It's been a busy few weeks in the Dark Multiverse. Following last month's Dark Nights: Metal #2, DC Comics has published three terrifying "Dark Knights" one-shots: The Red Death, The Murder Machine and The Dawnbreaker. Additionally, the four-issue "Gotham Resistance" crossover ran through Teen Titans #12, Nightwing #29, Suicide Squad #26 and Green Arrow #32. After this issue, Metal itself takes a break until December, but there are more specials to come.

RELATED: Dark Nights: Metal – Superman’s Crucial Role, Revealed

Right now, though, there's plenty to discuss. Dark Nights: Metal issue #3 was written by Scott Snyder, penciled by Greg Capullo, inked by Jonathan Glapion, colored by FCO Plascencia and lettered by Steve Wands. Rebecca Taylor and Eddie Berganza were the editors, assisted by Dave Wielgosz. (Note that we don't count the credits pages as part of the numbered story pages.)

As always, we'll spoil just about everything in the issue, so grab your copy and let's get cracking!


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Scary Smallville (Pages 1-3)

Beefcake
Jor-El explains to Lara how their son will be raised by hairy men, from Man Of Steel #1

We realize that everyone probably knows the significance of Smallville, Kansas, but we wanted to explore its history just a little. Although it was first named in May 1949's Superboy issue #2, we suppose it could have appeared as early as Superman's first appearance in June 1938's Action Comics #1. For decades, Smallville tended to be located somewhere in the vague American Midwest, until 1978's Superman movie placed it in Kansas. After that, the 1986 John Byrne-led reboot established the comics' Smallville as being in Kansas, and it has remained so ever since, regardless of media.

RELATED: How Dick Grayson Found Himself At the Heart of Dark Nights: Metal

Damian Wayne made his Metal debut last issue, so the other boy is Jonathan Samuel "Jon" Kent, a/k/a Superboy, f/k/a Jon White. Created by Dan Jurgens, he was born to Lois and Clark in July 2015's Convergence: Superman #2. Originally the Kents were refugees from the pre-Flashpoint timeline who (as related in Jurgens and Lee Weeks' 8-issue 2015-16 Superman: Lois & Clark miniseries) found their way to the main DC-Earth ("Earth-0"). Seeing that it already had a Superman and Lois Lane, they became the "Whites" and lived off the grid raising Jon while Clark used his powers in secret and Lois became an anonymous journalist. That's all kind of moot now, but it may be worth remembering in light of Metal's multiversal shenanigans. Jon first appeared as Superboy in September 2016's Superman vol. 4 #2.

Of course, Damian is playing the theme song to the 1966-69 "Batman" TV series. It was written by jazz trumpeter and composer Neil Hefti, although composer/arranger Nelson Riddle wrote music for the individual episodes and the 1966 feature film.

Clark is right about the difference between Batman music and Superman music. With all due respect to the themes for the Fleischer brothers' Superman cartoons and the "Adventures of Superman" TV series, John Williams' Superman march has become the standard by which all Super-music is judged. Jay Gruska's "Lois & Clark" theme, Shirley Walker's animated-series theme and Blake Neely's "Supergirl" theme all feature pulsing introductions reminiscent of Williams' 12/8 prelude. Even Hans Zimmer's Man of Steel music has some hitch in its giddy-up. Compare that to Danny Elfman's and Zimmer's respective Batman themes, which while instantly recognizable, are each a lot more simple.

Is Scott Snyder being a bit self-deprecating by suggesting that Batman "need[s] a better writer for non-dark, non-brooding moments?" We're laughing with him, because between those super-depressing Dark Knights one-shots and what's to come in this issue, we do appreciate this bit of light-hearted fun. Considering that this is Superman's vision, we're not surprised that he would imagine Batman being emotional and contrite, and being bad at it.

"Carpe Diem," as Robin Williams taught us, is Latin for "seize the day." We suppose the phrase could also have been "chow down" or "cat dancing," but "carpe diem" is probably easier to drop into conversation. Besides, it's one more light-versus-dark reference.

Dig that JLGL art
Superman and Batman (and "Bat-Man") take on a Midwestern bat-demon in 1979's World's Finest #255

Although we saw Barbatos in the background at the end of last issue, on Page 2 he appears in all his '80s-album-cover glory. His design reminded us of an old World's Finest Comics story from March 1979's issue #255. Written by Bob Haney, pencilled by José Luis Garcia-Lopéz and inked by Dan Adkins and Frank Chiaramonte, it was the tale of a little heartland town beset by a cult of bat-demon worshippers. Superman and Batman defeated their dark god, Gitchka, with the help of a local "bat-man" who was the latest in a long line of Gitchka-fighters.

