DC provides more details on Dark Nights: Metal, its summer 2017 event

The Dark Knight goes metal this summer to head up DC’s latest event at the hands of the two men who have molded him the most in recent years.

When Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo ended their beloved run on Batman, the two DC Comics superstars always said they would reunite when they had the right story to tell. Apparently Dark Nights: Metal is that story — and it’s going to feature a lot more than just Batman.

As officially revealed at a panel at Fan Expo Dallas, Dark Nights: Metal is the big DC Comics event series for this summer, beginning in August 2017. Snyder and Capullo will handle every issue of the book, which begins with something that only Batman can tackle: a wide-ranging mystery.

During the panel, which was streamed live via Facebook Live, Snyder provided some background into what Dark Nights: Metal will entail:

"“It’s a big mystery. Batman starts to discover things around the DCU, and not just in Gotham. This is a story that is not just a Batman story at all. it goes from Oa to Star City, it’s all over the place. And he starts to discover that there’s a mystery seeded in human history all the way back to the beginnings of man. He discovers it through his experiences with metal … and the deeper he digs, the more terrified he gets about what’s coming.”"

Indeed, the metal theme extends to both the high concept that Snyder mentions when he thinks about Capullo and the various DC heroes whose histories are tied into the event. He named both Hawkman and Mister Terrific, which should perk up the ears of longtime DC Comics fans.

DC co-publisher Jim Lee put over the ability that Snyder has to add new elements (pun intended) to existing lore, drawing connections that make readers feel they should have always been there. Lee is also lending his artistic talents to the two prelude books that will precede Dark Nights: Metal: Dark Days: The Forge (coming in June) and Dark Days: The Casting (July).

The team for those issues includes Snyder and James Tynion IV on writing duties and Lee, Andy Kubert and John Romita Jr. on art.

"“Dark Days is essentially a two-part story. … It introduces all kinds of elements that are going to shape the scope of the story, it shows you the cast of the story, it gives you all kinds of crazy clues as to what’s going to happen. And it brings in some of your favorite characters from before and a bunch of new stuff.”"

Snyder and Capullo should be enough to make even the most event-jaded comic book fans sit up and take notice, and giving them the keys to DC’s entire toybox should be something to see. We’ll have more info on Dark Nights: Metal as it gets closer to its summer release.