WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Justice League Dark #1 by Jame Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez Bueno, Raul Fernandez, Brad Anderson and Rob Leigh, in stores now.


In a way, the obscure DC character known as Nightmaster was the unsung hero of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Dark Nights: Metal. After all, when the world's superheroes came under brutal attack by Barbatos' evil Batmen, Superman, Wonder Woman and what few heroes had the chance to escape the initial onslaught all found refuge in the hero's Oblivion Bar, an establishment located in a pocket universe outside of reality. The preferred watering hole of the DC Universe's magical crowd, it became the DCU's last safe haven during Metal, the one place where the remaining superheroes could regroup and plot their next plan of attack.

However, it wasn't long before the Batman Who Laughs and his cannibalistic Robins invaded the establishment, forcing the heroes to evacuate in the process. However, Jim Rook, the Nightmaster, proprietor and barman of the Oblivion Bar, remained behind to fend off the evil Dark Knight in order to allow the heroes to make their escape. In the end, the Batman Who Laughs made easy prey of the magical hero, and the DCU was left a little more empty because of it.

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Now, Metal is over, and the DCU moves on. In Justice League Dark #1, a series that deals with the immediate fallout of the Dark Multiverse's incursion, we learn that the Oblivion Bar is under new management: Bobo, aka Detective Chimp.

Detective Chimp Oblivion Bar

Upon his death, Jim left the Oblivion Bar to Bobo. He also left the simian investigator his weapon, the Sword of Night, and his responsibility as the Nightmaster, to protect the magical realm of Myrra. Traci, the new barmaid of the Oblivion (and daughter of another obscure magical character from DC history, Dr. Thirteen), has been hired by Bobo to tend bar, teasing her boss by calling him Nightmaster. And while it somewhat angers the primate to be referred as such, it saddens him even more because he knows that it is true, and that his friend is truly gone.

Jim Rook was a close ally of Detective Chimp, and with his death, all of the Nightmaster's responsibilities fall on the ape's shoulders. It might remind him of the loss he suffered, but Bobo can't ignore the fact that he is the DCU's new Nightmaster. The sword of Night is his, as is the Oblivion Bar. He is all that stands between Myrra and its destruction and, whether he likes it or not, he has to become the new stalwart of all magical users in the DC Universe... especially if they hope to survive what is to come.

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