DC’s Dark Nights: Death Metal event series is rolling along, with its third of seven issues hitting stores this week, and one tie-in one-shot, Legends of the Dark Knights, having already arrived last week. With a few other one-shots already on the schedule, as well as a five-issue Justice League tie-in storyline, DC has now announced two additional one-shots coming in November that will expand on the story of the series. The publisher has also released details on the fifth issue of Death Metal, as well as the cover art for the issue.
First up, Lobo takes center stage in Dark Nights: Death Metal – Infinite Hour Exxxtreme!, a one-shot that finds the Main Man sharing his recollections of some of the largest events from DC’s past:
Pull up a chair, ya bastiches—it’s time for Uncle Lobo’s Infinite Hour! It’s your chance to let the Main Man Lobo-tomize you with familiar yet freaky stories of the DC Universe, exactly as he remembers them: with blood and guts and exxxtreme gratuitous violence! Tell yer comics guy to put you down for alllll the copies!
The issue features stories written by Frank Tieri, Becky Cloonan, and more, and art by Dale Eaglesham. The main cover art (seen above) is by Kyle Hotz, with a 1:25 variant cover by Rafael Grampá also available.
It’s not immediately clear to me what the connection is between this one-shot at Death Metal, aside from the fact that Lobo has been appearing in the series, sent on a mission by Lex Luthor to collect five “death metals” from around the multiverse. It sounds kind of fun, though, if not a little exhausting. This one goes on sale November 10th.
A week later, Dark Nights: Death Metal #5 arrives, and it sounds like things are not going well for our heroes.
The Darkest Knight has won. With absolute power at the villain’s fingertips, Wonder Woman and the rest of the DC heroes are nothing to him. As the Darkest Knight turns his sights to his true goal, remaking the Multiverse in his image, can Earth’s heroes rally together to make a last stand?
Kind of a bummer to know the heroes lose, but that’s how solicits work, isn’t it. RIP DC Multiverse. This one’s by the series creative team of Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, and Ivan Plascencia.
Then, on November 24th, in the wake of the events of Death Metal #5, Dark Nights: Death Metal – The Multiverse Who Laughs #1 arrives to provide readers a glimpse of the many new worlds of The Darkest Knight’s remade multiverse:
The DC Multiverse is a collection of alternate-reality worlds where anything is possible. Each world tells the tale of a possible split in reality, or shows how lives vary depending on a single, solitary decision. But now that the Multiverse has been destroyed, the Batman Who Laughs has used his god like power to create a new Dark Multiverse…a collection of 52 evil worlds, each more terrifying than the last. This one-shot offers the curious—and the brave—a glimpse into the nightmare realities that the Batman Who Laughs has created in tales by creators who know what it means to have a truly twisted sense of misfit humor. An Arkham Asylum even more terrifying than what we know? A world of evil Super Pets? All that and more in these new tales of the Multiverse Who Laughs!
I’m all for more super-pets content, but I can’t say I’m excited about them being evil, so this is sort of a ‘Beppo’s paw’ wish come true for me. The one-shot features stories by writers including Death Metal mainstays Snyder, James Tynion IV, and Josh Williamson, as well as Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Brandon Thomas, and Patton Oswalt (returning to the DCU for the first time since 2003’s JLA: Welcome to the Working Week, and after apparently quitting DC forever following the New 52 relaunch). Chad Hardin will draw one of the stories, with other artists TBD, and Chris Burnham illustrates the cover of the aforementioned evil super-pets.
The addition of the two new one-shots brings the total of tie-in one-shots for Death Metal up to nine, outnumbering the seven issues of the event itself. A Guidebook one-shot for the event is due out next week, and next month sees three additional one-shots hit stores (which, based on the end of Death Metal #3, seem pretty essential) while the main series takes a break. October has two more one-shots, Rise of the New God and Robin King, with both of those clocking in at 48 pages each, plus the second and third installments of the five-part “Doom Metal” Justice League storyline tying into the event. Hopefully the addition of all of these extra pieces won’t dilute the overall storyline, which really seems to be finding its groove with the latest issue.
Look for these new Death Metal one-shots, along with the fifth issue of the series, in comic shops in November.