We wonder if the Dark Knights read The Dark Knight Returns, which established firmly that Batman looks pretty impressive on horseback. Naturally, here on Page 3 they're more like the horsemen of the apocalypse.

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Mayhem In Metropolis (Pages 4-5)

Page 4, Panels 4 and 5 contain a couple of familiar cameos. Lex Luthor was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and first appeared in April 1940's Action Comics #23. George Pérez designed his now-familiar chunky green battlesuit, which first appeared in June 1983's Action #544 (incidentally, the 45th anniversary of Superman's first appearance). In fact, for over a year Luthor has worn a blue Superman-inspired battlesuit, complete with red cape; so this is something of a return to form. Brainiac was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino and first appeared in July 1958's Action #242. He too was redesigned for Action #544, albeit by Ed Hannigan. In Alan Moore and Curt Swan's seminal "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?" (September 1986's Superman #423 and Action #583), the hexagon-adorned Brainiac skull attached itself forcibly atop Luthor's head, and it looks like something similar (and perhaps more consensual) is going on here with Superman.

Luthor by Perez
Lex Luthor's 1983 redesign by George Perez

We're not sure if the third person in Panel 4 is Jimmy Olsen or the Joker, or some macabre combination of both. Since we'll see Jimmy (sort of) on Page 5, we'll note that he was also created by Siegel and Shuster. Following an anonymous cameo in November 1938's Action #6, his first named appearance was on an April 15, 1940 episode of the "Adventures of Superman" radio serial. He then had a proper introduction in November/December 1941's Superman #13. Jimmy being turned into a Doomsday creature is perhaps one of the character's darker transformations; and in a career which has seen him become a werewolf, a Bizarro, a giant-headed "future man," and a towering Turtle Boy monster, that's saying something. In fact, it looks like Doomsday-Jimmy has little red horns where his red hair and freckles would be.

RELATED: Dark Nights: Metal’s Most Metal Easter Egg Is Barbatos’ Font

Mister Miracle's Metal debut came in the Forge one-shot, so we'll just note that the helmeted fellow on Page 4, Panel 5 is Orion the Hunter, who was created by Jack Kirby and appeared first in February/March 1971's New Gods issue #1. Orion is also appearing presently both in the Mister Miracle miniseries and in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps.

Page 5 notes that it's been seven days since the end of Metal issue #2. As it happens, the "Gotham Resistance" crossover tie-in takes place two days after the appearance of Challengers Mountain in Metal issue #1. Wonder Woman #32 also refers to the events of Metal #2, so since we saw Wonder Woman and Superman trapped at the end of that issue, spoilers -- looks like she might make it out of Metal alive.

While we'll probably get the lowdown on the Doomsday-fied Batman called "Devastator" in a future one-shot, the Doomsday Virus (to which all of Metropolis seems to be succumbing) first appeared in May 2014's Superman: Doomed issue #1 (written by Scott Lobdell, Greg Pak and Charles Soule and drawn by Ken Lashley).

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Gotham's Gone (Pages 6-10)

We don't have much to say about the fire-breathing Joker-snakes on Page 6, except that they look pretty intimidating. We suppose there's a precedent in Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin's classic two-parter from February-April 1978's Detective Comics issues #475-76. Not only did the Joker apply his infamous venom to some helpless fish, but an innocent cat got ahold of the stuff as well. Page 7 finally showcases The Devastator, whose bones turn hard and grotesque like Doctor Death's in Snyder and Capullo's "Zero Year" storyline. Page 8 features the Batman Who Laughs and his Robins (or Crows, perhaps). He took over Gotham City in Teen Titans #12 and divided it among Mr. Freeze, Bane, Riddler, Poison Ivy and Mad Hatter. Specifically, he busted Mr. Freeze out of Arkham Asylum in Nightwing #29.

Not Ernest!
Joker venom works on fish and cats, from Detective Comics #476

We agree that the four identical Evil Robins are probably Dark Multiverse counterparts of Jason Todd, who say only "crow" because it's part of the word "crowbar" –- as in the crowbar with which the Joker beat Jason to death.

