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Dark Nights: Death Metal Reading Order, the sequel to Dark Nights: Metal

After the big success of the Dark Nights Metal event, writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo are back with Death Metal, the 2017–2018 massive follow-up with the help of James Tynion IV, Marguerite Bennett, Joshua Williamson, Peter J. Tomasi, Garth Ennis, Daniel Warren Johnson, Frank Tieri, Tony S. Daniel, Jamal Igle, Joëlle Jones, Daniel Warren Johnson, Riley Rossmo, Francesco Francavilla and more.

Here is the official synopsis: When the DC Universe is enveloped by the Dark Multiverse, the Justice League is at the mercy of the Batman Who Laughs (see the reading order dedicated to the character). Humanity struggles to survive in a hellish landscape twisted beyond recognition, while Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman have all been separated and must fight to survive.

Along the way, Wonder Woman roars across the horrifying Dark Multiverse landscape in the world’s most demented monster truck, with Swamp Thing riding shotgun! And when the Justice League launches its assault on New Apokolips, the team’s goal is to free Superman from his solar prison—but it all goes off the rails when they learn that the Man of Steel is gone for good thanks to the Anti-Life Equation.

What to read before Dark Nights: Death Metal?

When the Earth is enveloped by the Dark Multiverse, the Justice League is at the mercy of the Batman Who Laughs. But how did we end up in this situation? The following is a short guide through the Dark Multiverse to help you better understand the events taking place in Death Metal:

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Dark Nights: Metal Reading Order, a DC Comics event introducing the dark multiverse

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Published in 2017, Dark Nights: Metal is a Batman Event written by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. The two collaborators are back with a new ambitious story about the mysterious Nth metal and the dark multiverse.

Investigating a strange metal, Batman discovers the existence of a dark multiverse and eventually releases seven evil versions of himself into his own universe. That event is led by Barbatos, the dark god who plans to unleash darkness across every Earth. Stopping him will change the DC Universe forever.

What to read before Dark Nights: Metal?

Like any big comic book event, you don’t really need to read anything as all the information necessary should be provide in the story! The event kicked off with a two-issue prelude titled Dark Days, collected in Dark Days: The Road to Metal as well as in the Dark Nights Metal Omnibus – which are the issues you shouldn’t miss before diving into the main event.

For those interested in exploring for more backstories, Dark Nights: Metal event builds on elements introduced during Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s run on Batman during the New 52 era. This run is collected in two omnibuses, but the most important issues for Metal are the last part of the run, collected in the second omnibus.

If you want to familiarize yourself a little with the myths of Barbatos, you can check out The Return of Bruce Wayne by Grant Morrison.

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Batman: Zero Year Reading Order (Batman New 52)

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Zero Year is a yearlong crossover event published between June 2013 and July 2014 and written by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV.

This story takes us back six years in the past and redefines the origin of Batman in The New 52 version of the DC Universe (go to The Batman New 52 Reading Order for more details).

Everything begins with Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham City. He starts fighting the Red Hood gang. Those events will lead to the birth of the Batman and to a flood in Gotham that will leave him for dead. When he comes back, he has to free the city that has fallen and is now under the control of one of his worst enemies.

What to read before Batman: Zero Year?

Zero Year is a prequel storyline that was published after the Death of the Family storyline (go to Death of the Family Reading Order for more). The story takes place a few years before The Court of Owls.

You can read it here or at another moment before. Some people recommend reading it before The Court of Owls, but I think that being familiar with the style and direction of Snyder’s Batman is better to appreciate this story.

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Batman New 52 Reading Order, from The Court of Owls to the end of the DC You

In 2011, a new era began in the DC Universe with the New 52 initiative–and if you are curious about it, we have a guide about reading all of the New 52 comics in order). For some heroes, it was a complete reboot. For others, this was not totally the case, as with the famous Dark Knight. When Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo took over creative duties on Batman’s main comics, they didn’t start over from scratch, picking up in a way where the post-crisis era ended. Yet, they offered Bruce Wayne a revised backstory as they built a new mythology around Gotham City.

