The Batman Who Laughs is dead and Wonder Woman finally sees a chance to save the multiverse from Perpetua and her new hellscape. Spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal #2 follow.
I’m putting this out here right off the bat (Haha, bat pun), the things that happen in this issue are things that you’re either going to love or you’re going to hate. Many of it is patently ridiculous and kind of insane and for many, it will be a massive turn off. For me though, I can’t help but say that I loved how absolutely crazy this issue gets with some of its characters and how that shapes the story moving forward. It’s not a perfect issue by any means, but it’s a series called Death Metal and it lives up to that name.
So, what exactly happens in this issue that would cause people to either love it or hate it. Well, the brain of The Batman Who Laughs is put into a dark multiverse version of Bruce Wayne that becomes Dr. Manhattan’s body, thus taking on the powers of Dr. Manhattan. As mentioned before, it’s absolutely ridiculous and, if this were actually in the main continuity instead of the current world created by Perpetua, I would probably hate it.
However, given that the world current presented in Death Metal is presumably never meant to last, this development works in my opinion. The series has already shown that it’s going bombastic and insane, so why not lean into that. Alan Moore probably wants to murder Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, but that’s beside the point.
Beyond simply being ridiculous on every level though, by giving The Batman Who Laughs these new powers, it creates an even greater existential threat to Wonder Woman and her crew. Not only do they have to fight the literal creator of the multiverse, but now they have to contend with another cosmic being with untold potential who is also insane. There is very much a sense of “How will they win this?” with no real answer to that question so far.
Where this issue falters a bit is when Wonder Woman and Batman try and develop a strategy to beat Perpetua. The issue slows down considerably and, while the interactions and arguments are interesting, it goes for probably two pages too long. Because of this, once Batman begins to side with Wonder Woman, it’s very sudden and is explained away in one line. It’s something that could have been handled much better.
Once again though, Greg Capullo absolutely kills on the art front of this issue. This isn’t surprising as his art is a huge draw whenever his name is attached, but it’s clear that he loves doing bombastic series like this. His art is larger than life in the best ways possible and simultaneously helps accentuate the ridiculous nature of the story, while also grounding it some form of reality. This is probably because his style isn’t based on realism and is able to convey much of the insanity happening on-page in a more realistic way.