Batman: The Murder Machine #1

Dark Nights: Metal (Reading Order) #2.2

by Frank Tieri, Riccardo Federici (Illustrator), Rain Beredo (Illustrator)

As the events of DARK NIGHTS: METAL rock the DC Universe, the creatures of the Dark Multiverse stand ready to invade our world! How can even the World’s Greatest Heroes stop a horde of deadly beings that appear to be powerful, nightmare versions of familiar figures? Find out in these special tie-in issues!

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Batman, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Comics Manga

25 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 27, 2017

Reviews

[Tawfek]

My first favorite DC black hero got utterly destroyed, wish we could have met on better terms lol
But I really love Cyborg's relationship with his father.
That Alfred AI leading batman astray is such a dope idea, I loved it.
There is still five similar origin stories in our future, I can't even imagine what they will be like, because the two we read so far were so unpredictable like nothing we have read before.

[Jedi JC Daquis]

Tie-in comics in my experience have a reputation of far from being good compared with the main events. Snyder's main Court and City of Owls were overwhelmingly good while the Night of the Owls tie-in stories were just mediocre with some truly standing out (like Nightwing's Gray Son of Gotham). So aside from having a delicious collection of foil-covered evil Batmen origin stories, there's really none I expect these comics would be, but so far the issues are surprisingly great and super enjoyable.



The Murder Machine tells the origin of Cyborg-Batman from the Dark Multiverse, a darker, underground version of the multiverse where everything is doomed to destruction. The story combines a twisted version of a son-father relationship between Bruce and Alfred with elements from The Matrix and Age of Ultron to deliver a horrifying take on the theme "machine power and its dangerous capabilities without a human heart".

Building from the Red Death, The Murder Machine continues to intrigue its readers on Earth-0's "darkification" and maybe its eventual demise. It seems that these evil Batmen will all have their particular roles to do.

Federici's art is always sure and calculated, with some panels reminding me of 80s art in books. His illustrations of The Murder Machine is superb.

[Abdelhak]

dc metal batman is fucking lit y'all !!!

[Siona Adams]

Not as cool as The Red Death, but still an interesting concept.

[Luke Smith]

Melhor arte de Metal até agora, e uma puta história dark pra cacete, ta no padrão de qualidade que o evento ta tendo até agora.

[Sans]

These tie-ins make more sense to me than the actual Metal miniseries right now. They're also dark as hell. I handed them over to my co-worker with a "Holy crap, do not blame me for this" look.

[Kim]

Another great tie-in! At first I thought it would be kind of lame to have dark Batman-esque versions of all the league characters but I'm loving each backstory of the dark knights and how they fit into the event. Can't wait for the Supes one!!! I'm hoping its the massive Doomsday looking guy!! :D

[David Dalton]

Very off-beat, but one of the really good Dark Metal spin-off stories. This Dark Universe is taking us down a strange dark path. Fun to be along for the ride.

[Amber]

Choo choo, motherfucker

[Katherine Sigarán]

2.5 Stars

It's the Tie-in that I don't liked the least so far, the story had a lot of potential until at one point it felt like a horror movie, but the whole Alfred thing seemed pointless to me, I did not like art at all and The title seems a bit silly to me.

Es el Tie-in que menos me ha gustado hasta el momento, la historia tenía mucho potencial hasta en un punto se sintió como una película de terror, pero todo el asunto de Alfred me pareció sin sentido, el arte no me gusto para nada y el titúlo me parece algo tonto.

[Vishualee]

The artist is the real hero here. Of all the Dark Nights titles, this one has got realistic looking characters. An attention to detail, capturing human expression and facial tones. A lot of effort went to art alone.

Story-wise, you feel more horrified of what technology can do uninhibited. The catalyst for turning Bruce into the Murder Machine, is someone else. It's not scary as the other titles, but is a good one.

[Jenn Marshall]

I haven't read Cyborg before this so I'm not familiar with his story. But I liked Murder Machine. It wasn't as good as other parts of the story, but after rereading it I liked more than my first time through.

[Norman]

Well, how can anyone defeat Batman, really? Cyborg sure as hell can’t. Who is he kidding? Especially with crazyass virtual Alfred going around? So easy to exploit the Victor within the cyborg. I liked the Red Death story a lot more, but this ain’t bad.

[Patrick]

That art was beautifully stunning. Just gorgeous.

Again, as an Elseworld story, it was pretty darned good. I'd say that I called the "reveal" at the end. But I don't think it's done, yet. I think that's coming back in the series.

[Luis Fdo]

Para muchos el mejor comic de origen de estos caballeros, para mi de los mejores sin llegar a ser el mejor, un arte increible que tiene detras una historia que para mi desgracia no tiene tan buen ritmo como esperaba hasta sus paginas finales, aun asi de los mejores comics de origen de la serie.

[Vijay Negi]

3.5 stars

[James Love]

A twisted metal mish mash of Batman, Elseworlds & DC Crisis.

The death of Alfred and the birth of the Alfred Protocol. Turns Bruce Wayne into BatBorg.

[Derek Neveu]

Things are starting to make sense, and I really like the darkness of this arc. Too many people today are caught up on making hero arcs lighter, and I simply ask, “why?”.

[John]

In Heavy Metal

[Sean Goh]

Grimdarker Batman x AI gone rogue (I, Robot).

[Mr. Cody]

I love Frank Tieri. So old-school.

[Mel]

Too dark and twisted.

[Steven Shinder]

Dark as hell, but the incredible art and the focus on Cyborg make up for it. You can see the pencil markings and the gray color palette really works.

[George Farnsworth]

The Murder Machine is a really cool concept for an alternate batman, this issue is full of some very nice panels, the art feels gritty and very fitting.

[Anastasia Bell]

damn, that was brutal.

[Nikki]

I'm really digging the tie-ins to the Metal series thus far. They aren't a necessary, but they're super enjoyable. They weren't kidding when they said this was going to be an event, and it really is, dark and strange and twisted and so much fun.

[Max's Comic Reviews and Lists]

This one shot, unlike some of the others I have read isn't really
an origin, but a comic to show the destruction the murder machine
had caused. I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit more than the
previous one shot. It was in a sense, more powerful and just more
entertaining. The whole plot with Alfred, Victor and Bruce Wayne
is pretty well done and I actually liked the flash backs. I have two
nitpicks with this comic. I do feel like the Red Death and the Murder
Machine have no difference in character or dialogue. With it being
basically a walking program and a cyborg version of Batman it was
same methodical and evil scheme talk we've heard a gazillion times.
Also Riccardo Federici has failed to match the colours and overall
design of Greg Capello’s version of the Murder Machine which I believe
is cooler, looks more like Batman, and is more creatively designed. Letter Grade: (C+)

[Tim Nowotny]

It is really difficult to rate these tie ins separately, as their structure is quite similar: Batman loses something, gets utterly mad, kills somebody from justice league while getting their powers, realizing that he is in a dying universe and unleashing hell unto ours. A strange breed of fan service that I did not read without joy.

[Fernando Bonilla]

Me pasó lo mismo que con The Merciless, el villano es demasiado contundente, intimidante y es difícil verlo caer, es díficil imgainárselo caer. Me gustó el villano, es muy interesante, pero una vez más las motivaciones me parecen de alguien muy vulnerable y débil. No me gustó su historia, bueno no tanto, tiene sus cosas buenas.