RELATED: Jim Lee Homages His Justice League #1 Cover for Dark Nights: Metal

On Page 9 Superman pleads that there must be "some good" in the Batman Who Laughs, but that theory gets shot down pretty quickly. The Crime Syndicate of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's 2000 graphic novel JLA: Earth 2 came from a parallel world which was as evil as DC-Earth was good, so not even the Justice League's intervention could turn them around. It seems that the Dark Multiverse folks, composed of every negative impulse from the "good" Multiverse, are about ten thousand times worse.

After brief cameos in previous issues, Doctor Fate makes his first proper Metal entrance on Page 10, creating a portal for the Flash to save Superman. Previously, Doctor Fate had rescued Flash from the Red Death and Green Lantern from the Dawnbreaker in the aforementioned specials; and had also rescued Nightwing, Robin, Green Arrow and Mister Terrific in Green Arrow #32.

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Onward, To Oblivion (Pages 11-18)

Last issue we saw Zatanna and John Constantine, two members of Justice League Dark; but Page 11 reintroduces two members of Shadowpact, the JLD of ten-ish years ago. Denny O'Neil and Jerry Grandinetti created Nightmaster for May 1969's Showcase #82; while John Broome and Carmine Infantino created Bobo T. Chimpanzee (a/k/a Detective Chimp) for July-August 1952's Adventures Of Rex The Wonder Dog #4. Before joining Shadowpact in June-October 2005's six-issue Day Of Vengeance miniseries, Nightmaster was part of the mystical super-group Primal Force, while Bobo and Rex the Wonder Dog worked for the Bureau of Amplified Animals (as seen first in Early October 1992's Green Lantern #30).

The Oblivion Bar
The Oblivion Bar from Day Of Vengeance #1, by Bill Willingham, Justiniano and Walden Wong

For those who want more detail, Jim "Nightmaster" Rook was lead singer of The Electrics (as mentioned later, on Page 18) when a trip to the Oblivion Inc. shop ended up transporting him to the otherdimensional land of Myrra. There he discovered he was descended from a Myrran warrior named Nacht, and fought for Myrra for a while. Upon his return to Earth, he discovered that the Oblivion shop led to the Oblivion Bar (which first appeared in DOV #1), and after serving as bartender, ended up owning the joint. Naturally, he let Shadowpact use the Bar as its headquarters. Green Arrow #32 mentioned that Zatanna organized the rendezvous at the Oblivion Bar. As for Bobo's origin, he and Rex have both drunk from the Fountain of Youth (as revealed in July 1981's DC Comics Presents #35), and this, according to DOV, amplified his existing intelligence.

RELATED: DC Announces Dark Nights: Metal Official Soundtrack

Page 12 mentions the Murder Machine and Red Death. According to the aforementioned special, The Murder Machine was the Batman of Earth Negative-44, driven to such desperate ends by Alfred's brutal murder that he used Cyborg's technology to create an army of Alfred-drones, but they ended up killing all of Batman's foes in cold blood. Inevitably, that Batman fused his own consciousness with the "Alfred protocol," and after killing his own Justice League used it to defeat our Cyborg. Similarly, the Red Death special showed how the Batman of Earth Negative-52 (whose failure to be everywhere at once cost him his "family") rocketed himself and his Flash into the Speed Force.

I think it was called 'The Force That Couldn't Slow Down'
Wally West and Max Mercury first discuss the Speed Force in Flash #91

By the way, the term "Speed Force" was first coined by writer Mark Waid (with artist Mike Wieringo) in June 1994's Flash #91. The Speed Force is another dimension, visible on the map of the Multiverse, which manifests itself as an energy source. Clearly it can convey a wide range of speed-related powers, including the nasty ones the Red Death is using. There's also a Negative Speed Force currently "infecting" the Flash in his own title, but it's not clear when Metal takes place in relation to that.

As described in Nightwing #29, Dick's wearing "thermal armor" which he picked up from the Batcave. He calls it the superhero equivalent of an "ugly sweater" (i.e., all it does is keep you warm), but we like to think it's an homage to the Batman And Robin movie snow-suits. Dick does look a little rougher here than he did in his own book.

Spider, man
A Dark Multivers spider carries captives to an unholy battery in Green Arrow #32

Readers of Suicide Squad #26 saw what Nightwing meant by "I lost the Teen Titans." Overwhelmed by the Batman Who Laughs' forces, Starfire, Beast Boy, Aqualad and Raven were Jokerized along with Deadshot, El Diablo, Enchantress and Captain Boomerang. Clearly Nightwing has a stronger bond with the Titans than he does the Suicide Squad, so he mentions one group and not the other.

