Absolute Dark Nights: Metal

Dark Nights Saga #1+Extras

by Scott Snyder

The dark corners of reality that have never been seen till now! The Dark Multiverse is revealed in all its devastating danger—and the threats it contains are coming for the DC Universe!

Welcome to a DC event unlike any other! One that will push Batman, Superman and heroes of the Justice League beyond their limits to take on threats unlike any our world has ever seen! It will take the combined might of the World's Greatest Heroes as you've never seen them before to face what's coming their way!

The Dark Knights ride through the farthest reaches of the Multiverse to track down the unlikeliest of teams: The Flash, Cyborg, Raven and Detective Chimp. The mission: keep these heroes from completing their desperate quest to save all of existence! Plus, Batman is forcewd to face off against his greatest fears while trapped in the Dark Multiverse!

These tales and more are collected in Absolute Dark Nights: Metal, which contains Dark Nights: Metal #1-6, Batman: Lost #1, Dark Nights: Metal Director's Cut #1, and Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1!

Genres: Dc Comics

328 pages, Hardcover

Published November 8, 2022

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

[Aidan]

Kinda a let down. Snyder’s writing here is just so generic dark forces plot heavy, and he restates details of the plot and the book’s theme to redundancy without earning or showing those aspects well. Lovely that friendship trumps this vague “darkness,” but the evil darkness was so generic (even the name, its just “the darkness”) and I never really felt enough human behavior to recognize these characters as friends. Especially between Diana and Kendra, who fully start out as enemies. More than usual this cape comic felt really immature. I didn’t feel any real emotions reading this.

I was honestly pretty bored until Batman: Lost. The art too by Capullo was still well penciled with some great designs, but frequently covered by Snyder’s text and uneventfully laid out. I actually thought the two non-Capullo issues had much more exciting art and layouts. Plus FCO Plascencia is surprisingly bland on the colors, and Jonathan Glapion is an inferior inker to Danny Miki who helped make this team’s previous collaboration so quality on Zero Year and Superheavy.

I did enjoy Batman: Lost, and the 4-6 pages of the Wild Hunt that I could clearly tell were written by Grant Morrison.

[Bryson Grenfell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m conflicted here; the absolute format is absolutely the best way to enjoy this story (Greg Capullo’s art and Jonathan Glapion’z inks absolutely sing) unfortunately it’s not a story that particularly sings to me.
The Dark multiverse is rising, brought about by “the mantling” and the dark designs of an evil bat-god entity known as Barbatos (originally conceived in “Dark night, dark city” and made instrumental to the overall bat-mythos by Grant Morrison) and he’s bringing with him evil Batmen created from nightmare or possibility or whatever.
It gets quite a bit convoluted, as it’s both steeped in DC comics continuity (primarily Scott Snyder’s Batman tales) and also attempts to be a fun hack/slash heavy metal blockbuster adventure anyone can jump into….i don’t really think it succeeds

It’s alright 🤷

[Martinio · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn’t the masterpiece I hoped it would be. At all… I can’t believe this is written by the same person who wrote the amazing Batman Court of Owls saga and the Black Mirror. Dark Nights Metal is a convoluted mess. Absolutely terrible! How in the world could this event have been released in the world. A big confusing and jarred letdown.

[Joshua]

Kind of made more confusing by arbitrary inclusion of only certain tie-in issues in this edition but damn if Capullo’s art doesn’t sing in this bigger format.