Review: Dark Nights: Death Metal #7
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Bryan Hitch, Yanick Paquette, Greg Capullo
Letters: Tom Napolitano
Colors: ECO Plascencia
Reviewed by: Carl Bryan
Summary
“It’s usually about two weeks after the end of any war that you start to get the tink pieces. What was it all about? What did it accomplish?” – Sgt. Rock
Positives
Peeling back all the layers of the onion, Diana is simply the Queen! Snyder and Capullo did a great job in putting the reader’s focus on Diana in arguably what was her year anyway both in comics and in the cinema. The proclaimed leader of the JLA Dark, Diana’s story is one of hope and self sacrifice.
This work also served as an homage to the history of DC, the use of characters we have missed, and a jumping off point for Future State. To say I am intrigued about how villains and heroes can come together to face The Batman Who Laughs is an understatement.
For instance, “The Totality”… the next stage of The Hall of Justice and the Hall of Doom. Great architecture design, but this type of concert of villains and heroes working together…. it’s a lot to wrap our minds around. There is the acknowledgement that they all remember the past, heroes and villains that have since died may be alive again. There is the question of Darkseid’s absence as well.
Positives 2.0
This turned out to be a total fantasy piece as a reader because I could not grasp how Joker and Batman could battle side by side nor could I see how Lobo could be used as a soldier in Wonder Woman’s army. At best, this was an omelette of information where you did not know what the next bite was going to take you.
Was it devoted to the history of DC….yes? Was it a interesting “Control-Alt-Delete”…yes?
Apparently Snyder and Capullo’s love for all things Heavy Metal (Do we remember this from the 80’s kids?”) had an influence for some time in the DC timeline. What do we need to see as a holdover from all of this…. The Batman Who Laughs needs to return in some form that is less powerful but the same level of evil and conflict. The Robin King…what a concept! The Grim Knight…Punisher meets Batman… this character needs more exploration. Finally, Sgt. Rock needs to have his own “Tales from Sgt. Rock series”…his narration is priceless during this entire saga.
Well..Finally, Finally…. Diana’s design and renderings by Greg Capullo. This needs to stay…period.
Negatives
This entire saga could be picked apart in some ways like a Stephen King novel. It started so strong, but the ending was all over the place. Thankfully we all see that it was a vehicle for placing DC into a state…a future state… full of new possibilities for existing characters as well as new ones.
Verdict
It was time to sew this up. I would even argue that there were some avenues that could have been explored less (The Batman Who Laughs virus?) and some even more (The Grim Knight). I do applaud the duo of Snyder and Capullo. Their work is so strong together and a comic reading community is so much better for having this “Reese’s Cup” in our lives!
