Tales from the DC Dark Multiverse

Tales from the Dark Multiverse #1-5

by Scott Snyder

DC has delivered some of the most influential and ground-breaking stories in comic's history with titles such as The Killing Joke, Identity Crisis, The Death of Superman and much more. Now after the events of Dark Knights: Metal, a gateway into the Dark Multiverse has opened and its stories revealed.

Featuring top talent authors and artist, Tales from the DC Dark Multiverse is going beyond the Multiverse and diving deep into the dark with new timelines and altering the defining moments in DC history. What are the consequences if The Joker's aim had hit James Gordon instead of Barbara? What would the DC Universe look like?

Tales from the DC Dark Multiverse is a hard cover format collecting alternating stories of the DC Universe, reprinting DC Dark Multiverse Batman: Knightfall #1, DC Dark Multiverse Death of Superman #1, DC Dark Multiverse Blackest Night #1, DC Dark Multiverse Infinite Crisis #1, DC Dark Multiverse Teen Titans: The Judas Contract #1, Batman #497, Superman #75, Blackest Night #1, Infinite Crisis #1, and Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3.

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

448 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 2020

About the author

Scott Snyder is the Eisner and Harvey Award winning writer on DC Comics Batman, Swamp Thing, and his original series for Vertigo, American Vampire. He is also the author of the short story collection, Voodoo Heart, published by the Dial Press in 2006. The paperback version was published in the summer of 2007.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I initially passed on this title because I thought it was part of Snyder's Dark Nights: Metal stuff.
It's not.



Not really. This is more of a What If retelling of iconic stories set in the Dark Multiverse. So, obviously those stories will have a twisted ending to them. And as an added bonus, they have all of the original stories reprinted in the back. Some I'd read and some I hadn't. Regardless, it was nice to see how much energy was put into recreating the parallel Dark versions.

Batman: Knightfall retells the story of what happened after Bane broke Batman's back.



Instead of Azrael giving back the mantle to Bruce after he recovers, he just keeps the title of Batman, the city of Gotham, and Bruce under his zealot-y little thumb.
It doesn't work out well for anyone.
Welcome to the Dark Multiverse, bitches!



The Death of Superman gets twisty when Lois goes a little nuts.



She gets a power-up and decides to make the world a better place. In her fervor to fix everything, she ends up destroying everything she ever loved in a spectacularly devastating fashion.



Blackest Night is one of my favorite DC stories, so I was excited when I saw it pop up.



It didn't blow me away but it was a decent story. I wouldn't have thought to put Dove & Lobo in leading roles with Sinestro, but it worked.



Infinite Crisis was a rather interesting look at what would have happened if Ted Kord has survived his encounter with Maxwell Lord.
I'm a big fan of Ted and Booster, which made this one particularly good for me.



Ted gets hold of Batman's Brother Eye stuff and teams up with Superboy Prime.
It ends about as well as you might think it will after reading a sentence like that.



New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract was both good and bad. I'd never read the original story before even though I knew the general gist that Terra had betrayed the Titans to Slade.



And while this new version was odd and twisted, it wasn't any worse than the original. Out of all of the classic stories, I quite honestly think that one has the worst dialogue. Wow. Just super cringy.
So, while the Dark story was awkward, it really followed in the footsteps of its predecessor.



I would definitely say this one is a fun read for anyone who enjoys these What If variations on the classics.
Recommended.

[Khurram · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The difference between me and you is just one bad day" the Joker.

Five stories stories where the a small change takes the universe on to a darker track. Then an issue from each saga these are based on.

Kinghtfall. What if the event of Knights End did not have Bruce reclaim him place as Batman. The new St Batman has saved Gotham but the world has crumbled.

Death of Superman. The day Superman died he left sn angry wife and a world without a saviour. What they now have is vengeance.

Blackest Night. The Blackest night just longer and darker.

Infinite Crisis. If a hero did not die, could the world be even worse off?

The Judas Contract. A peice of advice, with the best of intention causes the road to hell.

The Broken Bat. The is the last issue of Knightfall Vol 1. I know why they included this issues. I remember first reading this and the shocking ending. This was the first time I had seen the hero lose. However I don't think this was the right choice as the point of change was the end of Knights End, but that ending was a bit of a let down.

Death of Superman. The original fight between the Man of Steel and Doomsday.

