DC Comics regularly has “company-wide” events, but it's the publisher's Crises that it seems to put the most behind. Each one tries to be bigger and better than the last, which sometimes works and sometimes... not so much. These Crises are always written and illustrated by DC’s very best writers and artists of any given year, so it makes sense that Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo were given the reins for the latest event that is shaking the very foundations of the Multiverse: Dark Nights: Metal.

“I’ve been planning Metal for as long as I’ve been writing Batman,” Snyder has said, so it's no surprise he and Capullo have been delighting fans with every twist and turn. Metal's huge overarching plot retcons all kinds of comic book continuity and ties together a bunch of seemingly disparate elements, though, as the title suggests, cosmic metals, namely Nth metal, are at the heart of the story. Well, that and Batman.

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As with any big event, DC is using the buzz created by Metal to introduce new characters, and reimagine and relaunch old ones. That brings us to New Age of DC Heroes, eight new comic titles that spin out of Metal: The Silencer, Damage, Sideways, The Terrifics, The Immortal Men, The Curse of Brimstone, New Challengers and The Unexpected. Even if some of these characters (or their aliases) existed before this event, Metal is pretty much changing everything you knew about them. Thus, we thought it would be helpful to detail how all of these titles are connected to Snyder and Capullo’s Dark Multiverse.

DAMAGE

Damage was the superhero alias used by Grant Emerson, the son of the original Atom (aka Al Pratt), who was a member of the Justice Society of America. However, since Emerson’s death in 2009's Blackest Night event, the name has gone unused. Here, writer Robert Venditti and artist Tony Daniel have introduced a brand new character that resurrects the codename.

Much like Emerson, the new Damage got his powers as the result of government experimentation. Ethan Avery signed up for the military hoping to help his country, but instead was turned into a monster. He can transform into a huge, invulnerable, well, hulk. He's basically DC’s version of Marvel's jade giant, except he can only hulk out for an hour at a time.

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Where he ties into Metal is when the behemoth is mentioned in Dark Days: The Casting #1 (2017) by Dubbilex of Cadmus. He tells Batman that Project DNA had been tracking people with cosmic metals in their blood, inferring the project took a dark turn and they began activating them with Nth metal. He then shows Bats a psychic projection of Damage breaking free from a government facility. The first two issues of the Damage title have not broached the cosmic metal in his blood, but it's surely just a matter of time before it becomes a significant plot point.

THE SILENCER

This is the name of an old Shazam villain, but that character is even more obscure than Emerson’s Damage. There doesn’t seem to be any connection between the original and the new Silencer created by writer Dan Abnett and artist John Romita Jr. The fresh take on the moniker is an ex-assassin named Honor Guest. She was formerly employed by Talia Al Ghul when she was in charge of Leviathan. Guest is a meta and has the ability to create a sound-proof bubble. It is suggested that she was the most deadly hired gun in the world before retiring.

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As for her tie to Metal, she is mentioned by Batman and Talia in Dark Days: The Casting #1. Bats is searching for Nth metal and runs into Talia, who has already found the Wizard Shazam’s dagger. He tells her he knows there is a war going on within Leviathan and that she has reactivated The Silencer. Bruce then trades her his recently acquired Sunblade, which is made of 8th metal, for the dagger, which is 9th metal (or Nth metal). Like Avery from our first entry, Guest also likely has cosmic metal in her veins.

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SIDEWAYS

Derek James, aka Sideways, is the only character in DC’s New Age of Heroes that is wholly new. There has not been a Sideways before this title, and until Sideways #1, we had not been introduced to Derek. And yet, unlike our initial two entries, this powered individual’s connection to Metal is much more pronounced and obvious.

RELATED: Dan DiDio Talks Sideways, and Whether It’s ‘DC’s Spider-Man’

Derek and his mother were visiting Gotham when Challengers Mountain appeared in the center of the city. In Sideways #1, we see him fall into a crevice created by the arrival of the mountain. Derek explains later in the issue, “I think I went into whatever energy the mountain was putting off.” We know that he actually fell through a rifts into the Dark Multiverse, where he gained the power to teleport and immediately used his new ability to get back to Gotham. While it seems like his teleportation capability came from his time in the Dark Multiverse, it's more likely he has cosmic metal in his make-up and his time there just sparked his latent powers.

