SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Dark Nights: Metal #2 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, on sale now.


In the first issue of Dark Nights: Metal, we learned that Kendra Saunders, the former Hawkgirl, is now known as Lady Blackhawk and that she has been investigating the mystery of Nth Metal for quite a while now. In Issue #2, though, we see Kendra visit a secret base (that happens to be the same base that the Legion of Doom used on the Challenge of the Super Friends, which was prominently used during Forever Evil) and meet up with a select group of DC characters who are all, in their own way, immortal. And while the mix involves those who are clearly heroes as well as those with more villainous tendencies, they all appear to be working in concert as a sort of Illuminati, formed to protect the DC Universe.

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We figured that it would be helpful to fill everyone in on who these people are, exactly, so we'll explain who everyone is, starting with the non-obscured characters, working from left to right.


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UNCLE SAM

Created by Will Eisner for Quality Comics (back when Eisner was running one of the top comic book "packaging" studios, which was a group of comic book creators who would produce finished material and then sell it to comic book companies who would then publish it. Eisner gave up his stake in this company to launch The Spirit comic book series), Uncle Sam originally was a mystic hero who was the soul of a murdered American Revolution soldier who returned to fight for American freedom in the present day.

The superhero Uncle Same, posing in DC Comics

When DC Comics took the character over, he was assigned to Earth X, with other Quality Comics characters, as the Freedom Fighters, who had to fight on a world where the Nazis had won World War II. Uncle Sam was now the spirit of America itself, who would just possess new hosts over the years and they would be empowered by the strength of the country.

PHANTOM STRANGER

Rarely do comic book characters change quite as much from their original incarnations to their present day ones as the Phantom Stranger, who debuted as a character whose gimmick was to debunk alleged supernatural events. Over time, it became clear that the Stranger himself was supernatural, at which point the stories took on a more fantastical nature. This might be why his powers are so ill-defined, as he did not have any originally.

Over the years, the Stranger's most common use has been as a facilitator for supernatural plots for other superheroes. He even sort of joined the Justice League of America in that role, where he would show up, alert them to a supernatural occurrence, bring them where they needed to be and then sort of disappear. The Stranger famously also doesn't have a clear cut origin story, as a bunch of different writers (including Alan Moore) have instead come up with possible origins for the character.

MAMARAGAN

In the modern DC Universe, Mamaragan is the current Wizard who gave Billy Batson the powers of Shazam. He is the equivalent of the pre-New 52 character of the wizard Shazam. Now that DC has decided to not call Billy Batson's character Captain Marvel at all, but rather Shazam, then suddenly the wizard also being named Shazam was very confusing. So now he is Mamaragan, the last of a group of mystical beings who ruled over the world of magic millennia ago.

Now he transferred powers to Billy Batson, but during the Darkseid War, he ended up having to come up with new gods to use to give Billy powers, and as it turns out, he, himself, was one of the gods used to power Billy today (he's the M part of Shazam, naturally). He's a slightly less distinguished version of the original Wizard.

MORGAINE LE FEY

Few artists in comic book history could design costumes like Jack Kirby could. Other artists might draw even better costumes, but few could rival the sheer manic energy that is present in many of Kirby's designs. Morgaine Le Fey's golden armor is certainly one of those designs - the ornate helmet, all of it is just so over the top that it is utterly wonderful.

In any event, Morgaine Le Fey is based on the character of Morgan Le Fey from the King Arthur stories. Here, she is responsible for the downfall of Camelot, but Merlin is able to hold her off by bonding the demon Etrigan to one of Morgaine's own men. Etrigan and Morgaine then were bound against each other for centuries since then.

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VANDAL SAVAGE

Probably the second most famous immortal villain at DC Comics (and probably the most famous whose only hook really is his immortality), Vandal Savage is one of the oldest members of DC's Immortals group, as he gained his immortality when he was a cave man 52,000 years ago.

DC's Vandal Savage surrounded by historical artifacts.

He's essentially seen it all, and that plays into his whole demeanor, as he is a man who has taken part in all of mankind's greatest achievements, so it is hard to put much of a dent in his focus. He has taken on a higher profile recently when he became the main villain of the first season of the Legends of Tomorrow TV series.

KENDRA SAUNDERS

When Carter Hall was introduced back in the Golden Age, the fact that he and his girlfriend were both reincarnated people from ancient Egypt was literally the hook behind his character, but then it was mostly abandoned in the years since in favor of more traditional superhero stories. This remained the case until JSA was relaunched in the late 1990s, when the new Hawkgirl debuted, a young woman named Kendra Saunders who did not understand that she was the latest incarnation of Hawkgirl. It was only when she became a superhero and, of course, met the latest incarnation of Hawkman that her destiny really began to solidify.