Blackest night. Issues one of of the Blackest Night mini series. The dead rise, kill and rise again.

Infinite Crisis. The trust is broken between the Trinity, and a new Crisis is coming.

The Judas Contract. The Titans have been betrayed and captured. This so much darker then any animated or normal movie I have see.

An ok collection of stories. I do appreciate having issues from the origin reprinted. However I think the issue where the turn hapoen instead of the iconic.There is a varient cover gallery and sketch book as well. I would have given this 3.5 stars, but I think I deserves a round up them down.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tales from the DC Dark Multiverse is an anthology of really bad bumper-sized one-shots presenting What If…?-style retellings of famous, and also really bad, storylines. Two bad tastes that taste bad together. I’m guessing it’s “dark” because it’s spinning out of one of those Dark Nights things. Ugh…

The one-shots are framed by a Watcher-type character (because neither Marvel or DC can come up with anything original and will forever ape the other) called Tempus Fuginaut (a pun on the Latin phrase “tempus fugit” or “time flies”, which doesn’t really make sense given the multiverse setting).

First up is Batman: Knightfall, which sets the tone of what to expect, which is basically: duhhh, what if a “good” character went “bad”? So in this version of Knightfall, Batman dies and Jean-Paul Valley becomes Batman for years but he’s evil and that’s baaaad. Fascinating…

Jeff Loveness and Brad Walker’s take on The Death of Superman was the only story here that didn’t completely bore me. It’s as nihilistic and arbitrarily (read: tediously) “dark” as the others, but it presents an intriguing scenario, namely what if someone with the powers of Superman decided to take a hardline stance on crime, injustice, etc.

So Lois Lane becomes superpowered and makes the difficult choices none of the heroes ever made, ie. killing the likes of Lex Luthor and Joker, in an attempt to do, as she sees, more than Superman ever could to make the world a better place. It’s not an original concept but it’s executed well by Loveness. Walker’s art is excellent too, adapted to the early ‘90s style, and I liked that he mimics the full page presentation of the original story’s finale, at least to start with.

The rest of the book is pure, unrelenting garbage. Tim Seeley has never written a good comic and he continues that trend with his take on Blackest Night which was incoherent drivel about Sinestro being a White Lantern on a road trip with Lobo for some reason and there were some Old Gods or New Gods or whatever.

James Tynion IV and Aaron Lopresti do a version of Infinite Crisis where Blue Beetle - yes - goes “bad”, with “dark” consequences, while in Kyle Higgins, Mat Groom and Tom Raney’s take on Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, Terra goes “bad”, with “dark” consequences. Horrible, both.

Also included are single issues from each of the original arcs of the above which give you a flavour of how these newer versions differ, and hopefully dissuade readers from seeking out these terrible books, if they’ve never read them before.

Even though The Death of Superman entry was halfway readable, it in no way makes Tales from the DC Dark Multiverse worth reading. An horrendous - in all the bad ways - anthology of dull, trite nonsense; definitely avoid this one.

[A.J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This shit doesn’t even deserve a review, it’s so goddamn bad. It’s just “What if some depressing and shit storylines were even more depressing and shitty?” Tempus Fuginaut, DC’s shitty version of The Watcher, guides us through 5 terrible universes where edgelord nihilism triumphs over hope. So fun!

Not for me, and I would have never touched this if this hardcover wasn’t gifted to me. Can’t believe a second fucking volume got greenlit. I can see why the surburban teenagers flock to these hardcovers whenever my LCS has a sale, it’s right up their alleys.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more What If? than Elseworlds. Where Elseworlds is the reimagining of a hero in another setting, What If? is more, "How would an existing story have turned out if one thing changed?". That's what we have here. Dark twists on five big events in DC's history.

Knightfall by Scott Snyder, Kyle Higgins & Javier Fernandez - ★★★★
What If Bruce Wayne wasn't able to retake the Batman mantle from Azrael? This was an incredibly bleak, hopeless view of Gotham under Azrael's charge for 20 years. It's really good with some fantastic art by Javier Fernandez.

The Death of Superman by Jeff Loveness & Brad Walker - ★★★★
What If Lois Lane bonded with the Eradicator and gained Superman's powers after his death? Brad Walker makes this tale of vengeance look fantastic.

