Writers: Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV
Artists: Jim Lee, Andy Kubert, John Romita Jr., Scott Williams, Klaus Janson, Danny Miki and Alex Sinclair

There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding the upcoming Metal and Dark Matter line. While it’s not entirely clear on where the “Dark Multiverse” and the line itself are going yet, Dark Days: The Forge does a great deal of work to make you interested in it.

The story kicks off with Batman uncovering a mystery that stretches all the way back to the early days of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman run and into space and the Multiverse itself. While that may seem incompatible: Snyder and Tynion make a pretty effortless and fun connection for what would normally be continuity clean-up. If anything, it’s also the closest thing in awhile a comic has come to capturing the spirit of one of DC’s high watermarks: the Morrison/Porter JLA run. You haven’t quite lived till you’ve seen Batman go to town with a Volcanobot.

The artists on this issue are a murderer’s row themselves. Between Jim Lee, John Romita Jr and Adam Kubert there’s quite a bit of talent on display here. The story format is also akin to an anthology so you have everything from Jim Lee illustrating Green Lantern vs Lark, to Adam Kubert drawing the origin of Hawkman, to John Romita Jr drawing a meeting with Batman and a surprise character in this issue. While this is an event comic of a sort, this sort of commitment to fun gives everyone involved an energetic push that keeps it as a comic book rather than appointment viewing.

That said overall, I’m not generally a fan of event comics. They have little to offer to me beyond continuity logistics if you’re into that sort of thing. Where this comic is different is that it’s looking to engage in doing some different beyond the simple mechanics of putting out an event comic that changes the status quo. It’s looking to dig into a more primal and incongruous side of the DCU and comics in general and that’s definitely something I can get behind. Overall, if Metal is anything like this comic, it’s going to be something to watch.

4 Volcanobots out of 5