Dark Nights: Metal (2017-2018): written by Scott Snyder with James Tynion IV; illustrated by Greg Capullo, Mikel Janin, Alvaro Martinez, Jonathan Glapion, Raul Fernandez, and others: Metal writer Scott Snyder notes in his foreword that he wanted this Event Series to be a big event like the ones he remembered enjoying in his youth. And Snyder does manage lots of cosmic melodrama, dire moments, and seemingly doomed heroic final stands.
Metal may have the oddest set-up for a cosmic event comic ever. In the months prior to Metal, Batman had been investigating the origins of the weird metals of the DC Universe. That would include the resurrectional Electrum of his enemy The Court of Owls, the strange Nth metal of Hawkman's mace and wings, and even the protean shapeshifting of Plastic Man himself.
Against all advice, Batman -- who has probably been the cause of and solution to all of the Justice League's problems more than any other hero -- pursues his quest to the point of fulfilling an ancient prophecy that he thought he was working to forestall. Hoo ha!
To not give anything away, Batman's successful failure allows a whole lot of bad things to invade the DC Universe. It will be up to Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and all Earth's other heroes to rescue the multiverse from Batman's mistake.
Snyder proves to have a strain of cosmic goofiness in him that I was not aware of. Metal evokes the original craziness of DC's 1950's and 1960's Silver Age while also playing at the edges of metafictionality as do the cosmic DC Comics of Grant Morrison. This is a story that is very explicitly about Story. Bringing Daniel, the 'new' Lord of Dreams (well, new since the conclusion of Neil Gaiman's Sandman back in 1995) into the fray serves to make the whole Story emphasis very, very emphatic.
It's not much of a stretch to note that essentially the DC Multiverse comes under fire from a whole lot of misguided pro revisionism and creepy fan fiction. I kid you not.
It all works, somehow. Greg Capullo, who partnered with Snyder on a lengthy Batman run, channels his days drawing cosmic melodrama on Todd Macfarlane's Spawn to good effect. Things get a bit crowded with characters, not really a problem because that too is a nod to George Perez's meticulous, overcrowded work on the Nexus of all DC Comics Event Series, Crisis On Infinite Earths. Capullo does a nice job with all the punching and the kicking, the weird character designs for the invading villains, and the endless leagues of heroes and villains he must draw.
Metal certainly isn't perfect. Like most Event Series, a number of story points briefly touched upon in the main narrative require the purchase of other comics in which those points are fleshed out more fully. Things get a little rushed at the end, to the extent that some confusion sets in as to who is doing what where, and what the heck is happening in some of the action sequences. This is not a problem peculiar to Metal. But in all, this is an enjoyable superhero comic that could probably be read by someone who's not fluent in the 80 year history of DC superheroes. Recommended.
Spawn Origins 3: Written by Grant Morrison, Todd McFarlane, Andrew Grossberg, and Tom Orzechowski; illustrated by Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo (1994/ This collection 2009): Oh, remainders. The six-issue compilations of Todd McFarlane's reluctant hero Spawn continue here with only one issue actually written and illustrated by Todd McFarlane. I guess the Dreaded Deadline Doom was upon him. Grant Morrison writes a three-parter that is about as bland as anything Morrison has ever written. This despite the ridiculous Anti-Spawn, some angels on a space station, and a portion of Hell that's erupted onto an American armed forces firing range.
Greg Capullo is already a capable penciller, though, somewhat more realistically inclined than McFarlane but still capable of some magical lunacy. The two-parter penned by Tom Orzechowski and Andrew Grossberg is more fun, introducing as it does Houdini (yes, that one), Master of the Mystic Arts, in a team-up with Spawn to stop a nuclear detonation in the heart of Manhattan. As a piece of superhero entertainment, superior to most of the stuff from DC and Marvel at the time. Recommended.
Spawn Origins 4: written by Todd McFarlane; illustrated by Todd McFarlane and Marc Silvestri (1994-95; This collection 2010): Spawn creator/writer/artist Todd McFarlane returns to full writing and art duties for five of the six issues reprinted here. Marc Silvestri, one of McFarlane's contemporaries when they were at Marvel, draws the sixth issue in a grittier, less cartoony style than McFarlane. Spawn battles various problems caused for him by Hell, the Mob, and demonic antagonist Violator. Some of the people who knew Spawn's alter ego, assassinated Black Op Al Simmons, finally start to clue in about who Spawn is, while comic-relief cops Sam and Twitch also start to realize that Spawn is on their side. Recommended.
Batman: The Court of Owls: written by Scott Snyder; illustrated by Greg Capullo and others (2011-2012): DC's line-wide reboot, the New 52, has yielded a number of lengthy storylines right out of last year's gate. A case in point would be the Court of Owls storyline in the regular Batman title. It occupied the first 11 issues of Batman along with an annual and a crossover into all the Bat-titles, and its repercussions are still being felt.
A lengthy 'Everything You Know is Wrong' story, The Court of Owls posits that Gotham City has been run from behind the scenes for centuries by a cabal of the rich and powerful called the Court of Owls. They even have their own nearly unkillable enforcers, the Talons, to wipe out any opposition. Batman has remained unaware of them until the storyline begins. Then, he finds out that they've been behind many of Gotham's woes -- and possibly killed his parents.
Snyder keeps things moving along quite briskly, and Capullo's art is a really pleasing take on the Dark Knight, clean-lined and filled with shadows. The story starts to bog at the end, undone by too much length and a few too many surprises.
The real villain of the piece, an obscure character introduced in the 1970's and then quickly consigned to the Now Let Us Never Speak Of This Again Bin, is a bit underwhelming. Nonetheless, there are a lot of good Batman moments here. If only DC were still capable of producing standalone stories instead of endless event storylines. Lightly recommended.