Blackest Night by Tim Seeley & Kyle Hotz - ★
What If Sinestro fucked up and got the whole universe killed? This sucked, as most stories featuring Lobo do. It was just boring. Hotz's art was so sloppy. I couldn't even tell who most of the Black Lanterns were supposed to be.

Infinite Crisis by James Tynion IV & Aaron Lopresti - ★★★★
What If Blue Beetle lived? I liked this a lot. I like how Tynion twists the story with Blue Beetle taking the lead. Lopresti's a great superhero artist.

The Judas Contract by Kyle Higgens, Mat Groom & Tom Raney - ★★
What If Terra went nuts and killed everyone? This was just kind of lazy and boring. Terra wins, but she's written as a completely different character than the original story by Wolfman and Perez. There was a missed opportunity to have fun with some of the unintentional creepiness of the original story since Deathstroke was sleeping with a very underage Terra. Instead it was just a yawn inducing murderfest.

Also included are 5 reprints from the original stories these What If?s are based on. They seem very pointless to include as you're only getting a small portion of each story. All of the original collections are easily found. Go read those instead.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

DC are usually pretty light on Elseworlds, but when the Dark Multiverse offers the opportunity to explore all the old DC events with some even more depressing bents on them, how can they pass it up?

We open with Knightfall, which posits what would happen if Jean-Paul Valley defeated Bruce Wayne and remained Batman for 30 years. Spoilers: Bad things for everyone. Bat-scribe extraordinaire Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgins create a story that's almost full of hope, right up until the last minute gut-punch twist which I should have seen coming and failed to. There are at least two epic Batman moments I'd love to see acted out in main continuity, and Javier Fernandez' artwork is suitably dark and scratchy for this dismal future world. Four stars.

Next is The Death of Superman, which is what would happen if Lois Lane and the Eradicator joined together after Superman died. More spoilers: More bad things. The story here is fairly basic really, but Jeff Loveness' script elevates it higher than the blood-spattered horror that it would be otherwise. He gets inside Lois' head really well, and manages to throw in more than one excellent set-pieces that will stick in your mind for a while. Brad Walker's on art, with two inkers, but he's as reliable as ever. His characters always hold a lot of weight, and that's necessary here to match the emotional punch that the plot demands. Five stars.

Blackest Night was the one I was looking forward to most, since it's a case of what if Sinestro hadn't created the White Lantern Corps. Even more spoilers: The universe fucking ends. Unfortunately the story doesn't really live up to the premise, since it focuses more on Dove and Lobo than anything else, and hinges on Mister Miracle making an entirely stupid decision that even he wouldn't make no matter how much he loved his wife. Tim Seeley has a lot of good ideas at play here, but they get drowned out under the cosmic soap opera of it all, and Kyle Hotz's art feels sloppy and incomplete rather than creepy as he usually is; he doesn't manage to capitalise on the darkness of space, instead losing the characters within it. Two stars.

Infinite Crisis was probably the dark horse of the bunch. Guess what? Spoilers: The world doesn't end up any better under Blue Beetle's reign than it did under Maxwell Lord's. James Tynion IV rejigs all of Infinite Crisis and its tie-ins into a superb story that shows just what happens when you underestimate Ted Kord, and manages to throw a painful penultimate page death in right at the end that just hurts, man. Aaron Lopresti tackles the art, and this is the kind of superhero stuff his art is absolutely perfect for. I've mentioned in a review lately that his art's far too superheroic for horror stories, but this is exactly the vein he's great at. Five stars.

Judas Contract hinges on one tiny change, but it snowballs into what if Terra decided to go nuts and murder everyone? I'm not even doing spoilers for that one, it is what it is. This one's probably the most middle of the road, and the most predictable of the lot. Elseworlds and What Ifs always fall into the same trap of 'let's kill everyone and be as bleak as possible' and this one's probably the worst offender since it just kills people left right and centre without any regard for the impact until right at the end. Tom Raney's art's fairly solid, but there are some dodgy shaped faces that can be a bit distracting. Three stars.

Oh, also included are issues of the original storylines, but I'm not reviewing those because they're just padding, and you can read them, and the complete stories, elsewhere.

So two fives, a four, a three, and a two. 3.8, rounds up to 4.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

What ifs could be fun, and there's some great fun to be had, even if some are really bad.

So first off let me tell you this is padded out because at the end it contains all the actual stories, well part of them, like Superman's death, bane breaking the bat, and so on.

