After reading a review a few days ago of a new issue of a Batman comic involving a battle between the Dark Knight and the Batman Who Laughs, I decided to read a collection containing an introduction to the character. Basically the idea behind the Batman Who Laughs is a Batman-Joker mashup created when an alternate-universe Batman is infected with a Joker toxin that rewrote his morals while retaining his ability for strategic thinking. The result instant supervillain.

An evidently it's a popular one, too. What a started out as one of a number of new "Nightmare Batmen" created for an "event" storyline has evidently become a new fan favorite. And while I can see why, it strikes me as a concept that can get old pretty damn quickly. Because, like the Maestro Hulk and the Maker version of Reed Richards in Marvel comics, while creating a powerful evil doppelganger makes for an interesting one-off, it wouldn't take too many defeats for the Batman Who Laughs to become another sad part of the "rogue's gallery." ( )

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Dark Nights: Metal – Dark Knights Rising by Dan Abnett, James T Tynion IV, Frank Tieri, Peter J. Tomasi, Joshua Williamson, and Sam Humphries (illustrated by Riley Rossmo, Ethan Van Sciver, Tyler Kirkham, Philip Tan, Francis Manapul, Riccardo Federici, Tony S. Daniel, and Carmine Di Giandomenico) is the third graphic novel in this series which turns the DC Universe on its head as it is being invaded by the Dark Multiverse. This graphic novel collects the seven Dark Nights: Batman tie-in one-shots and Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1.

Seven Batmen appear from the Dark Multiverse, The Red Death, The Devastator, The Merciless, The Murder Machine, The Drowned, The Dawnbreaker, and the Man Who Laughs all of them are a twisted take on the Dark Knight. The seven Batmen have only one thing in mind for Earth-0, total destruction.

This issue of Dark Nights: Metal – Dark Knights Rising by Dan Abnett, James T Tynion IV, Frank Tieri, Peter J. Tomasi, Joshua Williamson, and Sam Humphries (illustrated by Riley Rossmo, Ethan Van Sciver, Tyler Kirkham, Philip Tan, Francis Manapul, Riccardo Federici, Tony S. Daniel, and Carmine Di Giandomenico) was a surprisingly energetic and well executed story. I really thought it would be a cheesy, silly romp through the Multiverse, or another run of the mill alien invasion story, but I got a dark, twisted, and original story.

The graphic novel starts with Batman in each of the seven Multiverses decides to improve themselves for their own good and for the good of their respective Multiverse. Of course, not everything goes as planned and the amalgams of Batman and other heroes goes awry.

The Red Death finds Batman merging with The Flash, The Murder Machine is created after Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s father figure and butler, was murdered so naturally Wayne creates and artificial intelligence machine to mimic him while tricking Cyborg into the scheme. In another universe, young Bruce Wayne receives the Green Lantern ring at the moment his parents were murdered (this is not the first time Batman got to wear the ring). Young Bruce corrupts the ring with his inner darkness to become The Dawnbreaker. The Drowned is a female Bruce Wayne who changes her DNA to become an Atlantean warrior. Fighting side by side with Wonder Woman against Ares, Batman fails to save her but becomes the new Ares, calling himself The Merciless. As Superman starts destroying everything Batman sees no other choice but to merge his DNA with that of a modified Doomsday Virus to become The Devastator. The primary mash-up is that of Batman and The Joker, which become The Batman Who Laughs, a big threat that recruits the rest of the Dark Knights from the Dark Multiverse.

I thought some of the pages were a bit wordy though, and that funky font was difficult to read. The art is very cool, not great but works for with the story.

This graphic novel was a lot of fun, very dark and gritty. I really enjoyed the origin story of each one of the Batmen and to find out what drives them to join forces with the Batman Who Laughs. The graphic novel also shows how the various Bruce Waynes are willing to sacrifice themselves if that is the only way they see to benefit the world.
Only that it doesn’t really work out. ( )

That was a lot of Nightmare Batmen. Each of them has a story in this one, and then we get a story on Blackhawk Island with the Scientists and Bobo as well.

I'm not gonna go over all of the Batmen here, but, I definitely liked some more than others. I liked Dawnbreaker a lot, who got a Green Lantern Ring and then did new and different things with it. The story line with the Red Death Batman was fun as well, he has Barry Allen's powers (and maybe more). The Joker Batman was the most disturbing of course.

I also found it interesting that a lot of the 'bad' Batmen stories even had (mostly) a teeny bit of good in each of them too. Intriguing.

I received this book via Netgalley thanks to DC Entertainment. ( )