Warning: The following feature contains SPOILERS for Dark Nights: Death Metal The Secret Origin #1.
The latest chapter of the DC Comics' most prominent writers, Scott Snyder and Geoff Johns, taking a stab at themselves and their creations. This ironic attack is delivered by Superboy Prime, who complains about how the multiverse of DC Comics has been ruined by excessive reality-altering crossover events; the same ones Snyder and Johns are famous for writing!
Dark Nights Death Metal is a follow up to both the 2017 Dark Nights Metal event and Scott Snyder's run on the Justice League comic book. The story centers around Snyder's conceit of a Dark Multiverse - made up of all the worlds where the heroes failed - and a new villain, the Batman Who Laughs, from a world where Bruce Wayne's mind became corrupted by The Joker's insanity. With the Batman Who Laughs having obtained god-like power and gathered the Dark Multiverse against the worlds of the regular DC Multiverse, Wonder Woman has likewise united the heroes and villains of the surviving Earths into a massive army ready to fight for all of reality.
This lineup of villains included Superboy Prime, the only superhuman on the world of Earth-Prime, who was created for the Crisis on Infinite Earths event and later transformed into a villain by Geoff Johns for his Infinite Crisis event. The action of Dark Nights: Death Metal The Secret Origin #1 unfolds through his eyes and readers are privy to his thoughts throughout the issue as the final battle with the Dark Multiverse begins. Those thoughts are primarily about how pointless the war is; not because war itself is pointless, but because Superboy Prime is one of the few beings who knows the full history of DC Comics' Multiverse and how it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times since Crisis on Infinite Earths. "Some lame Batman wannabe is doing what a bunch of other villains have already tried to do for some reason," thinks Superboy Prime as he considers the current situation. "Everything in the Universe is turned upside down and jumbled like a greatest and worst hits album. I can't figure out what's going on. And the worst part about it all is... I don't care anymore."
Superboy Prime's comments echo those of many DC Comics' readers in 2020. Thanks to various factors, DC has spent the year trying to finish up and release several long-delayed event books, including Doomsday Clock, Three Jokers and Year of the Villain, in addition to Dark Nights: Death Metal. This glut of stories promising to forever change the DC Multiverse left many readers confused as to the new status quo of their favorite series. The irony is that Superboy Prime's complaints were written by the two writers arguably most responsible for the current state of confusion and the fans' growing indifference in the wake of cross-overload.
Scott Snyder is widely credited with setting the tone for the modern era of Batman, having written a new history for Gotham City with his Gates of Gotham mini-series and co-created the Court of Owls as part of his run on the Batman comic. He's also had a major role in shaping the post-Rebirth era with his run on Justice League and the Dark Nights events. Geoff Johns served as DC Comics' Chief Creative Officer from 2010 through 2018 and was the chief architect behind a reboot that resulted in the formation of the New 52 reality. Johns was also the author of Doomsday Clock and Three Jokers, but was also responsible for major event books like Blackest Night and Flashpoint before he became an executive.
While some are likely to take Superboy Prime's words as an attack on critics, it seems clear that Snyder and Johns are poking fun of themselves and DC Comics with this story. It is heartening to see two creators can be so successful and still manage to laugh at themselves. It's also impressive how they manage to sneak this comedic gold into an otherwise powerful chapter of the larger Dark Nights Death Metal event.