The other half is the actual what if stories. So we have what if superman died and Lois lost it. What if Batman's back was broken and his replacement took over. What if Infinite Crisis didn't happen because Blue Beetle didn't die. What if Judas Contract was different. What if blackest night was even darker.

Each story has some fun to it. The weakest are for sure blackest night and Judas Contract what if. Both over the top, silly, stupid, and very fucked up for the sake of it. The Bane breaking bat what if is pretty solid though the ending is whatever. Infinite crisis is the most interesting and radical change. The lois getting superman like powers is by far the most emotional and contains some great moments.

Overall, not a bad collection. If want something different check these out. A 3 out of 5.

[Sud666 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark Multiverse was a very fun read. I was not expecting much but it surprised me. The narrator, with the execrable name of Tempus Fuginaut ( a horrid play on Tempus Fugit Latin for "Time Flies" and naut the Greek for "voyager" or "sailor". Ugh), tells five different stories from the Dark Multiverse all based on major DC events.

The first story is Batman: Knightfall by Scott Snyder. This is a great story of a multiverse where Azrael defeats Batman for control of Gotham but keeps him as a tortured cripple. Batman will rise again to gain his dark revenge. A dark and well-written story. The artwork was pretty good and worked well with the story.

The second story is "Death of Superman" by Jeff Loveness. After Superman dies, Lois Lane is consumed by grief and rage. in her eyes, everyone let Superman down. Mourning at the Fortress of Solitude, Lois is accosted by the spirit of Krypton, an AI program that gives her the powers of a Kryptonian on Earth. Lois embarks on a dark and violent path to bring order and control to the world. This also is a great story that is dark and very well illustrated, as the art style reminds me of the original art from "Death of Superman".

The third story "Blackest Night", by Tim Seeley , is a retelling of the events of Blackest Night. In this retelling, Sinestro's failure to share his power will condemn the galaxy to fall to Nekron, but Mister Miracle, Dove, and Lobo will show up in this interesting story in an attempt to save it all. No spoilers, but the outcome s was one I never saw coming. The artwork is good and suits the story.

"Infinite Crisis" by James Tynion IV is a retelling of the Infinite Crisis tale. In this tale the oft underestimated Blue Beetle surprises everyone and takes control of everything during the Crisis. I liked this one quite a bit and actually rooted for the Blue Beetle. The artwork is also very good for this tale.

Finally, we have Kyle Higgins and Mat Groom , retelling the story of the Teen Titans" Judas Contract. In this retelling, Tara Markov doesn't die, but takes charge of her own fate and becomes a dominating force on Earth. Again, very good artwork for this story that matches the story which it gives an ode towards.

Finally, this cool volume included the original stories as an appendix including:
Batman #497 "The Broken Bat"
Superman #75 "Doomsday!"
Blackest Night #1 "Blackest Night Part 1"
Infinite Crisis #1 "Infinite Crisis Part One"
Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3 "The Judas Contract"

There's also a bunch of alternate covers and a sketchbook at the end. An excellent volume of alternate universe stories with good artwork. Add in the original stories and this one is a great addition to any comic fan's shelf.

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.

Choices. The consequences of our actions are often irreversible in their sequence but it is the opportunity to correct them in hope of redemption that allows us to grow in our wisdom. Sometimes, you also can’t help but wonder what your life or the world would be like if you had done things differently, if things didn’t go down exactly as they did. Wouldn’t it be curious to envision these alternate realities and their myriad of possibilities? What if the epic cosmic events of the DC Universe also happened in the Dark Multiverse? What if light and hope were inevitably absent in that corner of the world? This hardcover collects the five Dark Multiverse one-shots on top of the original issues depicting some of the iconic crisis events in the DC Universe over the past years from the pages of Batman #497, Superman #75, Blackest Night #1, Infinite Crisis #1, and Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3.

What is Tales from the DC Dark Multiverse about? Following the events of Scott Snyder’s Dark Knights: Metal, the DC Universe was introduced to the Dark Multiverse, a temporal and spatial discovery that instantly expanded and multiplied the DC history and timeline in unimaginable ways. Narrated by Tempus Fuginaut, a cosmic entity tasked to prevent temporal spillage from one universe to another, this collection presents fans with five alternate cosmic events set within the Dark Multiverse. Among the well-known and iconic events that receive a brand-new, darker, and hopeless twist in this collection are Knightfall, The Death of Superman, Blackest Night, Infinite Crisis, and The Judas Contract. The second half of the volume offers fans the chance to revisit the original ending to these unforgettable moments in the DC Universe.

