Dark Nights: Death Metal - Everything We Learned from the Metalverse Map - July 1, 2020 at 06:52AM

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal #1 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia and Tom Napolitano, available now from DC.

Even though the crossover is still just getting started, Dark Knights: Death Metal has pushed the few remaining DC heroes to the edge of their sanity and power, forcing many of them to embrace the darkness of a world shaped by the evil god Perpetua and the twisted genius of the Batman Who Laughs if they want any chance of surviving.

While we still don’t know much about the mysterious and absurd Metalverse, a new interactive map from DC illuminates some very important facts about the world, and it offers a few hints about who’s still in a position where they could possibly try to take their world back from the forcesof the Dark Multiverse.

Perhaps the most powerful and important continent in the DC Metalvrse, Gotham now stretches hundreds of miles across and essentially serves as the personal kingdom of the Batman Who Laughs. This massive cityscape is now free of any and all life, save for the massive, dangerous Joker Dragons and hordes of corrupted Robins that move through the city, with both lashing out and killing anyone who treads on the city’s streets. The ruins of Wayne Manor are somewhat removed from the rest of the city, serving as an eternal reminder of the fall of Bruce Wayne being at the core of this world.

In the heart of the city is the new capital constructed by the Batman Who Laughs, the massive Gothic structure Castle Bat. The formerly living city — possibly akin to something like Danny the Street from Doom Patrol — has been turned into a massive fortress that serves as the “beating heart” of the Metalverse. This is one of the few Metalverse locations that was shown in Death Metal #1, where it was used as the place for the Batman Who Laughs to meet with his reluctant lieutenants and deliver them orders.

The Hellcaspe was created by the Batmage, a nefarious magic-using Batman from the Dark Multiverse. Unleashing the dark energies of hell itself onto the world, the continent sees the shattered remains of many magical aspects of the DC Universe. It is home to what’s left of Themyscira, and the former home of the Amazons os now a prison for the world’s worst villains. As Death Metal #1 showed, this area is now watched over by Wonder Woman. The City of Mystery sits on the other side of the island, somewhat defiant to the dark fate of the rest of the local areas. As the home to the Tower of Fate, this area counts generations of wizards and witches among their numbers. Although they are reduced to ghostly forms, they’ve found a way to repel the effects of the rest of the Hellscape from their city.

Nearby, Central City is constantly barraged by Speed Force Storms that cause fragments of hypertime, possibly creating brief flashes of potential futures or creating new realities in these small storms. To the south lies the remains of Gemworld, which is now a shattered kingdom across a broken landscape, and the Burning Green, the remnants of the Parliament of Trees caught in constant flames to keep from restoring the world. This area also includes Fawcett City is the resting place of the shattered Rock of Eternity, which has unleashed the Seven Deadly Sins onto humanity.

To the furthest south of the nation is Skartaris, the frozen wastelands only accessible to those who control ice powers, including Mister Freeze, who is believed to reside in the distant Fortress of Sorrow at the edge of the continent. But perhaps the most enigmatic part of the Hellscape is the Brimstone Bay, home to various monsters and creatures just south of Themysicra. It’s also hinted to be the secret resting place of some unknown force, which could come into play down the line.

The Arkham Wastelands were the place of a massive battle, one last attempt by the heroes to stand up to the Batman Who Laughs. The nuclear-powered Captain Atom ultimately sacrificed himself in a bid to stop the threat of the Dark Multiverse, but he failed and merely turned the surrounding area into a desolate radioactive wasteland. This is the continent protected by Harley Quinn, who uses irradiation-enhanced hyenas as her transport and soldiers. Dangerous and mysterious structures like the Toymaster’s Vault and the new Arkham Asylum still stand, some of the last notable buildings in this ruined land.

The continent has also been severely affected by the Burning Green: To the far north, Slaughter Swamp has been empowered with mystic energies and expanded to the point that it has overtaken Bludhaven and absorbed the city into the fauna. To the deep south, the last remnants of the Red have created the Jungelands, supposedly made of flesh. If one were to make their way through the Junglelands to the very edge of the continent, they would find Blackgate Tower, a former prison that has been seemingly abandoned by the world. Most worrisome though is the Valley of Starro, located near Slaughter Swamp. Home to a Batman who used the power of a captured Starro to take over his world, this veritable dark army slumbers for the time being, which suggests that it could awaken and be used to go to war at any time.

While the Arkham Wastelands are wild and full of corrupted natural life, Megapokpolips is a largely lifeless and mechanical continent. Ruled by Darkfather and specifically built as a means to catch and corrupt Superman, the Anti-Life Equation has been used to conquer this continent completely. The ruins of Metropolis lie in its far north, now controlled by Solaris the Tyrant Sun from atop The Daily Planet building. Machine City One neighbors it, formerly home to the last remaining free artificial intelligence entities. However, this city has been taken over by Batmanhunter and his legion of Manhunters, although it isn’t said for sure whether those are the Oa-built Manhunters or rather the human-based group of the same name.

If the army was in fact the alien androids taken over by a version Batman, it would make sense for their placement just north of the Valley of Rainbow Rings. The valley has become the resting place for countless dead Lanterns from across the universe, their rings lingering with the dead instead of finding new users. This is revealed to be because in this decimated and desolate world, there are none worthy to wield the rings. Not far from the Valley is the remains of Coast City, a ghost town watched over by a Batman who was inducted into the fear-based Sinestro Corps, one seemingly final cosmic joke on Hal Jordan.

To the far south is the newest incarnation of Warworld, a massive fighting ring where the Batmen of the Dark Multiverse throw their greatest foes into death battles for their own amusement. Perhaps the most important place on the continent is the Skyport, a massive space-array that connects the kingdom to their prison base of New Apokolips. Commanded by Darkfather and maintained by his Pararobins, the Skyport is fully controlled by the Alfredboxes, which suggests that Darkfather is in fact a version of Batman who took on the identity and power of Darkseid. New Apokolips hangs above the Metalverse in what used to be the sun and is now a prison for the remaining heroes of Earth and that’s powered by Superman himself.

Finally, there are two notable areas to the furthest northern and southern parts of the Metalverse. The Seven Seas are still ruled over by Aquaman, who has made a reluctant pact with the Batman Who Laughs. He serves alongside Bathomet aboard a Nautilius-class submarine. As part of this arrangement, the Batman Who Laughs spared numerous lives. However, this means Aquaman has to serve as the Admiral of the Black Fleet. Constructed of various aquatic Bat-vehicles, the Black Fleet gives Aquaman — and by extent, the Batman Who Laughs — complete control of the oceans.

To the far north is the Frozen Waste, what remains of the Earth’s poles. Without the sun being used to give heat to the world, the ice has spread throughout the world. Nothing can survive there, with the lands freezing all foolish enough to venture there in seconds. But it’s hinted that people have tried in a bid to find the long-lost Fortress of Solitude. This suggests that it may have some secret weapon that could be used to save the world or it could just be another in a series of hopeless aspects of a world that’s been shaped by the Batman Who Laughs’ most twisted thoughts.

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