Warning! Spoilers ahead for Dark Nights: Death Metal The Multiverse Who Laughs #1
In the latest tie-in issue to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Dark Nights: Death Metal, the Batman Who Laughs has become the Darkest Knight, having gained enough power to create his own Dark Multiverse. Now, his second in command Robin King is regaling readers and his legion of Groblins with horrifying tales from these dark new worlds, including an incredibly dark new origin for Superman, the Man of Steel himself.
Thus far in Death Metal, the Darkest Knight has gained enough power to start building his own dark worlds, each with their own unique stories of darkness and evil, using the primary Earth as a conduit. However, the heroes and villains of the main Earth have just banded together for what may very well be the final fight in the Multiverse as DC fans know it to be, despite it already having changed so much as Death Metal has gone on. Unified in their resolve to stop the Darkest Knight once and for all, the heroes and villain actually destroyed their own world, cutting off the Darkest Knight's means of creating any more worlds. However, he's already birthed several, which will now have to be fought in a massive upcoming battle as Death Metal continues.
However, The Multiverse Who Laughs tie-in anthology issue shows fans what this new and Dark Multiverse actually looks like, and Robin King shares several dark origins of former heroes in these dark worlds via the short story "Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark Multiverse" coming from writers Scott Snyder, Joshua Williamson, James Tynion IV and art from Juan Gedeon. One dark origin, in particular, that's truly frightening is a new origin for Superman, with Robin King detailing how Clark Kent gained a taste for eating humans.
There seems to be a horrible emphasis on the concept of burning human flesh. One can morbidly imagine that Superman would have no problem achieving this, as he could satisfy his dark hunger with his heat vision. The art also depicts Superman imbued with what must be the radiation from the black hole Robin King references, making him a truly monstrous, frightening, and deadly sight to behold.
The Robin King goes on to share other equally dark and terrible origins and tales of other heroes beyond just Superman, prefacing them all with the idea that people are sick and tired of hearing their stories being told exactly in the ways that they know they're going to go. In Robin King's mind, these alternate stories are the better stories, as they convey what real life is really like, full of darkness and devoid of hope, rather than the idealistic dreams that the original stories hold. In spite of this, the real heroes are still going to fight back against the Darkest Knight and his legion of dark new worlds in Dark Nights: Death Metal. Hopefully, they'll be able to set things right and create a bright new future for the DC Multiverse, proving that hope can be just as real and any dark tale the Robin King might tell.