As the events of Death Metal kick into high gear in September, it's going to take a very different Justice League to confront the likes of Perpetua and her scheme for universal domination. Fortunately, "different" is just the tip of the iceberg where this particular League is concerned.
According to solicitations, Perpetua will fold the entire Multiverse into one Earth-Prime, which she rules with an iron fist, using the Monitors and Anti-Monitors to enforce her will at every turn. In the one-shot Dark Nights: Death Metal: Multiverse’s End (written by James Tynion IV with art by Juan Gedeon and a cover by Michael Golden) an unlikely Justice League has come together from across every corner of the former Multiverse to counter Perpetua and her plans. The team includes Owlman, Iris West, Guy Gardner, Captain Carrot, President Superman as well as several others. While this line-up might sound pretty impressive, the outcome seems written in stone. According to the solicitations, the team will make their last stand in a battle they are destined to lose.
Their doom notwithstanding, this new Justice League has quite a few interesting faces. Guy Gardner is the brash and loud Green Lantern with a chip on his shoulder, which should make for a pretty explosive confrontation. Owlman is a villainous alternate universe version of Batman, hailing from the Crime Syndicate of Earth-Three. Captain Carrot is a superpowered anthropomorphic rabbit in a cape, as well as the leader of the Amazing Zoo Crew. President Superman is an alternate reality Kryptonian who became President of the United States, based on equal parts Barack Obama and Muhammad Ali. There's also Iris West aka Kid Flash, the daughter of Wally West who took on the identity of Kid Flash. The cover also features several other heroes, including the patriotic superhero Uncle Sam and possibly even the vampiric Batman from the Red Rain Elseworlds stories.
In short, this is a fantastic team filled to the brim with several personalities big enough to fill an entire multiverse. Fortunately, writer James Tynion IV is no stranger to balancing over-the-top personalities with sharp characterization and plotting - as he did on his run on Detective Comics. It is a little disappointing this is only a forty-eight-page one-shot, as this line-up looks like it would make a great miniseries or even ongoing (depending on how the events of Death Metal shake out). Still, despite the solicitations, the future isn't written in stone, maybe this isn't the last time this wild Justice League will grace the pages of the DC Universe.
Dark Nights: Death Metal: Multiverse's End #1, written by James Tynion IV with art by Juan Gedeon and a cover by Michael Golden, goes on sale on September 29th.