THE TERRIFICS

The Terrifics are a new team consisting of Mr. Terrific, Plastic Man, Metamorpho and a new Phantom Girl. It's shown in Dark Days: The Forge #1 that Mr. Terrific is working with Batman on the Dark Multiverse mystery, and that he knows about the Dark Knight stopping Plastic Man (in a dormant, egg-shaped state) in the Bat Cave. We learn in the pages of Metal that Plas' unstable cells make him a super-conductor for vibrational energy, and he went into his dormant state when he took on too much dark energy. Mr. Terrific has since been hauling the Plas egg around for most of Metal.

RELATED: The Phantom Girl in DC’s The Terrifics Isn’t Who We Thought She Was

The Terrifics #1 just hit stands, and in it we learn that after the events of Metal, Simon Stagg has acquired Mr. Terrific aka Michael Holt’s company, TerrificTech. Holt goes to see Stagg when his T-Sphere’s alert him that the industrialist is accessing dangerous, experimental equipment. He arrives to find a portal open to the Dark Multiverse, and Metamorpho being held in front of it. Terrific brings out the Plastic Man egg in hopes the hero may be able to close the gate. Instead, Terrific, Plastic Man, and Metamorpho are all pulled into the Dark Multiverse. Very shortly after they arrive they meet Linnya Wazzo aka Phantom Girl and discover a distress message from none other than Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse's Tom Strong.

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THE IMMORTAL MEN

This is another new team, but it's led by Immortal Man, a character who was introduced in Strange Adventures #177 in 1965. What we know so far is that Immortal Man heads up a group who wage a secret war against the shadowy House of Conquest. We first heard about this organization in Dark Days: The Forge #1, where we saw Immortal Man talking to an unknown character in the Immortal Men headquarters, The Campus. He tells the unidentified man that he tried to recruit Duke Thomas’ mother, Elaine Thomas many years ago. We find out in the same issue that Duke Thomas, aka The Signal, has the cosmic metal in his blood.

RELATED: Tynion IV & Lee Reveal The Immortal Men’s Dark Nights: Metal Ties

In Metal #2 we meet the Council of Immortals which includes most of DC’s most notable undying heroes and villains including Kendra Saunders, Vandal Savage, Cain, Abel, The Stranger, Uncle Sam, The Wizard Shazam, Ras Al Ghul and Morgaine le Fey. It is unclear how they are connected to The Immortal Men, except that Immortal Man is a member of both parties. While TheImmortal Men #1 won't be released until March 14, there is a preview out that gives us a sneak peek at a new character named Caden Park, who we know will be recruited onto the team.

NEW CHALLENGERS

The original Challengers of the Unknown have played a major role in the Metal storyline. In Dark Days: The Casting #1 we learn Carter Hall worked with the Blackhawks and the Challengers on the Dark Multiverse mystery. Further, it was the Challs who volunteered to go on the mission to find the Dark Multiverse.

RELATED: Snyder & Kubert’s New Challengers Leader May Be An Obscure DC Comics Hero

The Challengers are also mentioned in Dark Nights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1, in which Detective Chimp states, “From my calculations, while escaping the Dark Multiverse, The Challengers of the Unknown used Red Tornado’s wind harmonics as a guide to the House of Heroes, before returning to Earth.” Of course, their biggest impact (no pun intended) in this whole event was when Challenger Mountain appeared smack dab in the middle of Gotham at the beginning of Metal #1.

Although New Challengers #1 doesn’t drop until May, we do know from the solicit that Challenger Mountain will select a new team of five, and that they will follow the orders of the mysterious Professor -- who may be an existing character with deep ties to the original team.

THE CURSE OF BRIMSTONE & THE UNEXPECTED

It is unclear thus far how the last two New Age of Heroes titles, The Curse of Brimstone and The Unexpected, tie into Metal. Without the first issue of either, and not having seen how Snyder's crossover event wraps up in Metal #6, we are still largely in the dark. However, we have collected a couple of scarce details.

The original Brimstone in DC continuity was a creature created by Darkseid. The new Brimstone (pictured above) is Joe Chamberlain of York Hill. This small town kid unwittingly made a deal with the devil that gave him the power of fire and destruction. This fresh take was created by artist Philip Tan and writer Justin Jordan.

We know even less about The Unexpected. DC had a horror/mystery series titled The Unexpected that ran from 1968-1982, and it featured characters like Abel, Madame Xanadu, and The Three Witches. This new comic is written by Steve Orlando with art by Ryan Sook, and is about a four heroes looking for redemption. Presumably the Nth metal and/or the Dark Mutliverse will factor into both of these titles, but we'll have to wait just a bit longer to find out how.