These what-if stories were refreshing in their bloody and gory alternate visions of some of the most important and classical DC Universe events. Set within the Dark Multiverse, they offer fans the chance to discover how things went down in a parallel universe where darkness suffocates the light in every inch of the galactic system, assuring us that some of those pivotal moments in history take a turn for the worse and display some of the worse things imaginable for the heroes out there. Interestingly, the writers of each of these fifty-page one-shots bring forth very unlikely heroes as the main characters for these new events and tell truly compelling and concise stories in very little space; after all, the original events had plenty of issues to work with to tell those stories (not including tie-ins).

Out of the five stories, Knightfall (written by Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgins, illustrated by Javier Fernandez), The Death of Superman (written by Jeff Loveness and illustrated by Brad Walker), and Infinite Crisis (written by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Aaron Lopresti) were the most captivating and twisted of the bunch. They each draw heavily upon previously-explored lore to tell a plausible alternate story where hope is drowned in sorrow and where emotions are cranked up for key characters. The artwork for these stories is also equivalently bleak and horrifying. The deaths, the gore, and the blood displayed is definitely a tone that only some would want to explore and embrace.

The weakest stories of this collection would have to go to Blackest Night (written by Tim Seeley and illustrated by Kyle Hotz) and The Judas Contract (written by Kyle Higgins and Mat Groom, illustrated by Tom Raney). The former has an interesting premise but poorly executes it, offering us a completely forgettable alternate story with characters that you’ll likely not even care much about too. The latter was utterly disappointing in its poor rewriting of events, especially in its cringe-worthy characterization of the Teen Titans.

It is worth noting that the original issues of each of these events is a welcome addition at the end of this collection but are tremendously pointless beyond their rapid reminder of iconic moments. In fact, if readers were to cluelessly dive into this collection, each of the Dark Multiverse alternate stories, on top of the original issues at the end, would make for blatant spoilers. I do believe that this works much better if you either don’t mind the spoilers or if you already have prior knowledge of all five events. Otherwise, it’s definitely best to go out and read the complete story-arcs of these cataclysmic events rather than just checking out these included iconic issues. Well-versed readers of these DC events will, however, find these issues useful to simply remind themselves of how it all actually went down.

Tales from the DC Dark Multiverse is a gruesome and grim collection of alternate cosmic events unveiling the darker twist to the DC Dark multiverse’s faith.

Yours truly,

Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/

[Will Robinson Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed these dark elseworld tales. The artwork in the the Death of Superman issue was really good. The judas contract story but I felt that they took a alot of liberties with Terra's powers and she was a bit broken when it came to her powers. My personal favorite stories were the Batman tale and the Blue Beetle infinite crisis story. I did not like the art on the Sinestro blackest night story. I wish some one like Ivan Reis or Ethan Van Sciver were drawing that issue. They were may personal favorite Green Lantern artist on Geoff Johns run. I am curious to see how these one shots will come into play for the Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo Death Metal event coming this summer. I am in the process of going back to read Dark Nights: Metal. I collected that whole event and I have to say it was one of fondest memories of comic collecting. It was an over the top story but if was fun and really drawn so well. I am going to read Flash Forward as well. This book also contains issues from the original stories for Knightfall, Infinite Crisis, Blackest Knight, Judas Contract and the Death of Superman which I feel was a pleasant bonus to revisit.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tales from the Dark Multiverse is a selection of alternate takes on major DC storylines/events as they happened in the dark multiverse. It also includes reprints of issues from the original stories. I like the concept of what this is doing, but it just reminds me of the problems that the Big Two publishers have had throughout the years; lack of original characters, bloated back stories, rigid adherence to continuity even when it hurts the universe as a whole, lack of real stakes. Some of the stories were better than others. Some of the art was too. All in all, I'm just trudging through the volumes connected to Dark Nights and not finding a lot to love. Like my opinion on some of the others, there are some neat concepts and characters here that fall victim to so many other problems.

[Siona Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas, and I liked that the original stories were included in the omni as well. Wouldn’t mind seeing more of these in the future. Excited for Death Metal to come out!!

