 1, 1970
    [Read as single issues]The breakout stars of Dark Nights: Metal, the Nightmare Batmen, get their own origin story one-shots, all collected here. Plus, the Justice League battles across the Multiverse in the Wild Hunt one-shot!Like most anthologies, this one's a little hit or miss, but it's much more consistent than you'd expect despite every issue having a different creative team. Red Death, Dawnbreaker, and Batman Who Laughs easily lead the pack, while Devastator and Drowned are probably the we [Read as single issues]The breakout stars of Dark Nights: Metal, the Nightmare Batmen, get their own origin story one-shots, all collected here. Plus, the Justice League battles across the Multiverse in the Wild Hunt one-shot!Like most anthologies, this one's a little hit or miss, but it's much more consistent than you'd expect despite every issue having a different creative team. Red Death, Dawnbreaker, and Batman Who Laughs easily lead the pack, while Devastator and Drowned are probably the weakest, but they're all solid stories and help flesh out the characters in a short space of time.The Wild Hunt one-shot's just weird as hell, and I'm surprised it wasn't collected with the rest of the series since it's basically issue #5.5. That said, I thought they'd have put Batman: Lost and Hawkman: Found in the main trade too, so you know.Not essential to Metal, but nice supplementary material that you'll likely enjoy if you've read the main series.
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  • Jesse A
    January 1, 1970
    I'm a big fan of one-shot elseworld/multiverse stuff so this was right up my alley and for the most part it really delivered.
  • Liz (Quirky Cat)
    January 1, 1970
    3 1/2 Stars. If you’ve been following the hype behind Dark Nights then you’ve surely heard of this series by now. It gives the short version of the origin stories behind the seven most iconic Batman alternates in the series. They’re beautifully drawn, creepy, and downright corrupt.(view spoiler)[ Before I had even had a chance to read the Dark Nights: Metal story I had heard about the Batman Who Laughs. At the time I was interested, but when I finally got to reading the series I was confused. Th 3 1/2 Stars. If you’ve been following the hype behind Dark Nights then you’ve surely heard of this series by now. It gives the short version of the origin stories behind the seven most iconic Batman alternates in the series. They’re beautifully drawn, creepy, and downright corrupt.(view spoiler)[ Before I had even had a chance to read the Dark Nights: Metal story I had heard about the Batman Who Laughs. At the time I was interested, but when I finally got to reading the series I was confused. The character played an important role, to be sure, but he wasn’t nearly as big as I expected. Then I learned that there was even more to it than that one series! Here is the origin story for these Batmans, and it’s here I learned why people really were going crazy for the guy (though in truth I mostly understood it based on his design alone). As I said above, this volume includes the origin story of seven of the alternate Batmans. These ones are the most iconic ones shown (I believe there were many more than seven shown in the original series, but I also never took the time to count and be sure of that). Included are the Batman Who Laughs (obviously; he’s been driven mad by the Joker’s final toxin), The Drowned (my personal favorite, a female Batman who has modified her body to take on the power of the Atlanteans), The Red Death (a thief who went after the Flash), The Dawnbreaker (a Green Lantern who found a way around the rules), The Murder Machine (cyborg Batman), The Merciless (Batman with the helmet of Ares; one of the versions that loved and lost Diana), and The Devastator (Doomsday/Batman blend with a special hatred for Superman). I’m sure we all have our own favorite evil Batman character, and there’s plenty to choose from. Personally while I did like the imagery used for the Batman Who Laughs, he wasn’t my favorite. I found myself most drawn to The Drowned and her story. For one thing she’s strikingly designed. For another I simply liked her way of speech and the trials she went through. I was also surprisingly fond of The Dawnbreaker. I think because his origin story (up until a certain point) was the most similar to our beloved Bruce Wayne’s (the one from the primary universe that is). He lost his parents the same way, but instead found himself so determined that a Green Lantern ring found him. He then used his willpower to twist the ring to do his bidding, allowing him to break all the laws that the corps abides by. In a way it’s kind of fun to theorize about whether that would have happened in any other universe as well, or just the one. I wasn’t a big fan of the final story included in this volume, Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1. It felt silly in comparison, which was actually really jarring considering the disturbing nature of some of the backstories (did I mention that Batman Who Laughs came last, and therefore was literally right before this one? It was weird). I probably would have liked it more if not for that juxtaposition, but it is what it is. I think this leaves me with only one Dark Metal plot left, not counting the series that are being affected by what has happened. I’m really glad I’ve taken the time to read and understand everything that’s happening though. I’m already seeing the effects of these plots seeping into other series, like Wonder Woman. I would probably be a lot more confused otherwise. (hide spoiler)]For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
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  • Craig
    January 1, 1970
