History NightmareFuel / DarkNightsMetal

** His origin started off after when his parents were killed by Joe Chill in the alleyway, but instead of running away (or in some cases Joe Chill running away with the goods) [[ForWantOfANail he picks up the discarded handgun from Joe Chill while he was picking up his parents' fortunes and shoots him dead]]. His descent into Batman was later diverged from the usual origin stories of Batman, as instead of a vigilante who follows a ThouShaltNotKill rule, he later becomes Batman who vows to kill '''''anyone''''' who is suspected of crime (thus leading to several well-known villains being dead and Red Hood being killed at Ace Chemicals, thus preventing the rise of The Joker) and goes so far as to '''''kill Jim Gordon's police force for trying to take him down and takes down two GCPD-affiliated blimps into a crash collision course to Arkham and Blackgate'''''. That being said, he later turned Gotham into a fortified city where citizens live in fear lest they get a KillSat right at their doorstep if they were to fall out of line.

* When the heroes finally start to get the upper hand thanks to the Element X/Tenth Metal, Barbatos decides to use his final contingency plan: have the Batman Who Laughs' dark matter mix with the Monitor's matter and the Anti-Monitor's brain's anti-matter, resulting in a catastrophe that will leave nothing but darkness and allowing the Dark Multiverse and Barbatos to rule all of existence.

** The Drowned's origin: Bryce Wayne, a female version of Bruce Wayne who had lost her lover Sylvester Kyle (a male Selina Kyle) at the hands of metahumans, causing Bryce's suspicions towards metahumans to become full-fledged hatred and an intense paranoia that resulted in Bryce killing any metahumans she encountered as potential threats. When the Atlanteans tried to make peace, Bryce killed their queen, Aquawoman (a female Aquaman) and started a war. Bryce painfully experimented on herself to gain not only Atlantean abilities as well as those of all manner of sealife but also the ability to corrupt anything she came into contact with into aquatic monsters. Finally, Bryce used the corruption effect of her "Dead Water" to flood the world and turn everyone into her thralls.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/evil_batmen1.JPG]]
[[caption-width-right:350: [[EvilCounterpart You want Bruce Wayne? Look around.]]]]

** The Drowned's origin: Bryce Wayne, a female version of Bruce Wayne who had lost her lover Sylvester Kyle (a male Selina Kyle) at the hands of metahumans, causing Bryce's suspicions towards metahumans to become full-fledged hatred and an intense paranoia that resulted in Bryce killing any metahumans she encountered as potential threats. When the Atlanteans tried to make peace, Bryce killed their queen Aquawoman and started a war. Bryce painfully experimented on herself to gain not only Atlantean abilities as well as those of all manner of sealife but also the ability to corrupt anything she came into contact with into aquatic monsters. Finally, Bryce used the corruption effect of her "Dead Water" to flood the world and turn everyone into her thralls.

[[caption-width-right:350: [[EvilCounterpart You want Bruce Wayne? Look around you.]]]]

** The Dawnbreaker's origin: A teenage Bruce Wayne who was given a Green Lantern ring immediately after the deaths of his parents, when his fear had been obliterated by grief and hate. Bruce overpowered the ring's law against killing through sheer willpower, enabling him to use lethal force and vaporize Joe Chill. After attempting to revive his parents only to put them down when they came back as reanimated corpses, Bruce went on a killing spree, eliminating all of Gotham's criminals and anyone who criticized what he's doing, including Jim Gordon. Bruce saw no real reason for anyone to live in the void left by his parents' death and "unlocked" a new ability, Blackout, which extinguishes all light by bringing that void into the world and slaughtering his targets with eldritch constructs; this is how he killed the Green Lantern Corps when they tried to reclaim the ring.

** The Batman Who Laughs' origin: A Batman who was forced to watch the Joker kill Commissioner Gordon and his entire rogues gallery before exposing Joker toxin to a group of children whose parents he killed in order to create a perfect fusion of Batman and the Joker. In his rage, Batman did the one thing everyone wanted him to do: Kill the Joker. Unfortunately, this caused a special Joker toxin to be released into him and changed his moral code into that of the Joker's while keeping Bruce Wayne's orderly mind. What's one of the first things he did when the transformation was beginning? He called upon Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Red Robin to explain what has happened to him. They told him they'll do everything in their power to save him. But then he revealed that the real reason he called them was because he knew they would be the first people to realize something different about him and alert the other heroes...something he cannot allow to happen. And then he did something they were unprepared for: pull out a pair of hidden machine guns and shoot them all down like dogs. A week later, he had ''all the Justice League massacred! Not just killed, massacred!'' Oh, and he "convinced" his version of Damian Wayne into becoming a Joker monster himself and turned the children the Joker exposed his toxin to into his army of Rabid Robins. Worse, he then proceeded to take out armies of villains and alien tyrants (victims implied to be like the Legion of Doom and [[GalacticConqueror Darkseid]] respectively), and it is even implied that he even takes out '''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu The]] [[ComicBook/{{TheSpectre}} Spectre]]''' himself! With just precision, ''and blood''. Oh, and the only reason he became Barbatos' lieutenant? So he could do it all again. And again. ''And again.'' '''''[[ForTheEvulz And again.]]'''''

