What’s the harbinger of the next slap of a comic book F5 key? None other than the next big rock ‘n roll adventure, Dark Nights: Death Metal. In this story, DC’s finest aren’t just fighting an unwinnable battle,they’ve already lost. Heroes are scattered, Superman is nowhere to be found and the Caped Crusader is organising a resistance against the might of Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs.

Out of all the wild crossovers and reality threatening events to come out of DC Comics, Dark Nights Metal stands head and shoulders above them all as the most metal AF thing that the Distinguished Competition has ever released. Prepare for a sequel, because the next Dark Nights series won't just be metal: It'll be DEATH METAL.

The Batman Who Laughs, written by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Riley Rossmo, may be the darkest of those knights. A caped crusader who was born from an age-old question: Why doesn’t Batman just kill the Joker?

Batman’s fight against crime has often been called a personal war. A conflict that stems from loss and tragedy. The tragedy of war however, is that it often exacts a personal cost for any side involved in it. How long can one man fight a battle that seems to have no chance of ever resolving itself? Is the price even worth it in the end, as the soldiers on the frontline risk losing their humanity? That’s a few of the questions that readers are left asking at the end of Batman: The Merciless

In recent years, there’s also been an attempt to heal Batman mentally. To reforge the character into in an individual who is well aware of just how damaged he is, and how he can channel that trauma towards a less destructive path. Batman as he is now, is an icon. A symbol of overcoming fear and other limitations to be a better person. Unfortunately, that’s a lesson that the Batman of the dark multiverse didn’t learn.

Dark Nights Metal has kicked off, and the caped crusader is going to have his hands full soon. There’s the Flash-Batman known as the Red Death and there’s a Cyborg Batman who goes by the name of the Murder Machine. The most dangerous dark knight of the lot? The Batman Who Laughs, a Joker in a cowl who blends the frenemies together into one twisted amalgamation.

Something is coming to the DC Multiverse. A threat of titanic proportions, a danger which even the Justice League is unprepared for: Batman. Not their Batman mind you, but rather the Batmen of a dark multiverse that is hellbent on extinguishing the light of our universe.