DARK NIGHTS: METAL #2
I read the two Dark Days one-shots that set up this crossover and read Dark Nights: Metal #1 and still had no idea what the hell was happening here. No such problem in #2 as it all starts to fall into place, and it's quite simple really. Obviously Barbatos the demon bat god from the dark multiverse installed a thousands of years long plan to slowly transform Batman into the portal through which he can re-enter our dimension in order to bring a reign of darkness, and his soldiers in this war would naturally be evil Batmen from the Dark Multiverse.
Look, I can't pretend this crossover is for anyone but the most ardent fans of the entire Snyder-Capullo run (and it is clear he really has been planning this since the beginning as this issue lays out all of the ways in which this has been hinted at since Court of Owls back in 2011). It also requires some familiarity with a couple of pre-New 52 pieces of Bat-canon (Barbatos was introduced in Dark Knight, Dark City which is never mentioned as one of the all-time great Batman stories but absolutely should be and Final Crisis/The Return of Bruce Wayne are a big part as well) that had previously been seemingly discarded with the New 52 reboot. It's the kind of graduate-level canon crossover that Grant Morrison is more usually known for than Snyder, and I normally shun such things.
If you have all of the prerequisites, though, Metal is shaping up to be quite an event. I must admit that at first glance "evil Batmen from a Dark Multiverse" is a potentially schlocky premise, but the few hints we've gotten of these evil Batmen and what spawned them on their worlds are promising and the story potential of a DC Universe that has lost it Batman (spoilers, I guess, Bruce is MIA by the end of this issue) having to fight off an army led by his evil counterparts is endless. The set up is now complete, hopefully the pay off is worth it.
SUICIDE SQUAD #25
When we last left off with the Suicide Squad I was disappointed that the set up of what seemed like a legitimate Amanda Waller heel turn (is it even a heel turn if an already pretty crappy human being is even more crappy, just against the heroes she had previously tolerated?) turned into her being mind-controlled by a Russian ghost.
While this issue doesn't completely redeem that particular missed opportunity, I am still pretty happy with how it shakes out. The Suicide Squad confronts the possessed-Waller, refusing to cooperate with her "arrest all metahumans" plan. Fortunately for the Squad and Waller, ghosts are easily evicted with a soul-reaving sword, which Katana just so happens to have. With Waller in control of her faculties, they are able to travel to the headquarters of The People, the secret group behind the entire "capture all metas" plot that had formed international copycat suicide squads for this task, overcome their defenses, and order all of the other teams to stand down. It is revealed at this point that even though Waller may not be quite so evil enough as to willingly join The People in capturing all of the metahumans, she is enough of a bastard to have made all of that possible by keeping incredibly detailed records of all known secret identities, weaknesses, etc. The obvious implication being that even though Waller didn't joint his particular war against the superheroes willingly, she very well could launch one of her own later. Called out for her bullshit, Waller lashes out and makes it clear that she doesn't care what the Squad thinks, threatening to activate their brain bombs. She also starts salivating over the prospect of taking charge of The People's international suicide squads as well, leading to the big shock of the issue: Harley Quinn activating the brain bombs of dozens, if not hundreds of metahumans in order to keep them from falling under Waller's control.
I absolutely love this choice for a few reasons: 1) this run on Suicide Squad has been awesome, but the villains in it have done so many heroic things for seemingly altruistic reasons that it really threatened to lose its edge. The writers appear to have recognized this because the amount of nauseating dialogue where the villains scream out loud "WE ARE SUPERVILLAINS" was getting pretty tiring. They needed to do something to demonstrate that these were still shitty people.
Harley in particular has been indistinguishable from a straight up superhero, so her committing cold-blooded murder of a bunch of people who had done nothing wrong other than get captured and coerced by The People was a good move to re-establish that no, this is not a good person. 2)It really cements the absolutely hatred Waller and the Squad feel towards each other, which had seemed a little lessened by reason story arcs that had them having to defend Waller and her family. The Squad dynamic works best when they all despise each other and Waller.
Those are all of the books I've gotten to so far this week, but I do intend to catch up on Green Arrow and have a possible article coming just about the choices that book has made RE: Oliver, Roy, and Ollie's politics especially. See y'all next week.
When we last left off with the Suicide Squad I was disappointed that the set up of what seemed like a legitimate Amanda Waller heel turn (is it even a heel turn if an already pretty crappy human being is even more crappy, just against the heroes she had previously tolerated?) turned into her being mind-controlled by a Russian ghost.
While this issue doesn't completely redeem that particular missed opportunity, I am still pretty happy with how it shakes out. The Suicide Squad confronts the possessed-Waller, refusing to cooperate with her "arrest all metahumans" plan. Fortunately for the Squad and Waller, ghosts are easily evicted with a soul-reaving sword, which Katana just so happens to have. With Waller in control of her faculties, they are able to travel to the headquarters of The People, the secret group behind the entire "capture all metas" plot that had formed international copycat suicide squads for this task, overcome their defenses, and order all of the other teams to stand down. It is revealed at this point that even though Waller may not be quite so evil enough as to willingly join The People in capturing all of the metahumans, she is enough of a bastard to have made all of that possible by keeping incredibly detailed records of all known secret identities, weaknesses, etc. The obvious implication being that even though Waller didn't joint his particular war against the superheroes willingly, she very well could launch one of her own later. Called out for her bullshit, Waller lashes out and makes it clear that she doesn't care what the Squad thinks, threatening to activate their brain bombs. She also starts salivating over the prospect of taking charge of The People's international suicide squads as well, leading to the big shock of the issue: Harley Quinn activating the brain bombs of dozens, if not hundreds of metahumans in order to keep them from falling under Waller's control.
I absolutely love this choice for a few reasons: 1) this run on Suicide Squad has been awesome, but the villains in it have done so many heroic things for seemingly altruistic reasons that it really threatened to lose its edge. The writers appear to have recognized this because the amount of nauseating dialogue where the villains scream out loud "WE ARE SUPERVILLAINS" was getting pretty tiring. They needed to do something to demonstrate that these were still shitty people.
Harley in particular has been indistinguishable from a straight up superhero, so her committing cold-blooded murder of a bunch of people who had done nothing wrong other than get captured and coerced by The People was a good move to re-establish that no, this is not a good person. 2)It really cements the absolutely hatred Waller and the Squad feel towards each other, which had seemed a little lessened by reason story arcs that had them having to defend Waller and her family. The Squad dynamic works best when they all despise each other and Waller.
Those are all of the books I've gotten to so far this week, but I do intend to catch up on Green Arrow and have a possible article coming just about the choices that book has made RE: Oliver, Roy, and Ollie's politics especially. See y'all next week.
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