    This is the best Metal-related volume I've read yet, largely because each individual issue charts the origin story for each of the dark Batmen featured in the main storyline. Not all of them are evil (or started out that way). Some were corrupted by too much power. One went over the edge trying to stop an evil version of Superman on his version of Earth. They've all been sucked in by the Joker-Batman, who has promised them a world where they can be heroes again, and that's all they really want ( This is the best Metal-related volume I've read yet, largely because each individual issue charts the origin story for each of the dark Batmen featured in the main storyline. Not all of them are evil (or started out that way). Some were corrupted by too much power. One went over the edge trying to stop an evil version of Superman on his version of Earth. They've all been sucked in by the Joker-Batman, who has promised them a world where they can be heroes again, and that's all they really want (or is it?), even at the expense of thousands (millions?) of lives. The Wild Hunt story in the last issue was kind of strange--seemed to come from out of nowhere and didn't have a lot of backstory or explanation. Great artwork throughout this volume. My only question is why are all the evil Batmen some sort of Batman crossed with either a DC villain or hero? There's a Batman-Flash, a Batwoman-Aquaman, Batman-Green Lantern, etc. No entirely original evil Batman (at least so far).
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  • Drew
    January 1, 1970
    What’s not to like about evil Batmen from the dark multiverse wrapped in heavy metal aesthetics and soaked in brutal, line-crossing violence? If you don’t like this, you don’t like comics.
  • Adam Fisher
    January 1, 1970
    The majority of my review on Metal will be under the title itself, but I wanted to say a few things about the Nightmare Batmen apart from my general review.These Batmen are SCARY! Basically, they are a look at what Batman would be like if he had tried to increase his power by killing and absorbing each member of the Justice League (and Joker in the case of BWL). The origin stories made sense and I could definitely see these 7 being enemies for him in the future (though only one is left alive).Ba The majority of my review on Metal will be under the title itself, but I wanted to say a few things about the Nightmare Batmen apart from my general review.These Batmen are SCARY! Basically, they are a look at what Batman would be like if he had tried to increase his power by killing and absorbing each member of the Justice League (and Joker in the case of BWL). The origin stories made sense and I could definitely see these 7 being enemies for him in the future (though only one is left alive).Basic info on them (and what happened on their version of -Earth):The Red Death - a Batman who absorbed Barry Allen and his connection to the Speed Force so that he could be fast enough to stop crime from happeningThe Drowned - Bryce Wayne (female version of Bruce who had a relationship with Sylvester Kyle) loses it when her lover is murdered, killing metas and eventually Aquawoman, who was using the promise of peace to trick Bryce into surrender. For the death of Aquawoman, the Atlanteans flood the surface and Bryce is forced to survive by augmenting her body to survive in water. She conquers Atlantis and then drowns the rest of the world.Dawnbreaker - When the Waynes were killed, Bruce's determination to not be afraid calls a Green Lantern ring to him. He overrides the programming, using the Green light to kill and take revenge. He eventually falls into a darkness he embraces, and begins to channel a dark version of the Green lightThe Murder Machine - Bane breaks into the Batcave, looking to kill Batman and instead kills Alfred. Bruce goes to Cyborg for help in fixing an Alfred AI he had been working on, but it mutates and begins killing all of Batman's rogues. When Bruce goes to fix it, he gets overcome and is cybernetically altered to take away all his fear and debilitating emotions. Cyborg dubs him The Murder Machine.The Merciless - Batman and Wonder Woman team up to fight against Ares, who had just created a helmet to increase his power a hundredfold. They are able to remove the helmet from him, but it seemingly takes Diana's life. In his rage and loss, Batman puts on the helmet and destroys Ares. Wonder Woman is not dead, but when she awakens and tries to remove the helmet from Bruce, he is already so addicted to the power, that he kills her rather than give it up. He then wages war against the world.The Devastator - Bruce is paranoid that Superman would one day try to kill him. When Clark goes crazy and kills Lois, Batman fights against him (think Injustice or the BvS movie). Turns out that Batman had a modified version of the Doomsday Virus on hand, and he takes it to become powerful enough to stop Superman. But.... the virus spreads and everyone begins turning into their Doomsday versions.The Batman Who Laughs -Starting pretty much like our Batman, the Joker of Earth -22 is much more crazy. During a really intense fight where many get killed, Batman makes the decision to end Joker and snaps his neck. Reflecting back on the fight with Superman, Bruce hears about many kids that have been Joker-ized and lets out a short chuckle. Three days later, he is training with the Bat Family when he reveals that not only has he been infected with a extreme Joker virus that is incurable, but that he invited them there not to train, but so he could kill them all, which he does, all while laughing. Next killing the Justice League and using the Joker-ized kids as Robins, he completes his conversion into The Batman Who Laughs.It's at this point that his Earth begins to collapse. Barbatos shows up and tells him all about the Dark Multiverse and his plan to get back at Batman. He then goes around to the other -Earths and collects the rest of the "Dark Knights".See my review of Metal for the rest of the story and opinions.
