Warning! Spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal below
DC Comics has a new terrifying villain, and his name is the Robin King. In the pages of Dark Nights: Death Metal, the Batman Who Laughs has (seemingly) been defeated paving the way for a brand-new evil version of a Bat-Family member. If you thought the Batman Who Laughs was evil, the Robin King is coming for his crown.
In Dark Nights: Death Metal #1 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion and FCO Plascencia, the Batman Who Laughs and Perpetua have taken over Earth and enveloped it with darkness. The evil Batman has full control of heroes and villains with his own Batmen army while remaining members of the Justice League scattered across the universe. However, in a shocking twist, the Batman Who Laughs was killed by Wonder Woman in Hell with the Chainsaw of Truth. While readers were teased of the "final Bruce Wayne," another villain will emerge from the shadows and he's even scarier than his laughing predecessor.
Snyder spoke to CBR.com about the Robin King and said that he's even scarier than the Batman Who Laughs to him because unlike BWL, he's always been evil.
Well The Batman Who Laughs is terrifying to me because he is a Bruce Wayne who was once good but is now wholly evil… and the horror of that transition being so final and deadly is what makes him so scary. He’s Batman gone evil at the peak of his career.
The Robin King is evil in the way the Batman Who Laughs is, but he’s almost scarier to me because he was always that way; he’s never been anything else. As a child, all he did was think about ways to kill his heroes... and wait until you see his belt!
It's terrifying to think that there's an even more twisted evil Batman out there than the Batman Who Laughs. But, it seems that the Robin King is more than a hint at who the new character could also be - and it's likely it's not Bruce Wayne. Look at Robin King's emblem... if it looks familiar because it appears to be Batman's classic logo merged with Nightwing's. While DC Comics has remained hush-hush about the Robin King's secret identity, it's possible that he's a version of Dick Grayson.
It would be mind-blowing to say the least if Robin King was Dick Grayson. Also, what if one of the Groblins was actually Damian? Synder and Capullo have really weaved a nightmarish world for Batman. Readers will find out more in the anthology one-shot Dark Nights: Death Metal Legends of the Dark Knights #1, where Robin King's origin will be explained.
Having Bruce (Batman Who Laughs) die so that Dick (Robin King) would become the new Batman - especially in a completely twisted story - would be insane. Dark Nights: Death Metal has already shown it's going to be an absolutely wild story with a bevy of twists and turns. Robin King's real identity could take the Batman mythos a step further while adding a scary new dimension to Bruce and Dick's relationship. Dark Nights: Death Metal will hit stores on July 14, 2020.
Source: CBR