DC released Dark Days: The Casting #1 today, the second of two comics designed to build towards next month's epic Batman story Dark Nights: Metal. But even though we haven't gotten to the main event yet, writers Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV have already delivered some pretty huge bombshells about the shared history of the DC Universe. Scroll down to find out what was revealed in this pivotal prologue issue.
Warning: this article contains spoilers for Dark Days: The Casting #1!
Last month's Dark Days: The Forge #1 revealed that Batman has been keeping Joker locked away in a hidden subbasement of the Batcave. Now freed from captivity, Joker offered his own account of the missing period in between the storylines "Death of the Family" and "Endgame." Joker revealed that his suicidal jump into the bowels of the Batcave exposed him to the same, mysterious metal that's at the heart of Batman's current investigation. That metal restored Joker's face and knitted his broken body back together. However, Joker was disturbed to find the mark of an ancient, demonic Bat demon, one far older than Batman himself.
Joker seems to have stumbled upon the same mystery currently confounding Batman. Moreover, Joker understands that the mystery hinges around an ancient conflict between Bat and Bird tribes. This conflict appears to link Batman, the Court of Owls, Hawkman and Hawkgirl and even the Robins into one sweeping story. As Joker sees it, he's actually the good guy in this particular conflict. And who knows? Maybe he's right.
99% of the time, Batman gets by without relying on super-powers. But every so often even he needs a power boost. And that boost came in the form of Wonder Woman, who delivered Batman a flaming sword called the Sunblade, once wielded by Apollo himself. Wonder Woman also revealed that the blade is forged from "Eighth Metal."
Sadly, it wasn't long before Batman abandoned his godly weapon. He traded the Sunblade to his old lover Talia in exchange for a dagger forged of "Ninth Metal," a dagger created by the wizard Shazam (thereby linking yet another DC hero to this vast web of conspiracy and mystery).
DC recently revealed the "Dark Matter" imprint, a new line of comics featuring characters and concepts spinning out of Dark Nights: Metal. This issue offered readers their first glimpse of several of these characters, including the revamped Challengers of the Unknown. Snyder and Tynion that the original incarnation of that team was spearheaded by Carter and Shiera as a means of investigating the massive cosmic mystery that is the Dark Multiverse.
Other teases in this issue focus on The Silencer, a shadowy killer employed by Talia and the League of Assassins, and Damage, now re-imagined as a Hulk-like super-soldier fighting to maintain control over the monster within.
Since DC Rebirth began last year, Batman has been busy training Duke Thomas to become his next sidekick. Throughout that process, Batman has been adamant that Duke isn't simply the next heir to the Robin mantle, but rather something new. This issue offered some clues as to what Batman means, with Joker revealing that Duke and his mother are actually metahumans.
Duke's powers manifested themselves for the first time in this issue, as he was able to see a vision of the unfinished machine Batman used to restore his mind in "Superheavy" and rebuild it using Green Lantern's ring. This issue even apparently revealed Duke's future superhero codename - "The Signal."
Joker didn't just reveal the Duke is a metahuman, he also revealed the hidden secret linking many of the metahumans throughout the DCU. The same metal that healed Batman and Joker in "Endgame" also exists in the blood of many other heroes. It's the source of their powers much in the way that the mutant and Inhuman genes are for many heroes in the Marvel Universe. As Joker reveals, the very word "meta" is derived from "metal."
The word "Crisis" is one that carries a lot of weight in the DCU. From 1986's Crisis on Infinite Earth's to 2005's Infinite Crisis to 2008's Final Crisis, these stories have dealt with massive, existential threats to the entire DC multiverse. And in perhaps the biggest tease in Dark Days: The Casting, Joker teased that a new Crisis is looming for the DCU.
We assume Joker is alluding to the upcoming conflict in Dark Nights: Metal, where a group of evil Batmen from the parallel dimension called "The Dark Multiverse" will be invading the DCU. This issue ends with Batman trying and failing to peer through the dimensional barriers and into the Dark Multiverse. He doesn't succeed, but these evil Batmen certainly see him. The issue ends with a glimpse of these shadowy villains and their leader, the so-called "true father of Batman."
Whether Joker is alluding to the events of Dark Nights: Metal or another, even bigger conflict to come, the fact that the word Crisis is being bandied about suggests that the very fabric of the DCU is about to shift once again.
Let us know what you think of these major developments in the comments below, and be sure to check out our review for Dark Days: The Casting #1.
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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