Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo -- along with collaborators Jonathan Glapion and FCO Plascencia -- are reuniting for a sequel to their best-selling event Dark Nights: Metal, appropriately titled Dark Nights: Death Metal. The first issue of the long-teased follow-up will hit the stands on May 13 and, as you would expect with an event like this, comes with a variety of variant covers to choose from. You can check some of those images out below. Artists who will contribute variants to Dark Nights: Death Metal #1 include Stanley "Artgerm" Lau, David Finch, and Francesco Mattina. There will also be covers by Capullo, including black and white and pencil variants of the main cover.
Dark Nights: Death Metal is DC's follow-up to their 2017-18 series Dark Nights: Metal, which brought widespread changes to the DC universe and introduced fans to the Dark Multiverse and a popular villain, the Batman Who Laughs, who has been a featured character in almost every major story Snyder has written since. The series will also include several "Metalverse" one-shots throughout the summer months, expanding the vast world created by the Death Metal storyline (presumably similar to the one-shots that gave backstories for the Dark Knights in Metal).
"I've been waiting to do this story since we finished Dark Nights: Metal," Snyder said in a statement. "As much as it was a complete event, we left some threads hanging there for sure. I'd hoped that if people liked the first series enough, we'd have a chance to set up something bigger, and that's our plan for Death Metal."
"For all of us, Dark Nights: Death Metal is about the fun factor," added Capullo. "Comics should be fun, bombastic, and over-the-top. This series is going to be exciting and jam-packed with great 'metal-esque' moments that will make fans lose their minds when they see them."
The series spins out of the events of Scott Snyder's Justice League run and the Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen miniseries by James Tynion IV. The Earth has been consumed by Dark Multiverse energy, having been conquered by the Batman Who Laughs and his evil lieutenants, corrupted versions of Shazam, Donna Troy, Supergirl, Blue Beetle, Hawkman, and Commissioner Jim Gordon. Some heroes, like Wonder Woman and the Flash, have made compromises as they negotiate to keep humanity alive in this hell-born landscape. Others, like Batman, are part of an underground resistance looking to take back control of their world. Superman is imprisoned, cursed to literally power Earth's sun for eternity.
But a mysterious figure provides Wonder Woman with vital information she might be able to use to rally Earth's remaining heroes to resist the Batman Who Laughs. Can the Justice League break away from the Dark Multiverse and defeat Perpetua?
"Dark Nights: Metal was an absolute game-changer for DC," said DC SVP and editor-in-chief Bob Harras. "It was a crazy roller-coaster ride that gave us not only the Batman Who Laughs, but a story that was so crazy over-the-top, it kept our readers on the edge of their seats with every issue, and I expect Scott, Greg, FCO, and Jonathan will tell a story with even higher stakes, and definitely more Joker dragons!"
Dark Nights: Death Metal is a six-issue monthly series with issues #1-3 shipping in May, June, and July. The series will take August off, and then ship again in September, October, and November.
