WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Tales From the Dark Multiverse: Batman Knightfall and Tales From the Dark Multiverse: Death of Superman, on sale now.

DC's Dark Multiverse is a collection of worlds gone mad. As the Batman Who laughs so eloquently put it, "Imagine if your every fear, each bad decision gave birth to a malformed world of nightmare." And so far, DC's first two Dark Multiverse one-shots have taken two of the best-known DC Universe storylines from the '90s and twisted them into a claustrophobic writhe, giving them outcomes far darker than their original endings.

The original Batman: Knightfall storyline saw Bruce Wayne returning after a long recovery, training with Lady Shiva and getting his mojo back after having his back broken by Bane. He did so to seize back the mantle of the Bat from Jean-Paul Valley -- Azrael -- whose methods had become too violent and his mind far too addled with glorious purpose. Bruce won, reclaiming his cowl and defeating the brainwashed, disturbed Azrael.

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Batman Knightfall Azrael

The Dark Multiverse's Azrael, however, wins. He cripples Bruce, leaving him dismembered and resentful. Gotham falls under Azrael's -- or the new "Saint Batman's" -- fanatical control. When Bruce is freed by the son of Bane and Lady Shiva, he's a shadow of his former self, in body and in mind. Using nanotech bats to build a new, more powerful and fluid form for himself, Bruce becomes a vengeful killer, callously murdering his allies, Shiva and Tourne, after they've helped subdue Jean-Paul valley.

In the original Death of Superman saga, Superman returned from the dead, putting the Reign of the Supermen to an end, wearing a short-lived (thankfully) mullet, and ultimately, making everything right with the world again. In Tales From the Dark Multiverse: Death of Superman, Superman is killed by Doomsday -- just as he was in the original Dan Jurgens-driven epic. But in this version, Clark's death pushes Lois over the edge.

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Lois blames the Justice League and the world at large for Clark's death. And in the wake of his passing, she begins to deeply resent humanity. So, when she absorbs the Eradicator's power at Superman's Fortress of Solitude, she channels her resentment as the new personification of Kryptonian vengeance. This version of Lois is an avenging angel who becomes even more twisted after she accidentally kills Clark again when he rises from the dead in a weakened state.

Next up in the Tales From the Dark Multiverse collection of one-shots is Blackest Night, which had far-reaching effects throughout the DC Universe. In the original, the Black Lanterns are defeated by DC's heroes and all the other Lanterns banishing Nekron, restoring life and recreating some semblance of order. But in the Dark Multiverse, the Black Lanterns win. And with physical embodiments of death on the loose everywhere, the consequences could be utterly catastrophic.

Scott Snyder has openly said a few times that what he has planned for the DCU is very big. This appears to be true, as the Dark Multiverse one-shots seem to be setting up a warped version of the Justice League. So far, there are more than enough Batmen to go around, with an all-new Dark Superwoman in Tales From the Dark Multiverse: Death of Superman. It also looks like there might be a Dark Sinestro or other Green lantern joining the team soon.

Dark Nights: Metal had its own Dark Justice League, of course, and the current Justice League story arc has Perpetua ready to reshape an entire multiverse in her image -- as seen in Justice League #34. Should we also potentially be considering the events of Batman/Superman, which has Superman working to overcome infection by The Batman Who Laughs while he and Batman try to track down other infected heroes.

Lest we forget, those twisted heroes include a sadistic version of Shazam, an equally grotesque shade of Hawkman called Sky Tyrant, and a Dark Multiverse Blue Beetle, who may end up being the most disturbing of them all. If all of these broken heroes are indeed coming together to form a new version of the Injustice League, it may be the most powerful -- and evil -- assortment of its kind ever!

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Everything is coming to a head in the DC Multiverses -- both dark and light -- with more incarnations of DC's heroes and villains appearing everywhere. And DC's darkest team will probably be a few more members strong after mid-November's Tales From the Dark Multiverse: Blackest Night and December's Tales From the Dark Multiverse: Teen Titans: the Judas Contract.

Something has been building for quite a while, even before Dark Nights: Metal -- in Final Crisis, Batman: Court of Owls and more, if you dig deep enough. Perhaps there are further clues in more titles of the past as to what's to come in DC's dark future.

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