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading these stories in a trade because there was no way I was going to pay that much money for a single issue and that story was not even a true tie in to the whole Dark Knights end of the world and changes everything (again) mega summer event of the day. This is just a bunch of what - if stories that would have made Stan Lee proud (for those that forget Mr Lee worked for Marvel and not DC). The stories were what ifs and riffs on some of the most popular and talked about DC story point of all time. But over time it turns out they were not really that great an idea as the writers and editors thought. I mean the DEATH OF SUPERMAN!!! I guess was interesting at the time, but was never going to last and the lame stories used to stretch out the time until the true Superman returned were as I said often lame filler. I mean robots and children and aliens oh dear so lame. I could go on but why when the new stories were not bad, not great but not bad. I'll give Mr Snyder props for these side stories and kind of wish he had been as creative with the actual giant cross over event with the more sucky than normal ending. The ending of which did not actually change anything in the DC comics universe because the whole story was so very very late to hit the stores.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

So this was basically a collection of "What If" stories based on pivotal events in the DCU. We have new, darker retellings of Knightfall, Death of Superman, Blackest Night, Infinite Crisis and The Teen Titans Judas Contract. I've always been a fan of the Marvel What If stories so I really enjoyed this series. As usual, things don't end well in these tales. The art is top notch and the stories are good.

I enjoyed this much better than the "Dark Nights: Metal" series that was the basis for these spin-offs.

If you enjoy "What If" type stories, this is something you should definitely read.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tales from the Dark Multiverse is essentially a ‘What if’ of worst-case scenarios, it takes pivotal points from DC’s history of and changes the outcome, the fallout of these events all lead to a dark and disastrous conclusion. I enjoyed this, it’s nothing spectacular but it is fun and exciting read.

[Xavier Hugonet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five alternate tales of major DC events set in the Dark Multiverse. An extension of Snyder’s Dark Night Metal stories preparing us for the next event. All in all, a lot of fun, and each one can be read as a stand-alone. Way better than Marvel’s modern What Ifs.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

As this is an anthology book, I'll rate each story individually (strongest to weakest):

Infinite Crisis = 4/5
Knightfall = 3.5/5
Judas Contract = 3/5
Death of Superman = 2.5/5
Blackest Night = 1.5/5

[RG · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bunch if what ifs. I cant seem to get into this whole synder Multiverse thing

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The very good: Infinite Crisis -- Believable character development, above average art. A riveting story that doesn't undermine its characters' histories.
The okay: Death of Superman -- Lois's emotional arc is operatic, but kind of understandable. Brad Walker's art has a '90's spin that I appreciated.
Judas Contract -- Terra gets megalomaniacal, and the resulting carnage at the hands of this emotionally manipulated child is, again, a reasonable arc for the character. The ease with which she dispatched experienced heroes was ridiculous, though.
The bad: Blackest Night -- Your leads are Sinestro and Lobo at their most horrendously verbose. The plot is nonsensical, the art excessive, unsubtle, xtreme - especially when compared with its source material.
Knightfall -- the art nicely matches the story's dark tone, but that story is over-the-top batshit. Talking head Bruce Wayne, Son of Bane's revenge, Gotham ruled as a vigilante theocracy... it's senseless. People seem to like this chapter, and I am flummoxed.

The reprinted source stories were varying degrees of excellent, every one a classic. It does make me miss the steady presence of Johns, Wolfman, Moench, Aparo, Jimenez, et al.

Overall: worth a read, but not worth the $35 cover price.

[Christian Zamora-Dahmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Tales from the DC Dark Multiverse in single issues. I know this trade includes other material (the original stories), but I won’t be covering them.
Anyway. These five stories really gives you a sense of bleakness. The quality of the stories varies from book to book. My favorite one was Superman, since it was the only one that didn’t have to explain things over and over again, and its shock value wasn’t about killing established character, but about Lois Lane’s journey. I really appreciated that. Batman was second best. It did have its moments, though, I find Batman a tough character to relate with (this universe or any other universe).
What lacked the rest of the books was this: they had this need to over explain things and didn’t realize that killing off main characters wouldn’t be shocking enough to give value to the plot. I mean, in this kind of out-of-continuity stories, the death of the heroes is a given. Relying on that is just lazy writing.
The other problem I found in the entire set, is that we already know everything will be bad at the end. It kind of takes away the surprise of how things will unfold.
Oh, one more thing. This Tempus Fuginaut really gets on my nerves. Did we really need a Watcher? And if so, did he have to wear the same clothes?

