SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1, by Scott Snyder, Grant Morrison, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Howard Porter, Jorge Jimenez Doug Mahnke, Jamie Mendoza, Hi-Fi, Alejandro Sanchez, Wil Quintana and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Since its inception during the Silver Age of comics, DC’s Multiverse has undergone more than its fair share of monumental transformations. In fact, it even ceased to exist altogether following the events of the 1985-86 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths, remaining a mere memory until it was eventually restored in the early 2000s.
Now, just two months into 2018, it appears as though another multiversal facelift is in order, and it comes to us courtesy of Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1. However, before we dive into that, we’d be remiss if we didn’t first discuss how the overarching Metal event has already changed what we know about the Multiverse.
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In December’s Dark Nights: Metal #4, Morpheus – better known to most readers as Dream, or Sandman – recalls the origin of the Multiverse and its sinister counterpart, the Dark Multiverse. Obviously, portions of its history remain unchanged from what we first learned in the aforementioned Crisis, such as the spark of creation that spawned the positive matter and antimatter universes. However, in addition to the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor, who oversaw these two realms, respectively, we also learned of a third being -- the Forger -- who maintains the origin point of all worlds (aptly titled the World Forge).
From here, the worlds that are brought into existence can go one of two ways; those that are stable travel towards the Orrery, where they join up with the other worlds in the Multiverse, while those that are less desirable sink into the depths of the Dark Multiverse, where they await their eventual destruction at the hands of Barbatos. However, his compulsion for chaos couldn’t be satiated by widespread planetary genocide, alone – Barbatos also killed the Forger, effectively pulling the plug on the creation of any new worlds moving forward.
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This certainly lends credence to the Multiverse consisting of just 52 Earths instead of… well, infinite Earths. But once again, our preconceived notions have been cast to the wayside with the revelation of the last thing we expected: a 53rd Earth, filled with rather... unique denizens.
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In The Wild Hunt, we meet up with Flash, Cyborg and Raven, who are onboard the Ultima Thule in search of the House of Heroes – a satellite orbiting the Bleedspace between universes. Unfortunately, the trio quickly finds itself on the run from all seven of the Dark Knights, who appear to be hunting them down.
As we soon learn, though, the heroes aren’t being hunted – they’re being herded.
“We’re a poison dart, fired straight at the heart of everything,” Raven says upon realizing the Ultima Thule is moments away from colliding with the very heart of the Multiverse itself. However, while attempting to enjoy the annihilation from a safe distance, Dawnbreaker notices the ship is receiving a message from Earth 53, which naturally leaves him perplexed.
Meanwhile, back on Prime Earth, Detective Chimp is seemingly in the midst of an existential crisis of his own, as the effects of the Fountain of Youth appear to be wearing off, causing him to devolve back into a primitive ape. He begs for help from the likes of T.O. Morrow and Dr. Sivana, but his pleas fall on deaf ears… that is until a mysterious voice reaches out to Bobo from within his mind; the voice of Mister Stubbs – partner of the very last monitor, Nix Uotan, aka Superjudge.
“We super-chimps. Gotta stick together till the end, I say,” Stubbs tells Bobo, as an appropriately ape-themed Justice League appears before his very eyes, with Flash, Cyborg and Raven in tow. “We got this fixed back in 2067. The 53rd world is here to help,” the Batman ape says before asking, “So… Ready to save the universe, Bobo?” and offering Detective Chimp his quintessential magnifying glass as the issue comes to a close.
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Obviously, the revelation of a 53rd earth leaves us with a number of questions: Where does Earth 53 fit within Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes’ map of the Multiverse? Who created it in the first place? And are all of its denizens apes? Presumably, Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and company will provide the answers to these questions and more in the pages of Dark Nights: Metal #6, which hits stands March 14.