Page 13's question about the towers activating indicates that they're similar to Crisis On Infinite Earths' tuning forks. The Monitor intended his forks to draw the surviving positive-matter worlds into a safe haven, free from the destructive antimatter waves. See, every world in the Multiverse vibrates at a unique frequency, which is why the Flashes are able to use super-speed vibrations to travel from one to another. Thus, if you want the whole world to go to a specific cosmic destination, you use a giant tuning fork. In Green Arrow #32, Mister Terrific alludes to this when he explains that the Dark Multiverse machines are changing people's frequencies. If they change enough, "our entire world will tumble out of existence as we know it."

Kendra's "pile of dirt" remark on Page 13 refers to Wonder Woman's classic origin, wherein she was a baby formed from clay and given life by the Greek pantheon. This is in contrast with her New 52-era origin, which made her the child of Zeus and Hippolyta.

Following his cameo in issue #1, Page 14 gives us Steel in the flesh, joined by Mister Terrific and the Plastic Man egg from the Forge special. Apparently Steel's hammer, Fate's helmet and Plastic Man's egg are made of Nth Metal.

Breaking into teams is a classic Justice League (and Justice Society) strategy, so while we're not surprised to see it here, we're not complaining either. One team is headed for the Rock of Eternity, but remember that last issue Morgaine Le Fay wanted Kendra to go to the Rock, fire the Anti-Monitor's "astral brain" through the "core of the Multiverse," and "destroy the Dark Multiverse once and for all." We don't see Kendra say anything about that plan, but maybe she tells her team about it off-panel.

Green Lantern's friends (and presumably family) were "swallowed by shadows" in the Dawnbreaker special. Hal lost his brother Jack a while ago, so his family currently includes his other brother Jim, Jim's wife Susan, and their children Howard and Jane.

Dick and Damian's argument on page 15 continues their conflict from Suicide Squad #26, where Dick told Damian he thought Batman was dead. Since Dick has started hearing "messages" from Batman (as seen in Green Arrow #32), his decision to stand and fight no doubt strikes Damian as even more cruel.

Page 16 reminds us that Deathstroke's weapons are made of Promethium. This isn't surprising, given the history (discussed in last issue's annotations) that Deathstroke has with Promethium.

Page 17 mentions Iris West, who (as if you didn't know) is Barry "Flash" Allen's one true love. (We're Team Iris, but we still thought the TV version of Patty Spivot got short shrift.) Bob Kanigher and Carmine Infantino created Iris for Barry's debut in September-October 1956's Showcase #4. Barry and Iris are going through a rough patch over in Flash, but since it's related to the Negative Speed Force storyline, again we're not sure when Metal takes place in relation to that.

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Doom in the Dark Multiverse (Pages 19-24)

Page 19 shows us where the four teams are headed. Bialya is a fictional DC-Earth country created by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis. First appearing in June 1987's Justice League #2, it featured prominently in various Justice League International storylines and was a very loose pastiche of Libya under Muammar Gadhafi. Bialya's history took a dark turn in the 2007 miniseries 52: World War III, when a vengeful Black Adam murdered the country's entire population while looking for the monster which killed his family. While subsequent timeline changes might have undone all that, there still might not be much inside Bialya.

Never gonna give you up
Superman's singing downs Darkseid, from Final Crisis #7 by Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke

Besides Thanagar, the Polaris System also includes the worlds of Polara and Rann (the latter recently relocated from the Alpha Centauri system). The intergalactic tyrant Despero wounded Thanagar's longtime Green Lantern Isamot Kol in the Death of Hawkman miniseries, so Kol's ring chose Hawkman's friend Rayn Kral as a temporary replacement. Between them and the Rannian Lantern Vath Sarn, Hal, Terrific and Plastic Man might have some local help.

RELATED: Gotham Resistance Discovers the Evil Batmen’s Weakness2017

The Mariana Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean near the Philippines and contains the deepest point on Earth. In a sense we suppose that makes it "beneath Atlantis," but since Atlantis is traditionally in the Atlantic (hence the name), we're a little confused by Aquaman's comment.

We saw in the Forge special that Batman had put a Monitor tuning fork (which Steel calls an "antenna") beneath the Fortress of Solitude. We're not sure that Steel's memory of it as an Anti-Monitor device is quite accurate, but he wasn't a superhero at the time of COIE. He could also be remembering the device from Infinite Crisis (when Alex Luthor reconstructed one using parts of the Anti-Monitor's corpse); or he could have seen one of the originals on the news when it materialized in the middle of New York City in July 1985's COIE #4.