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

For years DC Comics fans have asked themselves, what would happen if the major events of the DC Multiverse had gone to the villains instead of the heroes? These stories explored in the Dark Multiverse showcase how even the smallest change could make the deadliest impacts on these events, from saving the life of a former Justice Leaguer to the death of a universe and so much more. The artwork really harkens back to the days these events were first explored, and the writing really highlights the darkness that has enveloped these worlds. A true must-read event.

[Steve Chaput · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alternate stories that use major DC events a a starting point. For instance we are characters react different to the events in Death of Superman and Blackest Night among others. All very well done with hints of further stories dealing with a mysterious entity that relates each tale.

[Brunò · Rating 3 out of 5]

English/Spanish review:

This book's a collection of a bunch of Elseworlds stories,with the twist that on this ones everything always goes to shit and the characters end up taking the worst decision they can making the stories really predictable while everything's extra edgy. Ready?

Knightfall: this looked fantastic. The art was great. Story had many brutal moments after Azrael governs Gotham for 20 years. Everything's hopeless and everyone's bad,oh so edgy. Loved the designs of the costumes and twists of the story. 4 out of 5 stars.



Death of Superman: a festival of death and murders after Lois goes nuts and keeps on fucking up everything. Would have preferred Supes fighting her instead of dying that stupidly,predictable. Yet,a readable story. 3 out of 5 stars.

Blackest Night: The absolute worst: weird mix up of characters,boring,the characters were stupid and it ended up nowhere. Absolutely skippable. 1 out of 5 stars.

Infinite Crisis: YES. This was what I was expecting out of this. Fucking Ted Kord going bad? YES. Fun and the actions he takes aren't really out of character,he's just deranged here. 4 out of 5 stars.



Judas contract: NO. This was really bad. The story should be named: What if Terra's unbeatable? The story adds nothing to the original story but Terra winning,they even skip the part of the original story where Deathstroke's was actually sleeping with Terra,an underage,unstable person but I guess DC wanted to keep that creepy ass shit since ppl actually likes him. Not much but senseless,boring gore. 1 out of 5 stars.

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Este libro es una colección de un montón de historias de Elseworlds,con la particularidad de que en esta todo siempre se va a la mierda y los personajes terminan tomando la peor decisión que pueden haciendo que las historias sean realmente predecibles mientras que todo es extra edgy. ¿Listos?

Knightfall: se veía fantástico. El arte está genial. La historia tuvo muchos momentos brutales después de que Azrael gobierne Gotham durante 20 años. Todo es inútil y todo el mundo es malo,oh,tan edgy. Me gustaron los diseños de los trajes y los giros de la historia. 4 de 5 estrellas.



Death of Superman: un festival de muerte y asesinatos después de que Lois enloquece y sigue cagandola y cagandola. Habría preferido que Supes peleara con ella en lugar de morirse de manera tan pete y predecible. Sin embargo,una historia legible. 3 de 5 estrellas.

Blackest Night: Lo peor: rara mezcla de personajes,aburrido,los personajes eran estúpidos y no terminó en ninguna parte. Absolutamente saltable. 1 de 5 estrellas.

Crisis Infinita: SI. Esto era lo que esperaba de esto. ¿El putoo Ted Kord es malo? SÍ. Me divertí. Las acciones que toma no están realmente fuera de personaje,simplemente está trastornado en esta versión. 4 de 5 estrellas.



Contrato de Judas: NO. Una poronga. La historia debería llamarse: ¿Y si Terra es invencible? La historia no agrega nada a la original,excepto que Terra gana,incluso se saltan la parte de la historia original en la que Deathstroke estaba cogiendo con Terra,una persona menor de edad e inestable,pero supongo que DC quería mantener eso fuera ya que a la gente realmente le gusta el personaje. No mucho más que gore sin sentido y aburrido. 1 de 5 estrellas.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

DC basically produces "What If"s of some of their more famous storylines, each with a dark, depressing twist to it. So here we get the Judas Contract, Infinity Crisis, Knightfall, the Death of Superman, and Blackest Night.

And they're entirely OK, but also entirely forgettable. We get to see a variety of heroes at their worst, betraying everything they stood for, and in the end it gets pretty old pretty quick. But the individual issues are decent reads.

