Dark Nights Metal #1 Review

Writer: Scott Snyder / Artist: Greg Capullo / DC Comics Let’s keep this all the way real: DC events have been less than great in recent memory. Like, landfill. Small events like the Lazarus Contract or even Monster Men have been tolerable quick hitters, but stories like Convergence (save the side books) and even Rebirth may have held a functional purpose, but their execution wasn’t the highest grade. Snyder and Capullo, the team that gave us one of the best Batman runs, ever, to be honest, are trying to buck that trend. Snyder has been teasing Metal as a storyline for a while now, with important elements tying back to his run on Batman proper and in All-Star Batman as well. Metal is nothing if not ambitious as hell, and there are few writers in comics that could pull this off with these well worn characters.

After The Forge and The Casting, Metal #1 begins with the mystery starting to unravel, but more so, seeing all the players involved in it. Some DC staples show up in appropriate fashion and the inclusion of the Justice League makes this story and the threat already feel bigger than one can wrap their arms around. I’m reminded that the endgame storyline began with the inclusion (actually the attack) of the Justice League, but became so much bigger than that. I have a similar feeling here, that the inventive storytelling that Snyder deploys means we don’t have any real idea of where this story is going. I can only assume that we will continue to see a lot more characters g…