History YMMV / DarkNightsMetal

** [[Characters/DarkNightsMetalTheBatmanWhoLaughs The Batman Who Laughs]] is a being born of ComicBook/TheJoker's toxins infecting the [[Characters/BatmanTheCharacter Bruce Wayne]] of Earth-22, giving rise to something new and far more evil that slaughtered his entire world. As the right-hand of Barbatos and leader of the [[Characters/DarkNightsMetal Dark Knights]], the One Who Laughs gleefully gave all for a chance to massacre entire worlds, summoning Barbatos to Earth to annihilate it and torture and kill everything there. Surviving his master's downfall, the One Who Laughs continues massacring others in his path, tries to start entire world wars, attempts to twist Gotham into pitiless monsters like him, and eventually becomes the herald of Perpetua. Betraying her upon achieving a new cosmic awareness, the One Who Laughs rechristens himself the Darkest Knight, vowing to become a bullet to the Multiverse itself as its worlds fall before him. Slaying Perpetua, he unleashes an army of the worst he has to offer, plotting to turn all existence [[InTheirOwnImage into a nightmarish reflection of his own soul]] in an eternal chaos that will devour itself until nothing remains.

** Scott Snyder co-writing has divided fans. While some who liked his Batman run are looking forward to the story, others are disappointed that Snyder is doing another Batman story and want someone else doing this instead. Others, who ''are'' Snyder fans, would have preferred he instead write another ongoing and moved on from Batman.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Despite the fact that the Dark Knights are [[EvilCounterpart evil counterparts]] to Batman, we don’t see the main universe Batman meet or talk to any of them apart from the Batman Who Laughs. Maybe Batman could’ve met the other Dark Knights at some point and see their backstories to understand them, and then try to convince them to [[HeelFaceTurn turn on]] The Batman Who Laughs and Barbatos? Nope. They die without ever interacting with the main Batman.

* FanNickname: The Batman Who Laughs was called "Cenobite Batman" before his name was revealed. Also "Laughable Bats" of those fans which found his concept and design to be silly instead of scary or interesting. He has alternately been called Giggles, and in Spanish, El Risitas (the little laughs). There are also nicknames that change "laughs" for "keks", "lols", and "lmaos".

** The Robins that accompany The Batman Who Laughs. It didn't take for artists on Tumblr to produce [[http://astraea-f-blueblack.tumblr.com/post/165295230167/dark-knights-metal-yaaaayyy-xd cutesy fan art]].

* BaseBreakingCharacter: The Batman Who Laughs is even more explosively popular as one would expect a concept of "what if Batman became the Joker" to be, and even more hated as well. Fans of him see him as just flat-out EvilIsCool, with his crazy BDSM design and horde of evil Robins giving him an iconic presence, not to mention the sheer threat level he presents and the dozens of creepy notes to his character. Non-fans see him as combining all the worst traits of Batman and the Joker--an "edgelord" feel, ludicrous hypercompetence fueled by PlotArmor, inexplicable importance, and a motivation amounting to ForTheEvulz--along with accusing him of being little more than the Joker with a new coat of paint. There are also several fans that argue he should've remained a one-time villain, and DC [[CreatorsPet overusing the character in further stories just made him worse]], whether he was liked or not.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Despite the fact that the Dark Knights are [[EvilCounterpart evil counterparts]] to Batman, we don’t see the main universe Batman meet or talk to any of them apart from the Batman Who Laughs. Maybe Batman could’ve met the other Dark Knights at some point and see their backstories to understand them, and then try to convince them to [[HeelFaceTuen turn on]] The Batman Who Laughs and Barbatos? Nope. They die without ever interacting with the main Batman.

* SalvagedStory:
** Much like ComicBook/DCRebirth as a whole, this series brings back several characters that haven't been seen for some time and the clear goal with the characters is to act as a celebration of DC's long history. Examples include the Golden Age Hawks, the Outsiders, and Mister Terrific.
** After a bunch of alternate universes focusing on an evil Superman, some fans are pleased that DC is balancing it with a story that focuses on a group of evil Batmen from alternate universes instead.