** The Batman Who Laughs' origin: A Batman who was forced to watch the Joker kill Commissioner Gordon and his entire rogues gallery before exposing Joker toxin to a group of children whose parents he killed in order to create a perfect fusion of Batman and the Joker. In his rage, Batman did the one thing everyone wanted him to do: Kill the Joker. Unfortunately, this caused a special Joker toxin to be released into him and changed his moral code into that of the Joker while keeping Bruce Wayne's orderly mind. What's one of the first things he did when the transformation was beginning? He called upon Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Red Robin to explain what has happened to him. They told him they'll do everything in their power to save him. But then he revealed that the real reason he called them was because he knew they would be the first people to realize something different about him and alert the other heroes...something he cannot allow to happen. And then he did something they were unprepared for: pull out a pair of hidden machine guns and shoot them all down like dogs. A week later, he had ''all the Justice League massacred! Not just killed, massacred!'' Oh, and he "convinced" his version of Damian Wayne into becoming a Joker monster himself and turned the children the Joker exposed his toxin to into his army of Rabid Robins. Worse, he then proceeded to take out armies of villains and alien tyrants (victims implied to be like the Legion of Doom and [[GalacticConqueror Darkseid]] respectively), and it is even implied that he even takes out '''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu The]] [[ComicBook/{{TheSpectre}} Spectre]]''' himself! With just precision, ''and blood''. Oh, and the only reason he became Barbatos' lieutenant? So he could do it all again. And again. ''And again.'' '''''[[ForTheEvulz And again.]]'''''

** The Drowned's origin: Bryce Wayne, a female version of Bruce Wayne who had lost her lover Sylvester Kyle (a male Selina Kyle) at the hands of metahumans, causing Bryce's suspicions towards metahumans to become full-fledged hatred and an intense paranoia that resulted in Bryce killing any metahumans she encountered as potential threats. When the Atlanteans tried to make peace Bryce killed their queen, Aquawoman and started a war. Bryce painfully experimented on herself to gain not only Atlantean abilities as well as those of all manner of sealife but also the ability to corrupt anything she came into contact with into aquatic monsters. Finally, Bryce used the corruption effect of her "Dead Water" to flood the world and turn everyone into her thralls.

** The Batman Who Laughs' origin: A Batman who was forced to watch the Joker kill Commissioner Gordon and his entire rogues gallery before exposing Joker toxin to a group of children whose parents he killed in order to create a perfect fusion of Batman and the Joker. In his rage, Batman did the one thing everyone wanted him to do: Kill the Joker. Unfortunately, this caused a special Joker toxin to be released into him and changed his moral code into that of the Joker while keeping Bruce Wayne's orderly mind. What's one of the things he did when the transformation was beginning? He called upon Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Red Robin to explain what has happened to him. They told him they'll do everything in their power to save him. But then he revealed that the real reason he called them was because he knew they would be the first people to realize something different about him and alert the other heroes...something he cannot allow to happen. And then he did something they were unprepared for: pull out a pair of hidden machine guns and shoot them all down like dogs. A week later, he had ''all the Justice League massacred! Not just killed, massacred!'' Oh, and he "convinced" his version of Damian Wayne into becoming a Joker monster himself and turned the children the Joker exposed his toxin to into his army of Rabid Robins. Worse, he then proceeded to take out armies of villains and alien tyrants (victims implied to be like the Legion of Doom and [[GalacticConqueror Darkseid]] respectively), and it is even implied that he even takes out '''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu The]] [[ComicBook/{{TheSpectre}} Spectre]]''' himself! With just precision, ''and blood''. Oh, and the only reason he became Barbatos' lieutenant? So he could do it all again. And again. ''And again.'' '''''[[ForTheEvulz And again.]]'''''
** The Dawnbreaker's origin: A teenage Bruce Wayne who was given a Green Lantern ring immediately after the deaths of his parents, when his fear has been obliterated by grief and hate. Bruce overpowered the ring's law against killing through sheer willpower, enabling him to use lethal force and vaporize Joe Chill. After attempting to revive his parents only to put them down when they came back as reanimated corpses, Bruce went on a killing spree, eliminating all of Gotham's criminals and anyone who criticized what he's doing, including Jim Gordon. Bruce saw no real reason for anyone to live in the void left by his parents' death and "unlocked" a new ability, Blackout, which extinguishes all light by bringing that void into the world and slaughtering his targets with eldritch constructs; this is how he killed the Green Lantern Corps when they tried to reclaim the ring.