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  • Nikki
    January 1, 1970
    THIS REVIEW & MORE → SYNOPSES BY SARGEI received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.Dark Days: The Road to Metal and Dark Days: The Road to Metal by Scott Snyder are the first two events. This is the third.Barbatos rules the Dark. If Batman can rid of the Light, Barbatos has promised to bring Bruce Wayne’s parents back."The truth is, we’re only here because the world was dark enough to dream us into existence. Because deep down, it needed us. To protect them from themse THIS REVIEW & MORE → SYNOPSES BY SARGEI received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.Dark Days: The Road to Metal and Dark Days: The Road to Metal by Scott Snyder are the first two events. This is the third.Barbatos rules the Dark. If Batman can rid of the Light, Barbatos has promised to bring Bruce Wayne’s parents back."The truth is, we’re only here because the world was dark enough to dream us into existence. Because deep down, it needed us. To protect them from themselves."Batman has multiple personality disorder in this event:Flash Batman “Red Death”: stole his reality’s Speed Force from The Flash (one of my favorite superheroes and I would want his super power).Cyborg Batman “The Murder Machine”: bent on killing everyone with the many Alfred clones.Joker Batman “The Man Who Laughs”: never taking anything seriously and always the last word. The evil mastermind of the group.Green Lantern Batman “Dawnbreaker”: set on destroying the man who killed his parents. He quickly becomes a hero until his willingness to kill takes over.Aquaman Batman “The Drowned”: a female sea creature.Wonder Woman Batman “The Merciless”: vows to kill Ares and destroy his helmet, but ends up choosing himself as a god and wears the helmet. Doomsday Batman “The Devastator”: monster who thinks that Superman is the problem."No one is beyond saving."The Joker plans to make something out of the best traits of both himself and Batman. When Batman killed the Joker, a new strain of Nanotoxic was released from the dead body. This virus makes the victims more like the Joker. Whoever killed the Joker, would become him. The Laughing Batman (aka the Joker Batman) is the ringleader of this big circus. So why are all of the other Batmans following his lead? They believe that helping will make them heros (how easily misguided they were). The world is dying. Detective Chimp is on the case. Will he be able to solve the crime before it is too late?I wanted to love this. I really did. And I really like that the “Dark Knights” were versions of other DC heros we have come to love over the years. I’m kind of lost about why Detective Chimp has a role, really. But then again, I’m not a big fan of monkeys. It had me loving it until the last 50 pages. 😦The expected publication date is June 26, 2018.
