Scott Snyder Promises Big Things for Hawkman, Martian Manhunter

SPOILER WARNING: The following interview contains major spoilers for Dark Nights: Metal #5 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, on sale now.

This week sees the release of Dark Nights: Metal #5, the penultimate issue of the bombastic, guitar-squealing epic that's been careening it's way through the DC Universe for the better part of a year. We sat down with writer Scott Snyder to talk, not just about this weeks issue, but the spirit his and artist Greg Capullo's event hopes to inject straight into the core of the multiverse.

CBR: This past week included Colorist Appreciation Day, so I wanted to start off by getting some perspective on your collaborators -- not just Greg Capullo, but your inker Jonathan Glapion and your colorist FCO Plascencia. When you approach these guys with a concept like, "Okay, I need a giant laser that can fire a beam into the center of the universe…" What does the design process look like?

Scott Snyder: [Laughs] I have a few relationships with people -- with those guys and people like Jock, Raphael Albuquerque, Sean Murphy -- where I can be like, "Look, dude, I'm going for this, this is the feeling of it, this is the energy, but I'm gonna leave it completely to you design wise." And then, as a team, these people come back with something that's so far beyond what you could imagine.

The first time we ever really took that risk, that veered away not just in story but in complete artistic vision was back in Zero Year -- so as a Colorist Appreciation Day nod specifically, FCO was so key with that one. I went to him one-on-one and said, "Look, we need this to look so not like anything that's ever happened in a Batman comic." And he came back and was like, "What if I eliminate browns, greys…" All those kinds of traditional "Batman" colors. So we wound up going with pinks, greens -- and it was great. I loved it. The spirit of arc, the whole lexicon of the thing, it's all translated by color.

Now, especially when you get to Metal #5 and #6, the crazy's like, dialed up to like 11-plus, you really need people like this for your team. #5 sets the stage but #6 is the real finale -- you've got Plastic Man coming out of his egg, becoming like the craziest permutation of himself, you've got Joker dragons, the person in the bandages is unwrapped -- all kinds of crazy. So you really need people FCO, Jonathan and Greg to trust.

Speaking a little bit about Plastic Man, here we get some more info about exactly why his situation is as weird as it's been throughout Metal. And not to spoil too much or say that I don't think Eel is a hero, but it's a pretty surprisingly altruistic turn for him. Can you talk a bit about what inspired this Rebirth for him?

The idea was to keep his origin kind of as it was, he's kind of a neerdowell and a thief, but the vat that he falls into is this cosmic material that's beyond his comprehension. For a while, he's just excited to change his form, even if it drives him a little crazy -- but what we wanted to do was keep him in that anti-hero mode but then give him a very heroic motivation. So, all this dark energy is rising, everyone's fears are running through Plastic Man's head, and he's now comprised of this material that's attuned to the multiverse so -- imagine that you're able to change your shape and you're tuned in like a radio to everyone's worst nightmares. It would be driving you insane. So his thought is "I can't control my form anymore, so let me compress myself into this -- [Laughs] -- this egg, so I can block everything out as best I can."

Now, he's afraid to come out of that safety zone because he's afraid he might become somebody's worst nightmare. So, spoilers, but in the next issue he has to decide what to do -- make a gigantic play for himself and be this sort of huge hero in this giant moment, or he needs to stay in the egg and... [Laughs] You can probably guess which one it is, but it's one of my favorite pages in the whole thing.

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We very recently got Hawkman Found from Jeff Lemire and Bryan Hitch, which gave us a look at how Carter ended up where he's at right now. This week, we get a sort of bigger look at just what his role is currently -- and I've gotta be honest here -- it looks pretty bleak. Are things for Hawkman really as hopeless as they look right now?

I actually think that's a really good way to comment on sort of the whole thing that Metal is building towards. The story is deeply about those moments when you look around and all you see are the worst versions of yourself, and the only roads are the ones that lead back to the darkest places. We wanted to get to a point with #5, and with The Wild Hunt that I'm doing with Grant Morrison for February, to really drive that home.

There are times when you step out of your comfort zone and you go explore and what you find is really scary. But what we want from the end is the reward of what these characters are about -- making us braver in the face in the things we don't think we can face by ourselves. So, in that way, Hawkman has many many stories to come when this is all over. I don't want to give away exactly the form they're going to take, but he's likely is not going to keep being a giant scary monster. [Laughs]

Kendra as well, she has a very big role to play. We didn't want to bring these characters back for a stand-up-and-clap moment. The reason characters like Martian Manhunter have been away, and the reason he's back -- it's all huge. I can promise you that. J'onn is very much returned to center stage.

Metal was always intended to have some pretty big consequences, and #5 really starts to set the stage for them in ways that seem scary but will be celebratory by the end. They'll ultimately ingender a lot of new story, a lot of new books, a lot of new character direction. We want it to be something that you read and feel rewarded for.

Issue #5 is really the beginning. It's opening up towards all the stuff we have planned.

And I'll throw in this just as a caveat: the fact that Brian Bendis is over at DC now -- I was just out at the office cementing plans into the summer, and not only what he has planned for what he's bringing, but just the spirit of what he's doing, the celebratory aspect, the collaborative aspect, he and I are so in sync. I really feel like Metal will be an on ramp to an incredible summer. I'm really proud of what we're putting together.