Dark Nights: Death Metal #6: Slowly We Rot

Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 feels like it’s turning the corner for what this series has secretly been about the whole time: straightening out DC’s tangled, twisted continuity, a stop-start project that has been underway since at least 2016 but could also be viewed as an ongoing project since 1986 or even 1961, when their multiverse was established in the legendary “Flash of Two Worlds.” Any way you slice it, DC continuity is a tangled web, to the point that its many contradictions and retcons and reboots have more or less become a feature, not a bug, much to the consternation of classicists and continuity hounds everywhere. All that is to say this: writer Scott Snyder is more than aware of this, and seems to be on the precipice of establishing an “It all matters” smorgasbord continuity. What that will look like in practice remains to be seen, but it’s a big, bold move that could yield major gains for the publisher, even as it’s been rocked and pummeled behind the scenes lately and could sorely use the win.

Of course, this is purely speculative until we see what actually happens next issue with the grand finale. But all the pieces are there for a major continuity triage here in issue six. As they say, to be continued.

Functionally, Death Metal #6 has two major plot tracks: the final battle with the Darkest Knight’s forces, and Diana’s quest to unlock the key to finally defeating the Batman Who Laughs, who has more or less ascended in power to the point that he’s omniscient and unstoppable. There’s a lot of high-minded metaphor at work here (as has been a hallmark of everything Snyder wrote in Justice League leading up to this), embodied by the juxtaposition of Wonder Woman (truth and hope) against Darkseid (despair and doom). The dialectic between them as Diana faces the truth about the nature of reality and what it will take to defeat the Darkest Knight’s nihilism may be a little highbrow for some who are wanting more traditional fisticuffs, but it all leads up to one of the coolest splash pages I’ve seen in awhile at the end, courtesy Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, and FCO Plascencia. The image evokes not only hope, but for the first time in this series, the possibility that good might actually triumph.

There are tons of strong character beats throughout, including but not limited to: Luthor’s jealousy over Superman’s conditioner commercial-worthy flowing mane; Batman’s affirmation of his friendship with Superman; Jarro being awesome as usual; Lois thanking her husband for being the best lead she could have asked for. It’s a lot of great outgrowth from last week’s stellar Last Stories of the DC Universe one-shot, condensed into one- or two-line panels that flawlessly encapsulate the dynamics between these characters. Snyder’s affection for not only these characters but the DC universe as a whole has never been more apparent. With one more issue to go (plus a couple more one-shot tie-ins), Death Metal continues to prove what an event comic ought to be: big and bold and full of bombastic fun, but also capable of being small and intimate. This is comics storytelling at its finest.