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  • Theediscerning
    January 1, 1970
    Just what the world wanted – not one but two companion volumes to the most humdrum and dull event book from DC ever (qualified of course by all other events taking 20 books). This one covers all those dodgy Dark Batmen that did so damned little in the parent book, because we needed their origins, didn't we? Well, at least give this a chance to reach the second one, for the artwork is excellent. Even better, for different reasons, is the rack on Aquabatwoman, but by then you're really scraping th Just what the world wanted – not one but two companion volumes to the most humdrum and dull event book from DC ever (qualified of course by all other events taking 20 books). This one covers all those dodgy Dark Batmen that did so damned little in the parent book, because we needed their origins, didn't we? Well, at least give this a chance to reach the second one, for the artwork is excellent. Even better, for different reasons, is the rack on Aquabatwoman, but by then you're really scraping the barrel – this is the equivalent of the prose collection that came out the other year giving every single character in the Mos Eisley cantina a back-story, trying to imbue blink-and-you-miss-them characters with just that – character. And failing. What's more, you get cameos here from the good guys that are sometimes longer than their presence in the actual Metal book, which shows again how dodgy that patchwork quilt of an effort was. Heck, you even get a rewrite of the original Injustice, and of course Grant Morrison is on hand at the end to make it unreadable. Thoroughly ignorable, beyond the two plusses I mentioned, and if one of them was a pair of boobs you can see how weak it is. One and a half stars.
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  • Chris Wing
    January 1, 1970
    So, here's another tie-in to the Metal event, and it was one I was quite intrigued by.I decided to read the first two chapters of Metal; (to the point where these guys turn up) and *then* read this one and it was an interesting read.Unpacking my knowledge of how the Marvel existence works and then learning how the DC one works is really interesting, especially when DCs has a lot more to it (what with being rebooted so many times, and therefore, it seems, realities and how they work are a bigger So, here's another tie-in to the Metal event, and it was one I was quite intrigued by.I decided to read the first two chapters of Metal; (to the point where these guys turn up) and *then* read this one and it was an interesting read.Unpacking my knowledge of how the Marvel existence works and then learning how the DC one works is really interesting, especially when DCs has a lot more to it (what with being rebooted so many times, and therefore, it seems, realities and how they work are a bigger part of DC than Marvel's is of theirs.So, I was quite interested by many of these characters and these worlds. I think I would have liked a bit more intro into what was happening to their worlds and maybe some back story - sometimes they were a little rushed (as they were, of course, one-shots to give depth to the characters as they appear in the event title), but for the most part, the art was good and the scripts engaging.A welcome set up to the main event.In hindsight, thinking of this and the other hardback tie-in (and *especially the other one), I think I would have fared better getting these in paperback, as far as the story for the cover price, but they are gorgeous looking and compliment my collection, so I'm happy enough.
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  • Wayne McCoy
    January 1, 1970
    'Dark Knights: Metal: The Nightmare Batmen' is part of the DC Comics mega event. This is the third volume I've read and I feel like it's the strongest of the titles.All the Earths have all the heroes. With the coming of Barbatos, Batman has been corrupted. This volume shows all the ways he is corrupted by conquering and using other heroes and villains. First, he becomes the Red Death by taking the Speed Force from Flash. Then he (or rather she) becomes The Drowned by conquering Atlantis. There a 'Dark Knights: Metal: The Nightmare Batmen' is part of the DC Comics mega event. This is the third volume I've read and I feel like it's the strongest of the titles.All the Earths have all the heroes. With the coming of Barbatos, Batman has been corrupted. This volume shows all the ways he is corrupted by conquering and using other heroes and villains. First, he becomes the Red Death by taking the Speed Force from Flash. Then he (or rather she) becomes The Drowned by conquering Atlantis. There are others, but my favorite might be The Dawnbreaker, which is what happens when an evil Batman takes on a Green Lantern Ring. The ringleader is the Batman/Joker amalgam The Man Who Laughs.These stories are really dark, and I really liked them. I like the idea of a Batman who has been pushed over the edge and uses his mind to become a killer. The origin of Batman is in most of these stories, and it has driven him to revenge, not justice. I liked the various artists. The last story with the Detective Chimp feels like a weird aside after the preceding darkness, but it was ok.I received a review copy of this graphic novel from DC Entertainment and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
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  • Isaiah
    January 1, 1970
    I got an ARC of this book.A whole ton of no on this one. I am all for an evil Batman, one that has been pushed too far that he finally snaps. Give me a broken Batman any day.Instead this was just Batman in different costumes killing people. They weren't Batman. The characters were all wrong in a way that was really painful to read. Alfred being a killing AI for example. Batman being Green Lantern for another. I can keep going. This book looked like something I would enjoy, instead I was annoyed I got an ARC of this book.A whole ton of no on this one. I am all for an evil Batman, one that has been pushed too far that he finally snaps. Give me a broken Batman any day.Instead this was just Batman in different costumes killing people. They weren't Batman. The characters were all wrong in a way that was really painful to read. Alfred being a killing AI for example. Batman being Green Lantern for another. I can keep going. This book looked like something I would enjoy, instead I was annoyed throughout the book. Annoyed was the nicest thing I could say about my feelings about this book and probably this series. The only story that was any bit interesting was the Batman who Laughed which is a character introduced in the main story line of Dark Nights: Metal. Otherwise I could live without someone going "gee, I wonder what it will be like if Batman killed and had superpowers and was evil". That character is no longer Batman. That is so far removed that the name Batman is just being used to sell a book. I am really disappointed. I expected that this would be the book that would get me into the series, sadly it was the one that tipped my feelings over to pure disdain.
