Some thoughts about Dark Nights: Metal #6

The future is upon us.

The Batman who Laughs is planning to destroy the whole Multiverse to only let his kind exist but he wasn't counting that everyone is in Batman's side.

The conclusion of this long-delayed event is finally here. As I've said before, the fact that this crossover took more time than expected ultimately affected the pacing and made me lose interest as a whole since my reaction for each new chapter pretty much became: "Oh, this is coming this week, okay".

And sadly, this final entry doesn't really justify the long wait.

There are a few aspects that I kinda dig, particularly the fact that this has been not only a Batman-centered event but also a Hawkman one (something that basically never happens) and this is especially clear due to how important Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders are to the story and how much their role in the DCU is emphasized. Plus, Batman fighting alongside his nemesis to defeat the ultimate source of evil practically reaches fanfic levels but in a good way.

But let's be honest, this finale mostly served as a set-up for the brand new direction that the DCU is going to take. The final battle is pretty anticlimactic as a whole since the script doesn't spend too much time in it as much as it prepares the new major players for the upcoming books that are launching after this crossover including Snyder's Justice League and all the Metal spinoffs (which ironically were released before this event concluded) which reminds me of some of the worst Marvel events and might make readers feel a bit cheated.

Not to mention that the whole "All hope is lost" theme the story has been going for all this time is pretty much forgotten since at the end all the heroes find a miraculous way to fight the Dark Multiverse. There's no smart solution for it, no interesting dilemma the protagonists have to confront to save the day, no, good beats evil which might have worked in other stories where the concept of invincible evil wasn't so prominent. As it is, it pretty much defeats the purpose of the premise.

Greg Capullo handles the main event while Mikel Janin handles the epilogue and while Capullo's artwork can be pretty strong, Janin's is a bit rushed and his proportions can look off at times.

Not necessarily bad but not great either, just pretty by the numbers and clearly made to hype upcoming series.