WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Dark Nights Death Metal: Trinity Crisis #1 by Scott Snyder, Francis Manapul, Ian Herring and Tom Napolitano, available now.

The Robin King has quickly become one of the breakout characters of Dark Nights: Death Metal. Introduced in Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Dark Nights: Death Metal #3, the character’s origin was presented in Peter J. Tomasi and Riley Rossmo’s “King of Pain” story in Dark Nights Death Metal: Legends of the Dark Knights #1. The surprise contained within the latter was the Robin King isn’t a dark version of Robin at all, as initially presumed by most. Instead, a deeply disturbed young Bruce Wayne adopted the role shortly after murdering his parents.

In Snyder and Francis Manapul’s Dark Nights Death Metal: Trinity Crisis #1, The Robin King explains why took on the identity of Robin, rather than a Batman like all his other Dark Multiverse counterparts.

In Trinity Crisis #1, the Robin King battles Harley Quinn, Swamp Thing, Jonah Hex and Jarro. While facing Harley, he reveals that her counterpart on his world deduced that he was actually Bruce Wayne -- and nearly defeated him, too. But The Robin King produces that Harley’s mallet -- the same mallet he claims to have killed her with. As he takes a shot at the Harley in front of him, he revealed that everyone on his world believed he “was a bat, a sad boy, mourning his parents in darkness. Not a robin singing inside.”

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Robin King Mallet

In “King of Pain,” young Bruce cleverly hid his dark urges, even staging his parents’ murder to appear as though they were in fact killed by Joe Chill, rather than Bruce, who ultimately murdered all three that night. The only one who clearly saw Bruce’s dark nature was Alfred, who was also later killed by Bruce. This Bruce was a very troubled boy, and Tomasi and Rossmo’s story showed that he was disturbed even going back to his infancy.

But with all his caretakers dead, Bruce didn’t have to hide who he was any longer. He could now openly sing, so to speak -- like a robin, rather than pretend to mourn parents he willingly killed. In Trinity Crisis #1, the Robin King reveals he took on the role then because he didn’t have to hide in the darkness anymore, and he could now openly “sing,” and freely display his dark and evil nature.

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The admission addresses a seeming omission in Tomasi and Rossmo’s story, namely why that world’s Bruce would adopt the role of a Robin, in a reality that never even saw a Batman. “King of Pain” didn’t openly address the parallel between Bruce’s “coming out” as an evil child and that of a robin cheerfully singing its own nature. However, Bruce’s troublesome transformation makes more sense through the lens of Snyder and Manapul’s story. Trinity Crisis #1 also makes the argument that a Robin from the Dark Multiverse can be even more terrifying than an evil Batman. Batman, by the character’s very nature after all, was already prone to darkness. But a Robin, originally created as a kind of antidote to that same darkness, is arguably more disturbing when consumed by it.

The Robin King stands to appear in Dark Nights: Death Metal #4, on sale October 13. The character could also make an appearance in Dark Nights Death Metal: Speed Metal #1, on sale September 22, and Dark Nights Death Metal: Multiverse’s End #1, on sale September 29.

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