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  • Norman Cook
    January 1, 1970
    These are the origin stories of the dark and twisted hybrid Batmen who come out of the Multiverse: The Red Death (Batman/Flash), The Devastator (Batman/Doomsday), The Merciless (Batman/Wonder Woman), The Murder Machine (Batman/Cyborg), The Drowned (Batman/Aquawoman), The Dawnbreaker (Batman/Green Lantern), and the Batman Who Laughs (Batman/Joker) (who has an army of very creepy Robins). These alternate, evil Batmen play a big role in the Metal event, and I'm sure we haven't seen the last of them These are the origin stories of the dark and twisted hybrid Batmen who come out of the Multiverse: The Red Death (Batman/Flash), The Devastator (Batman/Doomsday), The Merciless (Batman/Wonder Woman), The Murder Machine (Batman/Cyborg), The Drowned (Batman/Aquawoman), The Dawnbreaker (Batman/Green Lantern), and the Batman Who Laughs (Batman/Joker) (who has an army of very creepy Robins). These alternate, evil Batmen play a big role in the Metal event, and I'm sure we haven't seen the last of them. It's hard to come up with villains that truly challenge Batman, but since these are warped versions of himself, they are his equal and very formidable indeed. Most of these stories are pretty well self-contained, but they should be read before the conclusion of the main Metal story.Note: I read this as individual comic book issues.
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  • Jerrad
    January 1, 1970
    Better than road to Metal and Metal itself. This volume focuses on the origin stories of the evil Batmen and their roles in the Metal crisis. Each Batman is basically an amalgam of Batman and another justice league member (or villain associated with a justice league member): Aqua man, Doomsday, Green Lantern, Ares, Flash, cyborg, and lead by a Batman full of Joker juice.There are a billion Batman vs the Justice League stories but this one give us 7 morally compromised Bat baddies who killed thei Better than road to Metal and Metal itself. This volume focuses on the origin stories of the evil Batmen and their roles in the Metal crisis. Each Batman is basically an amalgam of Batman and another justice league member (or villain associated with a justice league member): Aqua man, Doomsday, Green Lantern, Ares, Flash, cyborg, and lead by a Batman full of Joker juice.There are a billion Batman vs the Justice League stories but this one give us 7 morally compromised Bat baddies who killed their versions of the Justice League. The rest of metal was pretty lame. This one is worth a read if you are into "What ifs?" and alternate realities.
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  • Eric Guy
    January 1, 1970
    The artwork and storylines throughout were fantastic, plot twists and reveals come at an almost frenetic pace. Almost, but just not enough to overwhelm the reader..One issue though in reading via the Adobe reader is that certain text fonts become almost impossible to read, especially the Laughing Batman. That made it hard to follow the storyline at times. Overall, I would prefer to read these in premier hardprint or a cleaner version of the ebook with the font issues addressed.A solid 4.5 ⭐ for The artwork and storylines throughout were fantastic, plot twists and reveals come at an almost frenetic pace. Almost, but just not enough to overwhelm the reader..One issue though in reading via the Adobe reader is that certain text fonts become almost impossible to read, especially the Laughing Batman. That made it hard to follow the storyline at times. Overall, I would prefer to read these in premier hardprint or a cleaner version of the ebook with the font issues addressed.A solid 4.5 ⭐ for storylines and artwork but a 3 ⭐ on ebook/Adobe adaptation.