Snyder and Capullo were not the only authors working on Batman comics. In fact, there are multiple comic book series: Batman, Detective Comics, Batman Incorporated by Grant Morrison, Batman and Robin by Tomasi and Gleason, Batman Eternal and Batman & Robin Eternal, and Batman: The Dark Knight.

What comics should you read before Batman New 52?

The DC Comics Universe rebooted as the New 52 after the Flashpoint event. Therefore, you could take a look at it before reading anything else. Also, even if New 52 was a new entry point, Batman’s story was not fully rebooted and a few comics were launched before Flashpoint. You’ll need to take a look at Grant Morrison’s Batman Incorporated volume 1 before jumping into volume 2 and Batman and Robin by Tomasi. Also, Batman: Gates of Gotham written by Scott Snyder leads into his Batman run. And if you want more, you can go through our guide to reading the Batman: The Modern Age comics in order.

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Super Sons Reading Order, Damian Wayne and Jon Kent team-up

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Super Sons Reading Order, Damian Wayne and Jon Kent team-up

In appearance, Jonathan Kent, the son of Superman, and Damian Wayne, the son of Batman don’t have much in common. One grew up on a small town farm, ignoring his father was a superhero, while the other was trained from birth to be an assassin and take over the world as an Al Ghul.

When Robin (Damian Wayne) discovers a connection between a series of mysterious crimes and the aftermath of the bizarre and deadly Amazo Virus, he needs Superboy (Jonathan Kent) to aid in the investigation. This is the start of the Super Sons, the odd couple of young heroes and one of the best friendships in the DC Universe! Facing dangers and many adventures, they will learn to work together and save the world like their fathers in some already classic DC stories.

This specific duo was created during the Rebirth era and has no connection to the imaginary or alternate-dimension versions existing of the team-up before the Rebirth Era.

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Batman: Death of the Family Reading Order: How to read the Batman’s event by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo ?

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Batman: Death of the Family is a cross-over event in the Batman universe, a 23-issue story arc published in 2012-2013 including the titles Batman, Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Catwoman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Red Hood, and the Outlaws, Suicide Squad, and Teen Titans. The event takes place during the Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo run.

The story deals with the Joker’s return to Gotham with a plan to get revenge on all the people Batman has come to rely on over the years, and then destroy the family. The title is, obviously, a reference to the classic story arc A Death in the Family, published in 1988.

What to read before Batman: Death of the Family?

There is no reading requirement before going into the Batman: Death of the Family event. At best, Detective Comics #1, collected in Detective Comics: Faces of Death can serve as a prelude, but completely unnecessary to understand the story as everything you need to know will be mentioned in the main storyline.

All there is to know is that the Joker cut his face off then vanished for a long time – a piece of information mentioned in the story. The main story takes place in Batman.

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DCeased Reading Order: A DC zombie apocalypse by Tom Taylor

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The DC universe meets the Zombie Apocalypse in DCeased, created by writer Tom Taylor, penciler Trevor Hairsine and inker Stefano Guadiano.

The story takes place in an alternate Earth, where a mysterious techno-virus has been released, infecting 600 million people and turning them instantly into violent, monstrous engines of destruction aka zombies.

And, like DC tell us: that’s just the beginning. Cities. Nations. Undersea kingdoms and paradise islands. One by one, they fall to the monstrous hordes. Now only Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the Justice League stand between Earth and utter annihilation… But for how long?

Nothing they’re ever faced has prepared them for an onslaught of this magnitude. Nothing they’ve ever seen can match the scale of the tragedy and terror that have been unleased. As heroes and villains, gods and monsters are wiped out, only one question remains: What happens to the World’s Greatest Heroes if the world ends?

What to read before DCeased?

Nothing. As said, DCeased happens on another Earth, outside the main continuity. So there is no background necessary as this is a stand-alone series.

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