How Are Batman and Hawkman Connected in Dark Nights: Metal?

Batman and Hawkman have a lot in common.

By Jesse Schedeen

DC's epic crossover event Dark Nights: Metal is kicking off next month, and that story has been a major focus at Comic-Con this week. We had the chance to chat with writer Scott Snyder on the show floor today, and Snyder revealed some juicy new details about the Dark Knights and the ties he's building between Batman and Hawkman.

Snyder reiterated the point that while Metal is an extension of his long Batman saga, it's also a story about the Justice League as a whole. Snyder said,  "I started thinking about it - what if I developed this mystery that Batman and then the Justice League start following. Because it's really a Justice League story even more than a Batman story. It becomes the first mystery that Batman just does not want to solve, because it all seems to point back to him in a way that's terrifying to him. So it's almost like the first detective case he doesn't want to solve."

Snyder also co-wrote two prologue issues, Dark Days: the Forge and Dark Days: The Casting, which featured Hawkman in a very prominent role and teased at the massive scope of the Metal conflict. Snyder revealed that he once considered writing a Hawkman comic after wrapping his initial Btaman run. As he developed Metal, he took the opportunity to build a connection between the mythologies of Batman and Hawkman. "Hawkman is the detective of history, and Batman is the detective of the present. So what if there was a torch passed from Hawkman to him, even unbeknownst to Batman. Or Hawkman hid something that Batman would find and pick up this great mystery about how Nth Metal is transmitting energy from somewhere beyond the multiverse, and nobody knows where."

Earlier today, DC revealed a new teaser image featuring the Dark Knights, twisted mash-ups of Batman and his fellow Justice Leaguers that will serve as the main villains in Metal. But one Dark Knight was conspicuously absent from that lineup - the Joker-flavored Batman Who Laughs. Snyder didn't want to reveal too much about this secretive character, but he did drop a few tantalizing clues. "What I can tell is that he's my favorite one. It's actually a What If? kind of story, that character, that I've been thinking about for a long, long time. That one-shot's going to be particularly special. He's also the leader of all the Dark Knights. He's also got something on a chain that's pretty bad-ass, as well."

Dark Nights: metal #1 will hit stores on Wednesday, August 16.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

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