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  • Richard
    January 1, 1970
    I like the idea behind most of these alternate Bats, but I feel like most of these would have benefited from having their own books to flesh out their slide into madness than the quick snapshot we had narrated by the Bat who Laughs. I get that's probably a bit too much for this event though, so they were okay overall.The Wild Hunt story on the end felt really out of context for me, even having read the main story arc, but this might be another case of needing to read everything leading to that p I like the idea behind most of these alternate Bats, but I feel like most of these would have benefited from having their own books to flesh out their slide into madness than the quick snapshot we had narrated by the Bat who Laughs. I get that's probably a bit too much for this event though, so they were okay overall.The Wild Hunt story on the end felt really out of context for me, even having read the main story arc, but this might be another case of needing to read everything leading to that point to understand what was going on.
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  • Micah
    January 1, 1970
    According to release date, this is the third volume that I read after first reading the exposition volume and the main story line with its conclusion. ABSOLUTELY, read this volume second after reading the exposition volume. If you don't, you will be unfortunate enough to miss out on knowing about the backstory of each of the knights during the main story. The stories themselves were fantastically outrageous and I loved each one of them. It's too bad they only made the few issues for each one of According to release date, this is the third volume that I read after first reading the exposition volume and the main story line with its conclusion. ABSOLUTELY, read this volume second after reading the exposition volume. If you don't, you will be unfortunate enough to miss out on knowing about the backstory of each of the knights during the main story. The stories themselves were fantastically outrageous and I loved each one of them. It's too bad they only made the few issues for each one of them as I would have absolutely followed a series for each one.
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  • Crazed8J8
    January 1, 1970
    The different take on the Nightmare Batmen was really awesome, as was the varying artistic styles. I (surprisingly) liked The Murder Machine (not a Cybog fan, but the art and character were really well done). I also thought the Dawnbreaker was extremely cool. Devastator and Drowned, as well as Merciless were only mediocre to me. The Batman Who Laughs is what held it all together, great, creative artwork and storytelling. I'm curious to see what lasting repercussions, if any, these characters hav The different take on the Nightmare Batmen was really awesome, as was the varying artistic styles. I (surprisingly) liked The Murder Machine (not a Cybog fan, but the art and character were really well done). I also thought the Dawnbreaker was extremely cool. Devastator and Drowned, as well as Merciless were only mediocre to me. The Batman Who Laughs is what held it all together, great, creative artwork and storytelling. I'm curious to see what lasting repercussions, if any, these characters have.
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  • Lukas Holmes
    January 1, 1970
    I get the idea behind it, but it still really feels like something the 13-year old I knew in school would pitch to us at the lunch table. "And then what if Batman was EVERY member of the Justice League and then what if it was all a dream and then what if Sandman was there and then what if all the metal stuff in DC was like, important then what if...." Too much pasta thrown against the wall.
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  • Nathaniel Darkish
    January 1, 1970
    As a whole, this really didn't work as a collection. I didn't care for most of the stories, with the major exception being the original story of Barbatos, which I feel is pretty crucial for the Metal arc and really helped the larger story make a lot more sense. The rest was pretty confusing and messy, though.
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  • Trey
    January 1, 1970
    This volume collects several good origin stories of the dark multiverse Batman variants, kind of like depressing Elseworlds tales. Some of the origins, not as great. But it seems a shame to have wasted the good characters on the Metal event. If you are looking for closure in this book, you'll have to find it in the main Metal mini-series. I received a preview copy of this book from NetGalley.
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  • Piper Gottschalk
    January 1, 1970
    thank you to the publisher and net galley for the opportunity to read this for review.If you enjoyed Dark Knights Metal, then you will probably enjoy this. It is mainly short stories about the various Nightmare Batmen. Not something I would really recommend on it's own.I liked the look of about half the art. The colors did get a bit muddy sometimes.
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  • Scott Waldie
    January 1, 1970
    Of the four Dark Knights Metal volumes, I actually found this to be the most compelling...it really drives home how desperate these failed, falling Dark Multiverse worlds were to spawn these psychotic Batmen hybrids in thrall to Barbatos. Cool art, cool ideas, a fleeting glimpse of the twisting terrors that led to these maniacs, and a constant reminder of just how much worse your life could be.
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  • Zoe Elizabeth
    January 1, 1970
    This was a fun ending to the Metal story line. I enjoyed reading from the villain's points of view as opposed to the hero's. It was a nice way of rounding out the series. Thanks to Netgalley and DC for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
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