Metal is terrible

Personally, I really hate the naysayers on this forum. It’s a real downer.

But I just finished forcing myself to complete the Metal miniseries event. And it was pure awfulness.

The art was consistently good. No complaint there. But the writing was reminiscent of fanfiction that we all wrote in the sixth grade.

Going in, I knew very little about the story. I knew they found another universe, filled with evil versions of Batman. And I had seen some of the artwork, so I had an idea of what to expect. But our main characters were so far off from my decades of experience. I don’t know…

I was hoping this would be a launching point to get me revitalized into DC’s contemporary offerings. But honestly, I think this has scared me off. If this is the epitome of modern DC storytelling, I’m not missing much.

I believe this is the same team that did Batman 52 with the Court of Owls storyline. I’ve never been a huge Batman fan, but he’s central to modern DC. So I was thinking of checking it out. Was that storyline as bad as metal?

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In my opinion , Court of Owls is far superior to the Metal series. Court of Owls is far more down-to-earth, doesn’t try to figure out who God is and just is a neat innovative scary concept.

I am enjoying parts of Metal, it was just way too vast to stay stable with all those many many storylines, again in my opinion.

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Ya metal was a let down for me as well not a very coherent series

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So wrong

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I made it two issues into Metal and decided it wasn’t for me. I’m typically a Scott Snyder fan though, so do recommend Court of Owls. Snyder shines when he has horror elements to his stories and parts of his Batman run definitely have that.

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The Court of Owls is better than Dark Nights: Metal by a pretty good margin, and I’m someone who loved Metal.

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Metal has a lot of fans, but it wasn’t for me either. I tried reading it when it was first published and couldn’t get into it, but having all of the issues available on DC Universe made me give it a second shot. I read the whole thing but, with the exception of a few of the one-shots, I didn’t enjoy it. I wouldn’t say it’s representative of the modern DC era at all, or even Scott Snyder’s Batman work (Court of Owls is more of a traditional Batman story featuring that same creative team).

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I haven’t read dark nights yet, but the court of owls storyline was really good.

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I haven’t read dark nights yet, but the court of owls storyline was really good.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Dark Nights: Metal. It looked cool, but the storyline didn’t really make sense.

But DEFINITELY check out Court of Owls. It’s one of the best Batman stories of all time. In fact, I think the entirety of Snyder’s run on Batman is good. And his recent Justice League is also great.

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But don’t read the whole Night of the Owls event. It’s pretty pointless. Just read Batman #1-11

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Glad I’m not alone. I really didn’t like Metal either. I just don’t like high concept books like Morrison and Hickman do. I like more down to earth stuff.

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Preach, Brother. Metal was mediocre and Snyder is way overrated.

Here’s the thing with Snyder. He does good spectacle and he does good dialogue, but his Batman is God, his plots are suspect and his endings tend to disappoint. I can enjoy the Bat spectacle for what it is and the endings I can overlook, but the Bat God is just agonizing. I hate it when Bats has the perfect gadget for every unpredictable challenge or when the whole plot just Deus Ex Machninas to make Bats look awesome. Snyder loses Bruce’s humanity for epic ness and it’s not a worthwhile trade in my book.

Court of Owls is much better than metal and is a more traditional Batman story. I don’t think it’s an all-time great story, but it’s well worth reading. It still makes Bats OP as heck and the wrap up is just okay.

I’m a big fan of King’s Batman starting in Batman Rebirth, but Kong’s run is highly divisive among fans. Detective Comics Rebirth is also an excellent title with less backlash though this is more of a Bat Family title. If you read 90 or early naughts Batman titles, you’ll recognize a lot of key players.

I’d definitely try more of the modern DC catalogue before writing it off. Metal is dumb and I think people who like it prefer spectacle over story.

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@BatWatch How is Batman OP in Court of Owls? I understand you saying that about the other arcs (because it’s totally true), but Court of Owls?

SPOILER

He doesn’t know about a huge threat in Gotham that’s been able to avoid his detection for years, he’s captured and driven to the brink of insanity and almost killed in the Labyrinth, barely escapes, and has a break down after escaping.

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Think Metal is okay, but not Snyder’s best.

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Metal was not for me. I really wanted to like it, but it just wasn’t my taste.

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Oh so glad others feel the same. I was rather disappointed with metal too. I loved Snyders run of N52 Batman and bought Metal out of faith. I agree the art is great. Greg Capullo and the rest did a fantastic job. but the story just didn’t deliver the way it was set up. I have noticed that with Snyders work sense Metal. He is good at setting up the main plot but when it comes to the final climax it just seems to fall short. He made it seem that it was going to be this Crisis like event and it just wasn’t that great. I bought all the Vol. and it was well over $100 and at the end I felt like I had wasted my money.

Also Batman who laughs is overrated as well.

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I would disagree. But to each their own

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The Batman who laughs was laughable. The idea that alternate versions of yourself would know everything you do, and think at the same speed, etc. It’s so contrived. I mean, just by sitting on the other side of the room, you’ve changed your perspective. So it’s utterly ridiculous that Batman and the Batman who laughs would be equally matched.

(It makes for a neat boss battle in a video game. “Oh look, Dark Link has all the same moves as regular Link!” But a story with fully realized characters and an intelligent readership, you need something more complex.)

On the other hand, the Batman who laughs could’ve been fantastic. The idea that Batman was driven to the point of Joker-like insanity could be interesting.

I don’t know. The whole series was just awful. I read the last issue with my son. I explained the whole 8th metal/9th metal stuff. His response was identical to mine… “Um… ok. I guess so…”

But then, turning the tide of the ultimate battle which will decide the fate of multiple multiverse, we see the Trinity explode from the Darkness (which looks a lot like lava), and they’re armored in 10th metal!

My son just gave me that look. Everybody knows that look. That look that says (without actually saying a word), “are you f#@&ing kidding me?”

He actually got up, walked out of the room, and said, “I don’t think DC cares anymore.”

Fourteen year old kid. Prime target audience. He’s seen every Star Wars, Marvel, and Harry Potter film. He’s an expert on so much pop culture/nerd lore, he makes your head spin. And he wants to school his dear old dad on DC lore, but I’ve got a 20 year head start.

But he didn’t even wait for the end of the story. It was that bad.

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I liked Metal, Ive liked just about all of Snyders work from Batman, to Swamp Thing, to Justice League.

But the Court of Owls and Death of the Family are his crown jewels. Definitely read that, whoever told you to read Dark Nights Metal before reading Snyders Batman run did you a serious disservice. Part of the pay off of Metal was if youve been reading Snyders Batman since the beginning.

Metal was more just a crazy wacky story thats enjoyable if you dont try to read too deep into it, it was meant to be a fun “heavy metal” story that Snyder and Capullo just let loose on.

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