WARNING: The following contains spoilers for “I Am Here” in 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, available now.

At the end of Dark Nights: Death Metal #1, the Batman Who Laughs was killed by Wonder Woman -- but the maniacal villain wouldn't be out of the game for long. In the following issue, his followers transplanted his brain into the body of an alternate Bruce Wayne who had the abilities of Watchmen's Dr. Manhattan. When the procedure was done, the Batman Who Laughs gained Manhattan's god-like powers, and he reshaped himself not as a glowing blue being, but as the nightmarish Darkest Knight.

Dark Nights: Death Metal: Legends of the Dark Knights #1, answers questions about the character, revealing both his origin and his glorious name: the Batmanhattan.

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The Dark Multiverse is home to an infinite number of worlds born of the nightmares of the main DC Universe. Plenty of these nightmares have already taken form in bizarre variations of the Dark Knight, from the Murder Machine and the Red Death to Darkfather and the Batmage. Such is the case for Batmanhattan.

In his universe, Bruce Wayne's history diverged from that of the mainstream DC Universe when he found the Comedian's button in his Batcave. Fans know that this is a reference to the 2016 comic DC Universe: Rebirth #1, which ended with Batman finding the yellow smiley face button embedded in the rock of his cave. This would spark a search for the button's origin, which led directly to Doomsday Clock. However, the man who would become the Batmanhattan did things differently in his corner of the multiverse.

By studying the button, this Bruce Wayne attempted to replicate its unique energies. In order to do that, he built his very own intrinsic field generator -- the very machine that would give Jon Osterman his powers in the original Watchmen. Osterman was transformed into Dr. Manhattan after an accident trapped him in the machine as it turned on. The case was similar for Bruce Wayne -- only it was no accident: it was the Batman Who Laughs who trapped him in the machine and turned it on, assuring the creation of a powerful super-being.

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Like Jon Osterman, it took months for Bruce Wayne to learn to put his atomized body back together. When he finally did, the Batman Who Laughs was there waiting. With his energy knife, he lobotomized the Batmanhattan, leaving him brain-dead.

Then, the Batman Who Laughs kept this version of Bruce Wayne hidden away from everything and everyone, safekeeping him for his final, terrible plan to become the most powerful being in the entire Multiverse and has quite possibly made himself the most powerful version of the Dark Knight ever.

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