'Dark Nights: Death Metal' #1 champions the sprawling DC Metaverse by encouraging an 'Anti-Crisis'
Spoilers for 'Dark Nights: Death Metal' #1
DC Comics has long had an escalation problem ever since its most iconic crossover event 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' was unveiled. Meant to fix the DC Universe's complicated continuity, the Crisis merged all of DC's disparate Earths into one, merging the histories of the Multiverse's various heroes. Unfortunately, that still left a lot of continuity confusion, which DC tried to fix again in its next Crisis. This happens repeatedly, with DC resetting its Multiverse each time, but it seems that 'Dark Nights: Death Metal' may have finally found a way to put an end to the endless escalation of Crises.
In the new dystopic DCU, Wonder Woman comes across a Wally West who still retains Doctor Manhattan's godlike powers, including the cosmic awareness. In a double-spread page, Wally explains every Crisis that's come before, starting with 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' and leading all the way up to 'Dark Nights: Metal,' claiming that each of these Crises deals with a force he calls "Crisis Energy."
"Anti-Life, Chaos Magic, the forces of Doom. All power that disrupts, that takes instead of gives, power based in selfishness, greed, predation," he says. "Crisis Energy looks to shatter connection and make only one moment important." In other words, every Crisis that's come before has sought to make itself the most important event in DC history, and that's where the problem lies. It's definitely meta-commentary on DC's endless reboots, and an apology of sorts for them, much in the same way that 'DC: Rebirth' was. Every time the DC Multiverse gets a new reboot, classic stories are more or less erased from canon. Fans are left wondering which stories matter and which ones don't, and every Crisis makes that question all the more confusing. One of the themes of 'Dark Nights: Death Metal' appears to be that "It all matters" and that DC's ever-escalating Crises have been interfering with that message.
For the first time, DC's latest crossover is attempting to not erase more of DC's fragmented history, but to bring it back. Perpetua, in her quest to erase the Multiverse, is painted as the villain for trying to de-clutter DC canon. Wonder Woman and Wally West, for their part, are formulating a plan to create the DC Metaverse's very first Anti-Crisis -- something that celebrates DC canon instead of trying to reduce it to pull new audiences in. From the start, the 'Metal' saga has pulled in as many disparate elements of DC canon as possible, including obscure elements such as the Sandman, the Challengers of the Unknown, and the long-forgotten Plastic Man, and 'Dark Nights: Death Metal' is no different, with Sgt Rock, the Black Lantern Ring, and more. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are all about including everything that makes the DC Universe special, no matter how strange, and the Anti-Crisis would appear to be the manifestation of that.
Though it might seem at first glance that 'Dark Nights: Metal' is attempting to expand the scope of a DC crossover event past anything we've ever seen before, the Anti-Crisis might be the one event that actually attempts to de-escalate things. No more events that try to rewrite history, 'Death Metal' wants to you know that the silly stories, the dark stories, and everything that made you fall in love with DC matters.
The next issue of 'Dark Nights: Death Metal' releases July 14, wherever comics are sold.
