hard to believe we're almost done with dark nights: metal! issue #5 checks in with the justice league's expeditions and sets up what promises to be an ear-bleeding finale. we went through the first half of the issue last time (you can read it here), but there's plenty more to dive into this time around.
as always, we'll spoil the issue along the way, so be sure you've read your copy before you follow along. previously we've covered the forge (parts 1 and 2) and casting one-shots, plus issues #1, #2, #3 and #4. join us, won't you?
dark nights: metal issue #5 was written by scott snyder, pencilled by greg capullo, inked by jonathan glapion, colored by fco plascencia and lettered by steve wands. rebecca taylor was the editor, assisted by dave wielgosz.
my favorite martian (pages 5-6, 15-16)
we talked about plastic man back in the forge annotations, but page 5 gives us some new information about his origin. february 2014's justice league issue #25 tied it into the forever evil event, with eel o'brien attending a criminal summit in chicago and being doused with a convenient drum of chemicals when earth-3's owlman attacked. mister terrific's "best guess" that it was related to a cosmic-metal experiment run by the court of owls or s.t.a.r. labs -- two polar opposite groups, not that it matters -- is probably not unreasonable. neither is the observation that plas's body "super-conducts" cosmic energies.
the martian manhunter's appearance on page 6 is a bigger deal in the post-new 52 rebirth era than it might have been otherwise. joseph samachson and joe certa created j'onn j'onzz, manhunter from mars for a backup feature starting in november 1955's detective comics issue #225. j'onn possesses all of a kryptonian's powers, plus invisibility, intangibility, telepathy and the ability to change shape. to compensate, he's vulnerable to fire.
related: why plastic man is an egg in dark night: metal, revealed
since j'onn first appeared almost a year before barry allen, he can claim to be one of the harbingers of superhero comics' silver age. indeed, his detective backups earned him a spot as one of the justice league's founding members. this was part of j'onn's backstory until 2011's new 52 revisions. instead, while he still had some adventures with the league, when the new 52 started he was a member of stormwatch. that lasted until 2013, when he joined the government-sponsored justice league of america. his calling hal jordan "old friend" suggests that (as with many other aspects of dc continuity) his pre-new 52 history as a justice leaguer may be part of the timeline once more.
we're pretty confident that page 15's revelation about starro's five butts is new information as of this issue. however, now we are dying to read a silver age-style account of "the five butts of starro!"
ahem. as it happens, starro (along with brainiac) battled a bunch of green lanterns and sinestro corpsmen when he tried to take over the planet xudar in early january 2017-early march 2017 's hal jordan and the green lantern corps issues #8-12. counting starro's butts was probably not foremost in the ring-slingers' minds.
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fists of fussbudget fury (pages 7, 10-12, 18-22)
according to jsa issue #56, black adam's homeland kahndaq is located between egypt and israel, on the northern sinai peninsula. it's seen its share of tragedy, including a devastating supervillain attack in 1600 bc (jsa #43-44), dictatorial rule (ended by black adam and a handful of his jsa teammates in the "black reign" storyline) and more destruction at the hands of the near-omnipotent four horsemen (in 2006-07's 52 miniseries).
we'd like to think that wonder woman's "five good reasons" (page 7) come from one of lucy van pelt's threats in 1965's "a charlie brown christmas." the inspiration for that particular line appears to have come from january 5, 1964's sunday peanuts.
related: dark nights: metal reveals itself as a quintessential wonder woman story
hawkman's mace finally shows up on page 10. although the hawks used a number of ancient weapons -- spears, crossbows, blades, etc. -- the mace has become most closely associated with both of them. specifically, on the "justice league" animated series hawkgirl used an energy-augmented mace almost exclusively.
remember eighth metal from the sword batman retrieved in the casting special? now page 12 says that wonder woman's invisible plane is made of the same stuff. created by william moulton marston (with artist harry peter), said plane debuted in january 1942's sensation comics issue #1, the second part of diana's origin story. when the character's 1986 reboot established that she could fly under her own power (as opposed to being able to "glide on the air currents"), the plane became unnecessary. nevertheless, john byrne brought it back -- sort of -- in november 1996's wonder woman issue #115. there, the lansinarian people of subterranean antarctica gave diana a sentient "morphing disk" which could turn invisible and change into any vehicle. in april 2004's issue #201, while configured as the floating wonderdome headquarters, the disk sacrificed itself to save innocents from a tidal wave. as of february 2007's wonder woman #4, diana had a new invisible jet supplied by batman and using stealth technology. apparently the rebirth-era jet is once again a gift from the gods.
