It’s tricky to describe superhero comics crossover ‘events’ to non-comic readers; imagine it’s like a ‘Man-vs-Food’ type eating challenge, but with comics instead of flaming chicken wings. A timely case-in-point would be DC comics’ 2017-2018 event, Dark Knights: Metal, which spanned a whopping 26 issues (2 prequels, 6 core issues, 2 x 4-issue tie-in crossovers, 7 tie-in specials and a further 3 one-off specials). Even the thought of it is enough to give a casual reader stomach cramps.
The pitch from writer Scott Snyder is certainly a fun one; what if Earth was invaded by a gang of evil Batmen from other dimensions – each one having stolen the powers of an equivalent Justice League hero? Snyder’s real storytelling gamble was to present this in the style of a high-octane rock opera; including explosive action, larger-than-life characters and epic dark fantasy vistas. Multiple outlandish concepts are layered ontop of another, to purposely mimic the ‘wall-of-sound’ experience of listening to the Heaviest Metal music. Unfortunately this comes at the expense of a relatable human connection to the unfolding events.
It’s a brave creative choice, but I suspect that irregular or new readers will find themselves confused by such random weirdness as: a secret club of scientists exploring parallel dimensions, led by an explorer/detective that has been reincarnated hundreds of times over the centuries, a family of magical metals that are scattered across the universe with links to our most beloved super-powered heroes, a millennia-spanning war between two human tribes of ‘Bat’ and ‘Bird’, an immortal lord who oversees dreams, a dark multiverse which was actually created from the nightmares and fears in our own universe, a malevolent Bat-God that is imprisoned in those dimensions while looking to conquer our own; *pause for breath*… and that’s not even scratching the surface.
Meanwhile, devout DC fans will probably find themselves frustrated at the broad similarities to several other major crossovers from previous years; the existential invasion from demonic forces fought back by a small band of resistance heroes already occurred in 2008’s Final Crisis by Grant Morrison, and evil Justice League analogues were seen even more recently in 2013’s Forever Evil by Geoff Johns.
Comics are effectively a limitless medium; unlike tv, movies or animations, creators are not restricted in anyway by budget or runtime. Unfortunately, that also means that they are free to indulge in the wildest storytelling excesses, without any of the discipline of those other media. I hate to say it, as the creative intention was clearly to have a lot of fun, but if DC are going to ask their audience to invest quite so much time and money into a story, they owe us a bit more originality, and a lot more focus. A bit less ‘all you can eat’, and a bit more gourmet dining would go down really well…