* FanNickname: The Batman Who Laughs was called "Cenobite Batman" before his name was revealed. Also "Laughable Bats" of those fans which found his concept and design to be silly instead of scary or interesting. He has alternately being called Giggles, and in Spanish, El Risitas (the little laughs). There are also nicknames that change "laughs" for "keks", "lols", and "lmaos".
* GeniusBonus: Starro being able to regrow itself from a small surviving piece makes more sense when you consider his very starfish-like anatomy. Real world starfish have remarkable regenerative abilities, and are able to regrow almost an entirely new body with access to nutrients being the main limitation.

* OneSceneWonder: Starro only gets one scene in Issue 4, and is then defeated off-panel in Issue 5. Despite this, the reworking of his character was funny enough to make him an EnsembleDarkhorse.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: There are small hints about the history of the characters that TheBusCameBack for but they're quickly swept aside to deal with the Dark Multiverse invasion plot. Getting more information on the background of these long established characters in the current DC Universe could have been quite intriguing.

** The ancient tribe plot could have mixed with the immortals sub-plot to go further into the AncientConspiracy presented at the beginning of the story.

* WTHCostumingDepartment: Most people thought the Batman Who Laughs was scary-looking while some fans instead laughed at the character design. He wears what looks like a metal spiked dog collar over his eyes which looks too much like Batzarro's design to be taken seriously. He wears tight restricting leather and heavy Cenobiteish chains which would restrict his moments in combat. He never closes his mouth so his gums look inflamed and puffy and his teeth are filed to points, on top of wearing red lipstick.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Much like ComicBook/DCRebirth as a whole, this series brings back several characters that haven't been seen for some time and the clear goal with the characters is to act as a celebration of DC's long history. Examples include the Golden Age Hawks, the Outsiders, and Mister Terrific.
** After a bunch of alternate universes focusing on an evil Superman, some fans are pleased that DC is balancing it with a story that focuses on a group of evil Batmen from alternate universes instead.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: The Batman Who Laughs is even more explosively popular as one would expect a concept of "what if Batman became the Joker" to be, and even more hated as well. Fans of him see him as just flat-out EvilIsCool, with his crazy BDSM design and horde of evil Robins giving him an iconic presence, not to mention the sheer threat level he presents and the dozens of creepy notes to his character. Non-fans see him as combining all the worst traits of Batman and the Joker--an "edgelord" feel, ludicrous hypercompetence fueled by PlotArmor, inexplicable importance, and a motivation amounting to ForTheEvulz--along with accusing him of being little more than the Joker with a new coat of paint. There are also several fans that argue he should've remained a one-time villain, and DC overusing the character in further stories just made him worse, whether he was liked or not.

** [[spoiler:The Batman Who Laughs crosses the MEH in the same moment he kills the entire Bat-Family (sans Damian) in order to prevent them from alerting the rest of the heroes about Batman's changes into a "Jokerized" version of him. It only gets worse since then.]]

* WTHCostumingDepartment: Most people thought the Batman Who Laughs was scary-looking while some fans instead laughed at the character design. He wears what looks like a metal spiked dog collar over his eyes which looks too much like Batzarro's design to be taken seriously. He wears tight restricting leather and heavy Cenobiteish chains which would restrict his moments in combat. He never closes his mouth so his gums look inflamed and puffy and his teeth have filed to points, on top of wearing red lipstick.

* {{Wangst}}: The Dawnbreaker seems to be Batman's usual angst and brooding taken UpToEleven, his solo issue having a large focus on how he is "filled with darkness inside" and how he wants everyone to feel as bad as he does. Considering that not only is he a teenage version of Bruce Wayne who had been granted the power of a Green Lantern at an inappropriate time but he's also a personification of one of Batman's greatest fears and regrets, all of this might be intentional.

