About a year ago, DC started a big event for its comicbook universe that ran through the beginning of this year: Dark Nights: Metal. The main story has Batman discovering a dark multiverse beneath the known multiverse, which are connected through a mysterious metal. One of the tie-ins to the six-issue series (which crossed over with pretty much all DC heroes’ stories) was Dark Days: The Road to Metal. 

The first part of this book (with the stories Dark Days: The Forge #1 and Dark Days: The Casting #1) shows the far flung history of the metal (a story that involves Hawkman), but mainly focuses on Batman’s investigation into the mysterious Nth metal and looking into “the darkness”. Members of the Justice League are involved in the plot (Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and more), plus the Joker plays a key role.

The collection then moves into earlier, already published stories that tie in to the mythos of Metal in some way. There are issues of Final Crisis, The Return of Bruce Wayne, Batman, Nightwing and more. At more than 250 pages, there’s a lot of content here. The story is interesting if you’re into the DC multiverse and it definitely helps to know some of the characters and their stories. The art in the new stories is not as traditional, so not all fans are going to like it. But if you got into the Metal event at all, you’ll find this worth a look.