WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the story "I Am Here" from the Dark Nights Death Metal: Legends of the Dark Knights #1 by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Tony S. Daniel, Marcelo Maiolo and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
Ever since his debut in the 2017 crossover event Dark Nights: Metal, the Batman Who Laughs has brought the full fury of the Dark Multiverse to the DC Universe and its heroes. In the lead-up to the follow-up crossover, Dark Nights: Death Metal, the Batman Who Laughs was selected by the omnipotent villain Perpetua to become her faithful vassal, traveling back the root of the DCU and rewriting it in his fiendish image while Perpetua began to conquer the entire DC Multiverse. And, as the Dark Multiverse villain receives his latest upgrade, the Batman Who Laughs finally reveals his ultimate goal.
As the Batman Who Laughs has his mind transferred to a Doctor Manhattan-empowered Dark Knight from the Dark Multiverse, he gains the cosmic awareness that Manhattan possessed. Seeing all possible timelines and realities simultaneously, the newly reborn Darkest Knight realizes he has been dreaming small all along. Instead of lording over the main DCU, the Darkest Knight plots to create his own nefarious multiverse, shaped in his image. And more than just creating a multiversal playground to rule over, the Darkest Knight plans to use the power from his multiverse to target Perpetua herself.
Given the precedent for treachery among Perpetua and her lieutenants -- with Perpetua herself drawing power from the conquered Legion of Doom as revealed in Scott Snyder's Justice League run -- it was really only a matter of time before the Batman Who Laughs would turn against his omnipotent benefactor. And once Perpetua is out of the way, the Darkest Knight plots to consume reality after reality to make himself stronger and leave his own Dark Multiverse that will be eternally laughing to his final victory.
The Darkest Knight's newfound cosmic awareness also lets him know of the greatest threat to his bid for power: Wally West. Having attained a degree of Manhattan's cosmic powers at the end of the recently concluded miniseries Flash Forward, the omnipotent speedster has returned from his tour of the DC Multiverse to join Wonder Woman's resistance in the main DCU. Wonder Woman's new plan to defeat the Batman Who Laughs and restore the DC Multiverse has Wally play an integral role and, now aware of this, the Darkest Knight plans to seek out his Manhattan-powered counterpart and take his cosmic energy for himself to grow even stronger before enacting his coup against Perpetua, officially making Wally the most wanted man in the DC Multiverse by dark forces.
While Wonder Woman was seemingly successful in defeating the Batman Who Laughs at the start of Death Metal, the villain has been reborn even stronger than ever in the body of a Dark Multiverse Batman with the powers of Doctor Manhattan. With a heightened awareness of all space and time simultaneously, the Darkest Knight's hunger for conquest has similarly grown exponentially, now seeking to not only reshape a single world but an entire multiverse. With Wally West as both the greatest threat to his rise and the best source of cosmic energy to challenge Perpetua, an epic showdown between the Manhattan-influenced figures is in the making, with the fate of the DC Multiverse hanging in the balance.