"BATMAN RETURNS, RIDING A JOKER DRAGON & GLOWING, BECAUSE OF COURSE!" (DARK KNIGHTS ME
It's been 6 issues and with the sixth Snyder ties everything in a neat little bow and closes out the run strong...well, not exactly. It's what I've been saying from jump. 6 issues, with a little side exposure is hardly enough to encompass the gravity and magnitude of what Snyder and DC set out to do with Metal. Metal is as ambitious as it wants to be, however, the problem with too much ambition is that you leave too many loose ends if you're not careful...
THE BRIGHT:
As I stated the whole series was ambitious and this issue is the crescendo of the notes Metal was trying to leave behind. Wonder Woman and Kendra save Batman, Superman, and Hawkman. The Justice League snaps out of their Barbatos induced dream stasis and kick the ass of the bad guys. The reveal of the person in the orange jumpsuit was revealed; AND Batman teams up with a surprise character to take down the Batman who laughs. Who could ask for more. We go so much in this issue it's hard to keep track. The back and forth between characters is great. Like when Cyborg is telling the just saved Batman & Superman and Wonder Woman that he's come to the "rescue" bringing "the cavalry" and asks the trio what they're wearing. Batman simply replies with "...tenth metal from the Forge of Worlds." To which Cyborg responds: "...yeah, you win." This is the type of awesome dialogue Snyder has delivered to us all damn series an I couldn't be more amused. Also Batman riding a damned Joker Dragon will forever be on my list of "Holy Shit! That's amazing!". Then we get to the surprises. The Batman team up was a mind melt. The dialogue of that character was pretty damn legendary as it pertains to him talking to The Batman Who Talks, (as he so graciously put it). All and all I've got to commend Snyder for really delivering of something fun and entertaining while setting up the future of the DC universe.
Now, I can't walk away from all that is right with this issue without talking art. From the cover to the credits page. This issue is visually entertaining. The Batman Who Laughs battle. The Wonder Woman and Kendra vs EVERYONE battle. The panels. There are a lot of good pages in this issue. Now I could talk about how some of the art gets muddied, but I won't. It's not masterpiece, but all and all it looks great. My favorite page is the one where Barbatos has felled Hawkman, who says: "they are coming for you..." And with Forge Hammer in hand Barbatos stands tall and says: "Let Them Come." Jaw dropping visuals there. There's another great page where where a bunch of Batman and Detective Chimp jump out a plane to save the day that is also pretty show stopping. So, to you to sir Capullo and color master Glapion, I say good job. You've taken us through a journey of visual delicacy which is almost impossible to come buy during the run of a series.
THE DARK:
With ALL that being said...I think the phrase that means the most in this entire series and culminates with this issue is that "All roads lead to darkness." Unfortunately I don't think that Snyder meant it to be where fans would be left after reading the finale. Confused and in the dark! So for as much as I love, there's more that I hate. First of all there are WAY too many characters jam packed in this issue. Some of them seemingly out of nowhere. Like I'm pretty sure I saw Grifter in a panel and unless I missed a tie-in, I've no clue as to why he's there. The other issue I have is with the characters that ARE NOT crammed into this issue. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE BATMAN & SUPERMAN chimps that showed up in the Wild Hunt 1 off?! No where to be found! I was looking forward to what that meant. Furthermore I'm reading the Terrifics and issue 1 of that was when plastic man FIRST came out of his "shell" (pun intended), but in this issue he comes out and its not once mentioned in the Terrifics issue. (Again, unless I missed it). Honestly I can go on and on, like how did Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman come out of that pit with random gear, when did Batman have time to find his surprise guest and create this plan to take down the Batman Who Laughs, What was the point of the one in the orange jumpsuit. I know The Batman Who Laughs explained it, but HUH!? All of these loose ends and these are just the ones I can remember. Finally the end of the battle is just utter "#WTF is going on here". In some Goku creating a spirit bomb shit, our heroes call of the energy (or 10th mental that's in us all) of all the people on earth and saves the MULTIVERSE yet tears a hole in the damn source wall. Not even Goku was that strong. There are just TOO many plot holes created in this one issue alone to be completely satisfied with the run.
THE UNHINGED:
That out the way though, that spirit bomb moment was kinda cool. However, to be real with you the most unhinged moment is Batman's tag team partner. I didn't bother to get into how ridiculous it was but suffice it to say it was insane. However, I don't want to spoil it for anyone just looking for a good review. What I will talk about though is the epilogue detailing the aftermath of the battle. Once you get over the laziness of give us brief narration to explain to us how our heroes saved the day, we get into the heroes and dangers to come. Like how the rapture between realms or the multiverse has unleashed some shit. Or how D.R.E.A.M a.k.a Lord Daniel is missing and how a book of Dreams is missing from the "Dream Library" as well. Or how the Lanterns are in for some trouble, Flash War is directly connected, Atlantis is set to rise from the sea and so much more. I mean this book truly does talk about a lot. In fact the Epilogue could have easily and SHOULD have been it's own book. . .
All and all its a good ending, but not a great one. Nor is it comprehensive. DC clearing had an agenda here and they left Snyder to fall on his sword with this one. This should have been an epic, well fleshed out 10 part mini-series (At Least). However, its nothing more than a jumbled, cluttered mess at the end of it all. A bueatiful mess worth every penny and all my time spent. Look it's cool if DC plans to tie up some lose ends in furture issues, however, my concern is the people it's lost already because this book didn't hit the proper satisfactory climax. Even talking to people at the shop I get my books from, they were unimpressed and unmoved by this issues resolution. I can't say that I blame them either. We rode a loud, fast, and croweded train...to nowhere. So I guess in the end Barbatos was right. All roads lead to Darkness, but it's a darkness worth seeing at least once!
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