WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal #5 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia & Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
Ever since the start of Dark Nights: Death Metal, the superheroes of the DC Universe have been fighting a losing battle. The Batman Who Laughs has been ahead of them at every turn, keeping them at bay while Perpetua, the Mother of the Multiverse, proceeds to grow more powerful with every parallel universe she destroys. Now, the Batman Who Laughs has become the Darkest Knight, and he himself is looking to remake all of reality in his own image.
It's been nothing but defeat after defeat for the Justice League but now, with the supervillain so close to victory, the superheroes devise a plan to save the entire Multiverse once and for all. The plan is massive, dangerous and cataclysmic. In fact, in order to accomplish it, Superman assembles a group of supervillains -- and their goal is to destroy the Earth.
In Death Metal #6, Lex Luthor joins the superheroes of the DC Universe in their attempt to defeat Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs. He explains that he plans on using Tenth Metal to create a machine that will be able to remake the Earth and all of reality, effectively undoing all the death and destruction the cosmic villains have caused.
While a group of heroes starts a mission to accomplish this goal, it's up to Superman to make sure that the Batman Who Laughs is cut off from his power. Now that he is the Darkest Knight, the villain has begun to create an army of dark worlds to attack the Justice League. But since the Earth is the very center of the Multiverse, the villain will be left without a power source if it's destroyed.
Therefore, Superman assembles a team of powerful supervillains which includes Bizarro, Superboy-Prime, Sinestro, Black Adam and more to do the unimaginable: destroy the Earth. With Earth gone, the core of the Multiverse will be shaken, and the Batman Who Laughs won't be able to create any more villainous worlds.
Desperate times, as they say, call for desperate measures. But still, destroying the Earth is definitely extreme, even if the heroes plan on saving everything and everyone with Luthor's machine. What if it doesn't work? What if they fail? It's a drastic course of action, one that could turn villainous should the worst come to pass. After all, all of this was done in the belief that the Batman Who Laughs only had a few worlds for him to fight with, but as the issue comes to a close, the heroes shockingly learn that he has a lot more planets than they anticipated.
Already, the plan isn't looking too great. If the heroes fail, then their plan to destroy the Earth will have been for nothing. This type of plan is something that a supervillain would usually come up with, and it's something that Superman and the world's greatest hero would usually vehemently stand against. And yet, here they all are, going ahead with it.
Sure, it's literally the end of the Multiverse, which explains why Superman is willing to go along with this plan. But it doesn't appear to be a problem for him or anyone else. And that sure is surprising, especially for the one superhero who is supposed to embody hope in the DC Universe.