WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal #2 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
Death Metal has put the fate of the entire DC Multiverse at stake as Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs seek to subjugate and rewrite all of reality in their hellish image. Now, a handful of heroes have eluded capture and are mounting a desperate last stand, pulling out all the stops as they regroup to take back the DC Universe and overthrow the sinister antagonists once and for all.
As the heroes prepare to lead a daring rescue mission to New Apokolips in Death Metal #2, Batman and Wonder Woman unveil their latest secret weapon to help turn the tide of battle: A massive composite robot featuring the likenesses of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.
The towering robot improves upon its previous incarnation, which had only included the likenesses of Batman and Superman. The robot itself is actually a direct nod to Silver Age DC supervillain the Composite Superman, created by Edmond Hamilton and Curt Swan in 1964's World's Finest Comics #142. A disgraced figure working at the Superman Museum with a grudge against the Man of Steel, Joseph Meach gained powers from a freak accident and decided to take on the merged appearance of Superman and the Dark Knight only to have his powers wear off. Several other enemies would take on the name and appearance of Composite Superman over the years, including the extraterrestrial invader Xan and a fusion of Professional Ivo's nefarious attempts to clone the Justice League.
The idea of a composite robot modeled after the World's Finest was introduced by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness in 2004's Superman/Batman #6. The heroic Toyman, Japanese teenager Hiro Okamura, was commissioned by Bruce Wayne to build the kaiju-sized robot as a gigantic Kryptonite meteor hurtled towards the Earth. Originally intended to be piloted by the two superheroes, Captain Atom suddenly appeared to commandeer the robot instead, driving into deep space where he was able to completely absorb the meteor's deadly radiation before the robot obliterated the meteor in the nick of time, saving the planet. The robot would briefly return in the original Metal as the Batman Who Laughs and his Dark Knights led an invasion from the Dark Multiverse.
What makes the Death Metal incarnation of the robot is that it finally reflects the DCU's core trinity by incorporating Wonder Woman into its design, rather than simply stick to the World's Finest. Like its antecedent, this robot was also designed by Okamura, who now goes by Toymaster. This isn't the first machine that he's created for a Metal crossover either. At the start of Dark Nights: Metal, the young inventor was forced to create machines to fight the Justice League, but he included a way for the robots to combine into a kind of Justice League-controlled Megazord.
Given Diana Prince taking center stage in the current crossover event, the redesigned composite robot is a nice reminder to the importance of the Amazon superhero as she has proven a vital figure in the resistance, including killing the Batman Who Laughs' original body in the opening issue of the event as the story kicks into high gear.
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