* UnexpectedCharacter: [[spoiler:Dream of the Endless from ''ComicBook/TheSandman'']] shows up at end of the first issue of ''Metal'', and to say it's not expected is an understatement. Not only does he have next to nothing to do with the idea of a mysterious metal connecting to the Dark Multiverse, but he's never been someone who interacts with the wider DC Universe that much. He's also from an old Vertigo comic that was canon with the main DCU, but very unlikely to be canon with the post-Flashpoint DCU. Definitely not one of your predictable appearances.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: The Batman Who Laughs is even more explosively popular as one would expect a concept of "what if Batman became the Joker" to be, and even more hated as well. Fans of him see him as just flat-out EvilIsCool, with his crazy BDSM design and horde of evil Robins giving him an iconic presence, not to mention the sheer threat level he presents and the dozens of creepy notes to his character. Non-fans see him as combining all the worst traits of Batman and the Joker--an "edgelord" feel, ludicrous hypercompetence fueled by PlotArmor, inexplicable importance, and a motivation amounting to ForTheEvulz--along with accusing him of being little more than the Joker with a new coat of paint.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The comic has been given its own soundtrack, and as expected with a comic named "Dark Nights: Metal" the soundtrack is made up of amazing heavy metal pieces. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyt4a8Ystg0 "Red Death"]] a theme for the titular Dark Knight, "Red Death" it's an song so awesome it was even used for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRKj2YQwSlw comic book's trailer!]]

