Dark Nights: Metal did more for DC’s cosmology than any event they’ve had since Crisis on Infinite Earths. And as the gift that keeps on giving (alternate timelines), DC is capitalizing by pushing out evil versions of major crossovers. The latest two: Blackest Night and Infinite Crisis. These stories join previously announced alternate takes on Batman: Knightfall and The Death of Superman.
Each of these books takes an old DC story, asks what might have been if one thing had changed, and then lets a high profile creative team run with the idea, with Lee Weeks (Batman/Elmer Fudd and no it won’t ever stop being weird to type) on covers.
For Blackest Night, Tim Seeley (Grayson, Hack/Slash) and Kyle Hotz (Detective Comics, Annihilation: Conquest – Wraith) switch up the classic Green Lantern event. In the Dark Multiverse, the dead win, and the universe’s only hope is Sinestro, with the powers of both a White and Black Lantern – the Limbo Lantern. He recruits Dove, Lobo and Mister Miracle to try and win for the forces of life. No word if Limbo’s most famous inhabitant – Merryman – joins the team.
James Tynion IV (Justice League, the forthcoming Something is Killing the Children), Aaron Lopresti (Wonder Woman) and Matt Ryan (Damage) go back to the beginning of the event to change Infinite Crisis. Rather than do something like “Instead of Superboy Prime being banished to internet commenting forever where he became a chan nazi probably, he wins” they’re going to stop Maxwell Lord from killing Ted Kord. Kord died discovering Lord’s plot and the eventual oncoming crisis, so keeping him alive changes how the entire thing unfolds.
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Each book is out in November. They follow October’s releases, with some pretty big names attached.
Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Batman: Knightfall reteams Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgins (Batman: Gates of Gotham, a must-read if you are a fan of Batman, Penguin or bridge architecture) as the writers, with art from the exceptionally talented Javier Fernandez (Nightwing). In this world, Knightquest, when Bruce Wayne’s back was healed and he retook the mantle of Batman from Jean-Paul Valley, failed. Saint Batman has spent the last thirty years killing criminals to keep Gotham an idyll, until he’s finally challenged by The Son of Bane.
The Death of Superman pairs Jeff Loveness (the shockingly good Judas and also a writer on Rick & Morty) with Brad Walker (the seminal Abnett/Lanning run on Guardians of the) to turn Lois Lane, grief stricken by Superman’s death, into the Eradicator. This feels pretty bananas.
For covers to each of these books, scroll on down. For more on the Dark Multiverse, and presumably the Dark 52 that sprang from Dark Infinite Crisis, stick with Den of Geek!
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