earlier texts weren't that definite about the original invisible plane's origins. september 1945's sensation comics issue #45 said that it was made of "amazsilikon," but by october 1961's wonder woman issue #125 it was made of amazonium, the same material as amazon bracelets. as for how wonder woman received the plane, it was either a gift from her mother (july-august 1951's wonder woman issue #48); the reward for completing a series of labors (february 1956's issue #80); or the mythological winged horse pegasus, altered magically into an aircraft (february 1962's issue #128). in that light, being made of eighth metal is as good an origin as any.
page 12 also alludes to the relatively-recent trope of a batman/wonder woman romance. it goes back at least to the 2002 jla storyline "the obsidian age" (august 2002-january 2003, issues #67-75), written by joe kelly and pencilled by doug mahnke; wherein a dying batman confesses his attraction to diana. although the "justice league" animated series also teased such a relationship, it didn't go much of anywhere in the comics. in january 2004's jla issue #90, kelly and artist chriscross closed out the subplot with a series of imaginary vignettes illustrating the hypothetical union's potential triumphs and tragedies.
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of course, the "merciless" batman of earth negative-12 is the product of a doomed batman/wonder woman romance. the batman: the merciless special opens with him cradling her body and noting that they fought their last battle "together." this is an ironic counterpoint to the batman who laughs characterizing wonder woman (on page 18) as someone who fights "pointless battles" alone.
in response, wonder woman "recruits" hawkgirl on page 19 by slugging her with the lasso of truth. also known as the lasso of hestia, its links came from the golden girdle of gaea which was forged by the god hephaestus. accordingly, there's probably some metal component which in this situation helped goose the lasso's truth-revealing properties. prior to the 1986 reboot, wonder woman's magic lasso had a similar origin (it was originally aphrodite's girdle) but could compel its captives to obey the wielder's commands. the lasso wasn't part of diana's original arsenal, first appearing in june 1942's sensation comics issue #6.
we've seen plenty evil batmen and a handful of evil superman, but pages 20-22 give us the a good bit of evil (or evil-er) dc denizens. front and center are an energy-powered wonder woman and a cheetah in wonder woman garb. marston and peter created the cheetah for october 1943's wonder woman issue #6. she was socialite priscilla rich, a woman so jealous of wonder woman that she developed a murderous split personality bent on killing the amazing amazon. however, the cheetah pictured here is more likely derived from the barbara minerva were-cat version created by george pérez and len wein for august 1987's wonder woman issue #7 (and who first appeared in full in october 1987's issue #9).
as for the "electric" wonder woman, at first glance it could be a mashup with either doctor cyber or shim'tar. denny o'neil and mike sekowsky created doctor cyber for november-december 1968's wonder woman issue #179, right when the creative team was easing diana into her de-powered super-spy phase. originally the head of a vast criminal organization, after she was disfigured doctor cyber adopted a more hands-on approach, donning a golden mask and energy-blasting exoskeleton. most recently, writer greg rucka and artist liam sharp reintroduced doctor cyber in march 2017's wonder woman issue #15 as an artificial intelligence modeled on a missing research scientist. although she existed primarily in the online realm, his version of doctor cyber was part of barbara minerva's revised cheetah origin, worked with doctor poison and helped summon the witch circe.
george pérez and chris marrinan created shim'tar for september 1989's wonder woman issue #34. just as wonder woman is the champion of themyscira's amazons, shim'tar is the champion of the bana-mighdall amazons who settled in egypt. her wikipedia page theorizes that shim'tar's masked armor makes her an updated version of doctor cyber, but we're not quite convinced. for one thing, an amazon gets to be shim'tar through a contest similar to the one which made diana the champion of themyscira.
otherwise, in the army arrayed against wonder woman and hawkgirl we can see demonic versions of the riddler, two-face, darkseid, bane, gorilla grodd and the flash; and we're guessing that the giant green lizard is beast boy. on page 22 they're joined by an evil green lantern and aquaman.
meanwhile, page 22 closes on more of lucien's library books going up in flames. we'll see how it all ends next issue!
what did you spot in dark nights: metal issue #5? let us know in the comments!