* WhatAnIdiot: There are several such moments, especially in the Dark Knights' origin stories. Apparently a higher proclivity for murder goes hand in hand with the inability to think things through.
** The Batman Who Laughs tries to recruit the other fallen Batmen to his cause at the moment their worlds are being destroyed, promising them that their worlds will be saved and that they will be heroes again. For context, the Batman Who Laughs himself is a Batman who was transformed physically and psychologically to resemble the Joker and plans to destroy the Multiverse, as he has done to his own world.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' That given that the Joker is any Batman's worst enemy, they would refuse to join him on the grounds that he is too insane and unpredictable to place their trust in.\\
'''Or:''' Since most of them still have some semblance of a moral code, however tainted it may be, they would realize that the Batman Who Laughs's endgame goes against what they believe in and refuse.\\
'''Instead:''' They agree to take part in their Jokerized counterpart's plan and buy into his empty promises. Granted, in some of their cases, it could be argued that they aren’t thinking rationally due to their powers screwing with their minds and warping their personalities (especially Devastator, Merciless and Murder Machine), but still.\\
'''Result:''' Not only does this not solve the problem of their worlds crumbling, but all of the Dark Knights (barring the Batman Who Laughs) get themselves killed during their invasion of Earth-Prime.\\
'''Even Worse:''' A couple of the Batmen have their doubts about the plan, particularly the Drowned, who briefly realizes that invading the prime Multiverse for the sake of being a hero isn't a very heroic thing to do, and the Merciless, who dismisses the Batman Who Laughs's statements as lies at first. The Devastator even briefly mistakes the Batman Who Laughs for his world's Joker (for obvious reasons) before agreeing to his deal. And they ''still'' follow him throughout the invasion attempt, ignoring their concerns by trying to justify that their actions are for the greater good.
** Earth -52 is coming to an end, as all worlds in the Dark Multiverse usually do. The Flash is being pursued by a grieving Batman, who wants to steal his connection to the Speed Force not only to save the world and his fallen sidekicks, but also to overcome the limitation of age. Flash is trying to reason with him so that they can work together to save their world from crumbling.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Batman to listen to common sense and stop battling with the Flash so they can figure something out.\\
'''Instead:''' Batman keeps attacking the Flash, eventually succeeding in claiming the Speed Force and killing his rogues gallery with his newfound power. However, Earth -52 is ''still'' doomed to die.
** When Earth -44's Alfred is killed by Batman's worst enemies, Batman enlists Cyborg to help him create the Alfred Protocol to replace him. However, the AI becomes unstable and murderous, killing every single villain before turning to Wayne Manor, requesting that Bruce "let him in", which Cyborg strongly advises against in favor of shutting it down.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Bruce to listen to Cyborg and deactivate the AI.\\
'''Instead:''' Bruce lets the Protocol into the Batcave with hopes of reprogramming it.\\
'''Result:''' The Alfred Protocol assimilates Batman, who then embarks on a spree of mass murder before killing the Justice League when they try to stop him.
** On Earth -32, moments after a young Bruce Wayne's parents are murdered, he gives chase to the mugger, devoid of any emotion. A Green Lantern ring picks up on his lack of fear and attaches itself to his finger. However, Bruce wants to kill the mugger, which the ring cannot allow. However, Bruce is insistent to the extent that his willpower starts to override the ring.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The Guardians of the Universe to realize that something is wrong with Bruce and strip him of the ring as soon as possible so they can find someone else who is worthy of it.\\
'''Instead:''' The ring stays on his finger, allowing Bruce to corrupt it with his lack of emotion.\\
'''Result:''' Bruce uses the corrupted ring to kill the mugger, then Gotham's criminals, and the entire Green Lantern Corps when they attempt to intervene.
** The Batwoman of Earth -11 loses her lover Sylvester Kyle to rogue metahumans, causing Bryce to seek to avenge his death by killing the ones responsible.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Bryce to simply kill the ones who took Sylvester's life and be done with it, as there are likely many heroic metahumans in her world.\\
'''Instead:''' She extends her hatred towards ''every'' superpowered individual, eventually killing Aquawoman when she returned from her self-imposed exile.\\
'''Result:''' The Atlanteans view this as an act of war, and thus submerge Gotham in retaliation; Bryce is forced to experiment on herself to adapt to these conditions, but she ''still'' can't remove all of the water from her city.
** On Earth -12, a world in which Batman and Wonder Woman were romantically involved and fought against Ares to prevent him from using a helmet that would amplify his powers by a hundredfold, they succeed in removing the helmet, although Diana has apparently been slain by Ares. Bruce notices the helmet, which Diana warned would corrupt whoever put it on.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Bruce to check for signs of life to verify if she really is dead and make a retreat with the helmet, while also heeding Diana's warnings not to wear it.\\
'''Instead:''' Batman assumes she is dead and, driven by grief, puts the helmet on his head to battle Ares.\\
'''Result:''' Although he is successful in killing Ares, Bruce is corrupted by the helmet and discovers that Diana was only incapacitated by Ares's attack, but he is so addicted to the helmet's power that he kills her when she tries to take it off.
** When his world's Superman went mad for an unknown reason, the Batman of Earth -1 tried to get through to him until Clark killed Lois, his own wife. Luckily, Batman had cultured a modified strain of the Doomsday Virus should he be forced to battle and kill Superman, and the virus can spread from person to person.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Bruce to use the virus as quickly as possible to not only give himself an edge against Superman, but to "inoculate" civilians with it to protect them from the Man of Steel while they are still alive.\\
'''Instead:''' Batman only uses the virus in the middle of his climactic battle with Superman.\\
'''Result:''' Although Batman succeeds in killing Superman with relative ease, he discovers that there is no one left to save and/or infect with the virus, only a barren expanse of rubble and bony spikes, much to his dismay.
** After killing his world's Joker, the Batman of Earth -22 inhaled a dose of his latest toxin, which causes him to adopt Joker-esque mannerisms, as demonstrated when he laughs when Superman tells him that one of the children affected in the Joker incident tore out a psychologist's throat. Both are alarmed.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For either Bruce or Clark to realize that something is very wrong and seek help immediately.\\
'''Instead:''' They don't.\\
'''Result:''' Batman's condition continues to worsen, culminating in his meeting with the rest of the Bat-Family at the apogee of his infection. He tells them about the toxin's effects on him and admits that he didn't call them over to help him, but to ensure that no one finds out about his condition.\\
'''You'd Then Expect:''' The Bat-Family to realize that Bruce is a threat and attempt to restrain Batman as quickly as possible, ensuring that he is in a position where they can help him regardless of if he wants it or not.\\
'''Instead:''' They do nothing besides staying where they are.\\
'''Result:''' A completely-Jokerized Batman catches them off-guard with a pair of machine guns, killing them before doing the same to the Justice League and the entire world, completing his transformation into The Batman Who Laughs and turn to evil.
** Superman. Batman is clearly insane and murdered the entire Justice League and poisoned you. What do you do? Blast him with your heat vision? Use super speed to disarm him? Freeze him with you breath? Do anything other than accept your fate?! Or do you stand there, listen to him monologue and let the kryptonite kill you?
* WTHCostumingDepartment: Most people thought the Batman Who Laughs was scary-looking while some fans instead laughed at the character design. He wears what looks like a metal spiked dog collar over his eyes which looks too much like Batzarro's design to be taken seriously. He wears tight restricting leather and heavy Cenobiteish chains which would restrict his moments in combat. He never closes his mouth so his gums look inflamed and puffy and his teeth have filed to points, on top of wearing red lipstick.
* TheWoobie: The mainline Bruce Wayne actually manages to lose his drive after finding out his entire life was a lie that Barbatos used to grant him entry into the Multiverse where he could bring about damnation. Not only that, but he was tortured in ways that left him an aged and emaciated husk of his former self.