** The Batman Who Laughs' origin: A Batman who was forced to watch the Joker kill Commissioner Gordon and his entire rogues gallery before exposing Joker toxin to a group of children whose parents he killed in order to create a perfect fusion of Batman and the Joker. In his rage, Batman did the one thing everyone wanted him to do: Kill the Joker. Unfortunately, this caused a special Joker toxin to be released into him and changed his moral code into that of the Joker's while keeping Bruce Wayne's orderly mind. What's one of the things he did when the transformation was beginning? He called upon Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Red Robin to explain what has happened to him. They told him they'll do everything in their power to save him. But then he revealed that the real reason he called them was because he knew they would be the first people to realize something different about him and alert the other heroes...something he cannot allow to happen. And then he did something they were unprepared for: pull out a pair of hidden machine guns and shoot them all down like dogs. A week later, he had ''all the Justice League massacred! Not just killed, massacred!'' Oh, and he "convinced" his version of Damian Wayne into becoming a Joker monster himself and turned the children the Joker exposed his toxin to into his army of Rabid Robins. Worse, he then proceeded to take out armies of villains and alien tyrants (victims implied to be like the Legion of Doom and [[GalacticConqueror Darkseid]] respectively), and it is even implied that he even takes out '''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu The]] [[ComicBook/{{TheSpectre}} Spectre]]''' himself! With just precision, ''and blood''. Oh, and the only reason he became Barbatos' lieutenant? So he could do it all again. And again. ''And again.'' '''''[[ForTheEvulz And again.]]'''''

** The Batman Who Laughs' origin: A Batman who was forced to watch the Joker kill Commissioner Gordon and his entire rogues gallery before exposing Joker toxin to a group of children whose parents he killed in order to create a perfect fusion of Batman and the Joker. In his rage, Batman did the one thing everyone wanted him to do: Kill the Joker. Unfortunately, this caused a special Joker toxin to be released into him and changed his moral code into that of the Joker's while keeping Bruce Wayne's orderly mind. What's one of the things he did when the transformation was beginning? He called upon Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Red Robin to explain what has happened to him. They told him they'll do everything in their power to save him. But then he revealed that the real reason he called them was because he knew they would be the first people to realize something different about him and alert the other heroes...something he cannot allow to happen. And then he did something they were unprepared for: pull out a pair of hidden machine guns and gun them all down like dogs. A week later, he had ''all the Justice League except Superman massacred! Not just killed, massacred!'' And then he proceeded to kill Superman, Superboy and Lois Lane by exposing the former two with a special strain of Black Kryptonite, which made them insane and made them kill Lois before they tore each other apart; he did this to Supergirl before he killed her as well. Oh, and he "convinced" his version of Damian Wayne into becoming a Joker monster himself and turned the children the Joker exposed his toxin to into his army of Rabid Robins. Worse, he then proceeded to take out armies of villains and alien tyrants (victims implied to be like the Legion of Doom and [[GalacticConqueror Darkseid]] respectively), and it is even implied that he even takes out '''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu The]] [[ComicBook/{{TheSpectre}} Spectre]]''' himself! With just precision, ''and blood''. Oh, and the only reason he became Barbatos' lieutenant? So he could do it all again. And again. ''And again.'' '''''[[ForTheEvulz And again.]]'''''

** The Murder Machine's origin: A Batman who was forced to watch Alfred die at the hands of Bane while under interrogation. He worked with Cyborg to create an artificial intelligence based on Alfred. The Alfred Protocol began killing Batman's enemies to keep Bruce safe, leading Cyborg to declare that it had gone too far; Bruce wanted to reprogram the AI, but when Cyborg insisted on deleting it, it forcibly merged with Bruce, turning him into a robot Batman capable of controlling nanotechnology and creating hardlight copies of himself and Alfred. Batman then killed the entire Justice League, leaving Cyborg for last. Cyborg begged him not to become this "Murder Machine" but "Batman" renounced his humanity as well as Thomas and Martha Wayne, claiming that as long as he remains as he is, he will never be separated from Alfred again. And then he killed Cyborg by ripping his head and spinal cord out of his body.