The Phantom Zone (mentioned on Pages 19-20) first appeared in a Superboy story in April 1961's Adventure Comics #283, written by Robert Bernstein and drawn by George Papp. Discovered by Jor-El and used as a Kryptonian prison, it's a limbo-like dimension where "inmates" spend eternity in a ghost-like state of existence. They can see what's going on in the regular universe, but they can't interact with it. For the most part, the only way in or out is through the Phantom Zone Projector; although there is a physical way out (as seen in January-April 1982's Phantom Zone miniseries by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan).

Page 20's observation that "there's nothing darker than making a hero the lever for evil" is particularly ironic coming out of Superman, since Evil (or at least Dark) Superman has been quite the trope in recent years. Off the top of our heads we're thinking of Injustice's Totalitarian Supes; Red Son's Soviet Supes; the Apokoliptian Stooge Supes of Batman v. Superman's "Knightmare" and the New 52's Earth 2; the Jokerized Supes of Snyder and Capullo's own Batman arc "Endgame"; and the Nazi "Overman" from Grant Morrison and Jim Lee's Multiversity chapter "The Master Race." Metal's Dark Knights are so scary they've almost balanced the scales, but for a long time the Bad Batman was represented mostly by the tortured souls of the Red Rain vampire trilogy and the Thomas Wayne Bats of Flashpoint; and (sort of) by Mark Millar's sociopathic Nemesis.

Superman plans to "open a portal with the Phantom Zone Projector while [super-charging] the antenna with the Speed Force" and using Steel's Nth Metal hammer to "create an energy link to the Dark Multiverse." Given that the Flashes' innate dimension-hopping abilities come from their vibratory-frequency control, Supes isn't too far off. (Note that not everything with super-speed taps into the Speed Force. Superman's speed comes from the hyperefficient solar batteries in his Kryptonian cells.) Anyway, essentially they're using the antenna/fork as a hopped-up version of the Flash's Cosmic Treadmill, which allowed Barry Allen, (Classic) Wally West and Jay Garrick to travel through time and across dimensions. Jay and Wally built a gigundo Cosmic Treadmill to transport a superhero army to three besieged Earths in December 1985's COIE #9; and Jay, Wally and the Supermen of Earths-One and -Two used the regular Treadmill to try and find Earth-Two itself in February 1985's COIE #11. (Spoilers: it wasn't there anymore, although some crackling dark energy was.) This expedition seems closer to the latter.

The "golden" Superman of Page 21 reminds us of the golden Prime Superman who'd exiled himself to the core of the Sun in 1998's DC One Million miniseries. Here, we presume that Supes is golden because he's charged with Speed Force energy. On Page 22 we see him starting to burn it off.

Naturally, Page 22's "B-66" reference is for "Batman '66," so we suppose the Batman Who Laughs wants to hear some Neil Hefti as an ironic accompaniment to Superman's ill-fated arrival. On Page 24 Batman himself explains that the "Batman '66" theme was his sonic warning, because it started on D and went down to C (for "don't come?"); whereas the proper code was the opposite, C-D. That's what Superman gets for dwelling on the merits of the tunes!

Indeed, it's doubly ironic because Superman himself had to "sing" the Multiverse back into existence at the end of 2009's Final Crisis #7. If vibrations are critical to the Multiverse's existence, and music is basically just vibrations, then a music-based Multiversal crossover isn't too far-fetched. Here's hoping the Batman Who Laughs doesn't call up The Doors' "The End" anytime soon....

In dreams I talk to you
Barry Allen's theory about how Earth-One comics work, from "Flash of Two Worlds"

Finally, we disagree a little with Batman's Page 23 observation that music is "the only way to communicate across the Multiverse." In September 1961's seminal "Flash Of Two Worlds" from Flash #123 (written by John Broome, pencilled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Joe Giella), Barry explains to Jay that on his Earth, "a writer named Gardner Fox wrote about your adventures – which he claimed came to him in dreams! Obviously, when Fox was asleep, his mind was 'tuned in' on your vibratory Earth! That explains how he 'dreamed up' the Flash!"

Granted, it's only one-way communication (if it even exists beyond Barry's supposition), but who knows? After all, the Dark Multiverse itself is made up of all those nasty impulses and unwise choices, and they're not entirely musical.

What did you spot in Dark Nights: Metal #3? Let us know in the comments!