Did DC Secretly Reveal the Death of The Batman Who Laughs?

On the cover of Dark Nights: Death Metal #2, did DC Entertainment accidentally reveal the fate of The Batman Who Laughs, Dark Nights: Metal‘s central antagonist and one of the biggest new villains created at DC in the last decade? It’s hard not to notice that Wonder Woman, who is front and center on the cover and wielding a chainsaw powered by her Lasso of Truth, is wearing a skull around her waist that has the visor worn by The Batman Who Laughs on it. And while it seems unlikely that the villain could die so soon in the sequel, bear in mind that he has an army who could take over for him.

So, yeah, it’s probably just a badass image like you would get on a metal album cover — something that makes perfect thematic sense with the book the cover will be on — but it’s possible it’s not. Imagine, for instance, how crazy the story could be if the heroes that have been Jokerized by The Batman Who Laughs are stuck that way, trying to kill our heroes, and suddenly without either a guiding hand or the one person who could reveal how to fix them.

You can check the cover out for yourself below.

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.”

“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.