** The Batman Who Laughs' origin: A Batman who was forced to watch the Joker kill Commissioner Gordon and his entire rogues gallery before exposing Joker toxin to a group of children whose parents he killed in order to create a perfect fusion of Batman and the Joker. In his rage, Batman did the one thing everyone wanted him to do: Kill the Joker. Unfortunately, this caused a special Joker toxin to be released into him and changed his moral code into that of the Joker's while keeping Bruce Wayne's orderly mind. What's one of the things he did when the transformation was beginning? He called upon Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Red Robin to explain what has happened to him. They told him they'll do everything in their power to save him. But then he revealed that the real reason he called them was because he knew they would be the first people to realize something different about him and alert the other heroes...something he cannot allow to happen. And then he did something they were unprepared for: pull out a pair of hidden machine guns and gun them all down like dogs. A week later, he had ''all the Justice League except Superman massacred! Not just killed, massacred!'' And then he proceeded to kill Superman, Superboy, Supergirl and Lois Lane by exposing the former three with a special strain of Black Kryptonite, which mutated them into monsters and made them kill Lois before they tore each other apart. Oh, and he "convinced" his version of Damian Wayne into becoming a Joker monster himself and turned the children the Joker exposed his toxin to into his army of Rabid Robins. Worse, he then proceeded to take out armies of villains and alien tyrants (victims implied to be like the Legion of Doom and [[GalacticConqueror Darkseid]] respectively), and it is even implied that he even takes out '''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu The]] [[ComicBook/{{TheSpectre}} Spectre]]''' himself! With just precision, ''and blood''. Oh, and the only reason he became Barbatos' lieutenant? So he could do it all again. And again. ''And again.'' '''''[[ForTheEvulz And again.]]'''''

Being a SuperheroHorror comic about centered about dark futures, ''Dark Nights: Metal'' has no shortage of nightmares.

Being a SuperheroHorror comic about centered about dark futures, this comic has no shortage of nightmares.

Oh, God. Where do we start?

** His origin started off after when his parents were killed by Joe Chill in the alleyway, but instead of running away (or in some cases Joe Chill running away with the goods) [[ForWantOfANail he picks up the discarded handgun from Joe Chill while he was picking up his parents' fortunes and shoots him dead]]. His descent into Batman was later diverged from the usual origin stories of Batman, as instead of a vigilante who follows a ThouShaltNotKill rule, he later becomes Batman who vows to kill '''''anyone''''' who is suspected of crime (thus leading to several well-known villains being dead and Red Hood being killed at Ace Chemicals, thus preventing the rise of The Joker) and goes so far as to '''''kill Jim Gordon's police force for trying to take him down and takes down two GCPD-affiliated blimps into a crash collision course to Arkham and Blackgate'''''. That being said, he later turned Gotham into a fortified city where citizens live in fear lest they get a KillSat right at their doorstep if they were to fall out of line.

** The Batman Who Laughs' origin: A Batman who was forced to watch the Joker kill Commissioner Gordon and his entire rogues gallery before exposing Joker toxin to a group of children whose parents he killed in order to create a perfect fusion of Batman and the Joker. In his rage, Batman did the one thing everyone wanted him to do: Kill the Joker. Unfortunately, this caused a special Joker toxin to be released into him and changed his moral code into that of the Joker's while keeping Bruce Wayne's orderly mind. What's one of the things he did when the transformation was beginning? He called upon Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and Red Robin to explain what has happened to him. They told him they'll do everything in their power to save him. But then he revealed that the real reason he called them was because he knew they would be the first people to realize something different about him and alert the other heroes...something he cannot allow to happen. And then he did something they were unprepared for: pull out a pair of hidden machine guns and gun them all down like dogs. A week later, he had ''all the Justice League except Superman massacred! Not just killed, massacred!'' And then he proceeded to kill Superman, Superboy, Supergirl and Lois Lane by exposing the former three with a special strain of Black Kryptonite, which mutated them into monsters and made them kill Lois before they tore each other apart. Oh, and he "convinced" his version of Damian Wayne into becoming a Joker monster himself and turned the children the Joker exposed his toxin to into his army of Rabid Robins. Worse, he then proceeded to take out armies of villains and alien tyrants (victims implied to be like the Legion of Doom and [[GalacticConqueror Darkseid]] respectively), and it is even implied that he even takes out '''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu The]] [[ComicBook/{{TheSpectre}} Spectre]]''' himself! With just with precision, ''and blood''. Oh, and the only reason he became Barbatos' lieutenant? So he could do it all again. And again. ''And again.'' '''''[[ForTheEvulz And again.]]'''''