* HilariousInHindsight: This is not the first time that Batman and metal are in the same sentence together, with WebAnimation/{{Batmetal}} becoming an internet sensation in Youtube and the Internet just before this book is conceived. Although here, Batman is actually singing to [[WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}} Dethklok]] songs instead.

** The Dawnbreaker's oath, obviously a play on the iconic Green Lantern oath, is awful. It lacks rhythm and is just awkward, and instead of being a moment of awesome, like it's seemingly supposed to be, it's just funny how bad Bruce's poetry is.
** The Merciless carving Wonder Woman's likeness into rocks with his fingers. It's supposed to be tragic, but it's just so damn cheesy that you expect a breakup song to start playing over the scene.
** Batman's dramatic reveal that he has... a baby ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}, and he's not afraid to use it!
** There’s only so many times a random villain can pop up out of nowhere, declare they’ve made a deal with Barbatos, and then derail the heroes’ plans before it starts getting comical.
** Most people thought the Batman Who Laughs was scary-looking while some fans instead laughed at the character design. He wears what looks like a metal spiked dog collar over his eyes which looks too much like Batzarro's design to be taken seriously. He wears tight restricting leather and heavy Cenobiteish chains which would restrict his moments in combat. He never closes his mouth so his gums look inflamed and puffy and his teeth have filed to points, on top of wearing red lipstick. He looks like a combination of a parody of various 90s DorkAge villains, some kind of concept art for a Hellraiser Batman, and a crossdressing S&M stripper all rolled into one. He also has a bunch of cannibal Jokerized Robins who continuously chant "Crow!" This has earned him the fan nickname "Laughable Bats."
** Murder Machine is kind of hard to take seriously knowing that his StartOfDarkness essentially boiled down to a grown man old enough to be a father pining for his parental substitute. All the other Dark Knights at least turned bad out of anger or desperation.
** All these iterations of Batman that succeeded in overpowering the Justice League end up getting taken down by the main Justice League in the most anti-climactic way. You've got to wonder if Scott Snyder was trying to make a point about how a non-powered vigilante that can only get older wouldn't stand a chance against a team full of demigods.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: The Batman Who Laughs is even more explosively popular as one would expect a concept of "what if Batman became the Joker" to be, and even more hated as well. Fans of him see him as just flat-out EvilIsCool, with his crazy BDSM design and horde of evil Robins giving him an iconic presence, not to mention the sheer threat level he presents and the dozens of creepy notes to his character. Non-fans see him as combining all the worst traits of Batman and the Joker--an "edgelord" feel, ludicrous hypercompetence, inexplicable importance, and a motivation amounting to ForTheEvulz--along with accusing him of being little more than the Joker with a new coat of paint.

** [[EvilCounterpart The Batman Who Laughs]] is a being born of ComicBook/TheJoker's toxins infecting the [[Characters/BatmanTheCharacter Bruce Wayne]] of Earth-22, giving rise to something new and far more evil that slaughtered his entire world. As the right-hand of Barbatos and leader of the [[Characters/DarkNightsMetal Dark Knights]], the One Who Laughs gleefully gave all for a chance to massacre entire worlds, summoning Barbatos to Earth to annihilate it and torture and kill everything there. Surviving his master's downfall, the One Who Laughs continues massacring others in his path, tries to start entire world wars, attempts to twist Gotham into pitiless monsters like him, and eventually becomes the herald of Perpetua. Betraying her upon achieving a new cosmic awareness, the One Who Laughs rechristens himself the Darkest Knight, vowing to become a bullet to the Multiverse itself as its worlds fall before him. Slaying Perpetua, he unleashes an army of the worst he has to offer, plotting to turn all existence [[InTheirOwnImage into a nightmarish reflection of his own soul]] in an eternal chaos that will devour itself until nothing remains.

'''Instead:''' They agree to take part in their Jokerized counterpart's plan and buy into his empty promises.\\

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: TheBusCameBack for several characters at the start of the event but next to nothing was done with them outside of either cameo focus or OneSceneWonder actions. This is especially true of the ''Creator/DarkMatter'' characters that are first mentioned here but recieve no more than teases.