Warning: The following contains spoilers for Death Metal: Multiverse's End #1 by James Tynion IV, Juan Gedeon, Mike Spicer, and Rus Wooton, on sale now.
There have been many interesting new Dark Knights introduced in the pages of the Dark Nights: Death Metal series and the various one-shots. Characters like Robin King, Batmage, and Darkfather are dark, powerful, and pretty ruthless characters. There are others, though, that are a little more comical. Batmobeast and B-Rex don't inspire so much fear as they do a second questioning glance. A new character was introduced in Death Metal: Multiverse's End #1 that may have jumped the shark as far as Dark Knights go. Did the writer's go too far with Baby Batman, or is this character being used solely for satirical means?
This isn't the first time a Baby Batman has been in the pages of Death Metal. In the story, "I Shall Become" in Death Metal: Legends of the Dark Knights, by Garth Ennis, Joelle Jones, Jordie Bellaire, and Rob Steen, After experiencing an unknown death, Batman uploads his mind into cyberspace and connects it to his own genetically engineered body. This is Bruce's way of achieving immortality. Batman's dreams of grandeur are halted when he realizes that the new body he put his consciousness into is the body of a baby. Known as "Batbaby," this is not the same character that is found in Multiverse's End.
Perpetua has successfully planted tuning forks in the remaining multiverse worlds like Earth-3, Earth-29, and Earth-X, and these forks are gathering the psychic energy of people from Earth-Prime which is fueling Perpetua's mission. She aims to tear the multiverse down and rebuild it as she wants. A ragtag team of Owlman, President Superman, Kid Flash, Captain Carrot, Guy Gardner, and a few others went to Earth-X to try and stop her. As the Justice Incarnate team tries to save people from the various dying Earths, Baby Batman appears leading the Rainbow Batman Corps, which are multiple Batmen each wielding various colored Lantern rings. He warns them to hand over the people of Earth-Prime, or else. "I'll skin you all alive," Baby Batman threatens, "to make a quilt for my crib. Don't test me. I'm very, very cranky."
It's bad enough to be threatened by a baby, but it's worse when the baby is a dark version of Batman that looks like a cross between Baby Yoda and M.O.D.O.K from the Marvel Universe. Baby Batman might not be as scary looking as the Darkest Knight, but he is powerful enough to lead the Rainbow Batman Corps.
Kid Flash says what the other heroes are thinking: "Are we really about to beat up a baby?" A large fight ensues and Owlman joins in the fray after John Stewart convinces him that in every reality there's a version of Owlman that will live on. Before detonating a bomb that takes out the Rainbow Batman Corps and Baby Batman, Owlman tells Baby Batman, "You evil Baby Batman from the Dark Multiverse... you're a dumb idea. Nobody is going to remember you."
Besides the heroics involved, Owlman also seems to serve as a little light-hearted satire on the ridiculousness of some of the Dark Knights that have been introduced in Death Metal. Besides Owlman's sacrifice giving them all hope, he also eliminates one of the sillier Dark Knights of the series.