Their relationship was a big part of the Legends of the Tomorrow TV series (where she and Vandal Savage have a distinct connection), but in the current DC Universe (where Kendra has not yet popped up on the main DC Earth, although a version of Kendra was on Earth 2 as Hawkgirl), Kendra is someone who has already gone through her Hawkgirl period and is now moved on to become Lady Blackhawk, the head of the Blackhawks. She is much more in control of her destiny in the current DC Universe than she ever has been before. It really serves the character well.

ABEL

Abel, like his brother Cain, became the host of one of DC's two major horror magazine (Cain had House of Mystery and Abel got House of Secrets). Cain was a good-natured soul, which contrasted with his vicious brother, who continually, well, killed Abel! Of course, Abel would then just come right back and their twisted game of brotherly "love" would continue for eternity.

Like the other classic horror hosts, Abel's main function is as comic relief to contrast against the dark stories that he then introduces. Abel received a cute pet gargoyle named Goldie during Neil Gaiman's Sandman run.

RA'S AL GHUL

Probably the most famous of DC's immortal characters, Ra's Al Ghul at least has a bit more going on for him as a character than his immortality, as he is one of Batman's greatest foes, which is saying a lot since Batman has such an amazing Rogues Gallery. Ra's is often defined as an eco-terrorist, but that basically means that he wants to wipe out most of humanity to return Earth to its previous population state. In fact, for someone who ostensibly loves the environment, a whole lot of Ra's plots involve things that could damage the environment as well as the human population.

Ra's uses the magical waters of the Lazarus Put to keep him alive for hundreds of years (which, as Dark Nights: Metal #2 notes, makes him far younger than the other immortals, who have generally been alive for thousands of years). His daughter, Talia, has often betrayed him in favor of Batman. Ra's is actually grandfather to Batman's son, Damian Wayne.

BARON WINTERS

We believe that the final visible member of the group is a revamped Baron Winters. Baron Winters was a man of great mystery, so it is unclear exactly how old he is, but he certainly appears to be quite old (he seems as though he has a connection to the Biblical Adam and Eve).

Winters ran a group of people unofficially known as "Night Force," as Winters would put together a team with different people for each mission depending on their suitability for the mission. Winters couldn't go on the missions himself because he was trapped within his magical house. It appears as though that's changed since DC Rebirth.

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There were also three obscured figure, but we're pretty sure that we know who they are.

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CAIN

One of DC's earliest horror comics hosts, Cain is everything Abel is not, as he is cruel and bad-natured. However, even with an attitude like that, he's been known to aid superheroes in the past when they needed magical help on cases. His true cruelty seems to be reserved for his own brother, but even there, it might be a situation where he is just playing out a cycle forced upon him (after all, there was one storyline where someone else tries to kill Abel and Cain goes nuts over it).

Cain and Able were prominently featured in a story in Alan Moore's Swamp thing, which led to them getting even more of a big role in Neil Gaiman's Sandman, where their homes turn out to exist in the Dreaming, so they get involved in all of the Dreaming plotlines.

JASON BLOOD

Capullo drew a distinctive strip in his hair, so the middle figure is likely Jason Blood, the human host of Etrigan. In the aforementioned battle between Morgaine Le Fey and King Arthur ended with Merlin bonding Etrigan the Demon to a follower of Morgaine named Jason. The resulting bond forced Blood into opposition with Morgaine, and as a result, they became mortal enemies, something that has kept up throughout the years.

This is because that now that he is bonded with the Demon, Blood can't die of natural causes. However, he also has to transform into a demon that is bonded with him, so we imagine that there is a significant trade-off there between those two things. As an expert in the occult, he as helped out Earth's superheroes a number of times, even temporarily joining the Justice League once for a storyline! Not the Demon, just him himself due to his great knowledge of the occult (he knows a few spells, as well).

SOLOMON GRUNDY

The silhouette for the final member of the obscured trio makes it that it is Solomon Grundy on the team. Solomon Grundy was a man resurrected within the "Slaughter Swamp" after being killed by robbers. Solomon Grundy has gone on to fight nearly every superhero there ever was, starting with the Golden Age Green Lantern.

Solomon Grundy Rises From Slaughter Swamp

As an interesting facet of Grundy's character, if you ever succeed in killed him, he would just resurrect in the Slaughter Swamp, but this time with an entirely different personality each time. Let's hope that he is currently on a pro-hero personality.

These immortals are all working together to deal with the Nth Metal crisis, and Snyder and Capullo do a great job explaining that this crisis is a whole lot different from past DC crises, as it threatens everyone, even people like Cain and Abel who lived in The Dreaming, so they are all involved in resolving this situation. Seeing so many disparate characters working together is a real blast. It would be interesting to see them show up post Dark Nights: Metal, perhaps as DC's response to the Illuminati? As what makes this alliance stand out is the fact that a good deal of them are technically "evil." That adds an interesting new dynamic to the group (heck, their headquarters is the home base of the Legion of Doom!).