The most annoying thing about this collection is the decision to pad it out with individual issues of the original stories, which is as close to a total waste as you could get. I'm sure I'm far from the only one who skipped those reprints entirely. (Glad I read this on Hooplah instead of buying it.)

[Duncan]

ZERO stars for even publishing this garbage. In fact, I'm TEMPTED to give zero stars to the next FIVE DC books I review for merely associating with whomever drew and wrote the stories. I won't, of course, but instead, let me suggest to Goodreads that they institute a band of NEGATIVE stars for particularly worthless writing. Case in point: these so-called superhero stories are nothing more or less than serial-killer bait and training manuals. There ARE no worthwhile stories herein, unless you're a psychopath looking for a little inspiration. Go to Hell, DC. Start at the first circle and don't stop until you've toured the ninth and all between thoroughly.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining if you’re familiar with the original stories. Unrelentingly dark. Wonder what a what if story would be like if it had a happy ending,

[Shannon Luchies · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the bunch I liked the Death of Superman, Blackest Night and Infinite Crisis ones best, but all the stories were at least decent. Would also recommend.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of stories set in DC's "Dark Multiverse", where classic storylines take tragic turns:
- Knightfall: Azrael keeps the mantle of the Dark Knight. Some interesting ideas, but kind of underdeveloped; plus, the ending twist isn't well set up.
- The Death of Superman: Lois Lane decides to "fix" the world in the wake of Superman's death. Honestly seemed a little out of character, though perhaps justified by what she joins forces with.
- Blackest Night: The Black Lanterns conquer the universe, thanks to Sinestro's failure. One of the more creative tales in the set.
- Infinite Crisis: Ted Kord survives being captured by Max Lord, giving him a chance to avert the Infinite Crisis entirely. Of course, it goes wrong. Another of the better tales, though it probably winds up following the original plotline too closely at times.
- The Judas Contract: Terra turns on Deathstroke early. Things get pretty apocalyptic from there. Certainly a memorable read.

A running theme through these stories is that they always turn out bad, which leads to twists being thrown in just for extra dark darkness. If you go in expecting that, it works better; you'll probably be annoyed if you're hoping for more authentic alternate-universe plots.

One major complaint: half the book is reprints of key installments from the original storylines, which a) don't always work well out of context and b) feel like padding to raise the cover price. (B)

[Alek Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really enjoying DC's turn to the dark side. I mean even if they are just elseworld stories; I love a DC story that's nihilistic and deadly.
Knightfall was an interesting take on the mantle of Batman. I liked how isolation and paranoia were what destroyed Bruce after losing to Bane/Azereal.
Death of Superman was a bit better than Knightfall. Lois Lane's grief is so powerful and her hate for the world that failed Superman made a great story, with a tragic ending.
Blackest Night was the most nihilistic story in my opinion. I loved the characterization of the last survivors of the zombie apocalypse. Lobo actually finding hope in Dove was great. And it was terrible how Mr. Miracle could not bring himself to save a world that Barda would not live in.
Infinite Crisis was my favorite story. Mainly because I loved Ted Kord showing up Batman and the Justice League. If this wasn't a Dark Multiverse story I would have loved to see Blue Beetle become a new villain or to have saved the day in the crisis.
Judas Contract was unique it how it's dark twist came about. Starfire and Beast Boys deaths were really brutal.
The best part about this book though is that it comes with issues from the original stories.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fun collection of “what if” tales that took pivotal moments in the DC Universe and imagines the dark outcomes if a different action happened: What if Azrael defeated Batman during Knightfall and kept the mantle of Batman? What if Lois Lane became the host of The Eradicator after Superman dies? What if Sinestro was the only White Lantern during Blackest Night? What if Blue Beetle murders Maxwell Lord before Infinite Crisis? What if Dick Grayson saves Terra in The Judas Contract. All the tales are extremely dark and quite twisted and gorey. I especially enjoyed the Lois Lane and Blue Beetle stories. Terra’s was my least favorite as I am not a big Teen Titans fan.

My one gripe with this collection is that is is artificially inflated by including selected issues of the original comic. It is really bizarre because you aren’t getting the full story so it really feels like they were thrown in to make it look bigger and to increase the price of the book. I got half way through the book and thought there were more original stories only to be really disappointed I got to the original versions of the story.