Batman: The Merciless #1 Review and *SPOILERS*

Bat God of War

Written By: Peter J. Tomasi

Art By: Francis Manapul, Tom Napolitano

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 25, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

You all know the gist of these issues if you've been reading Metal's one-shots so far.  You get a Batman from a world in the Dark Multiverse and how he crossed the line, before being recruited by the Batman Who Laughs to take over Earth-0 in the Multiverse above and then you get that Dark Knight going against its Justice League counterpart until Doctor Fate shows up to rescue our hero....... that is, unless your Cyborg, then you just get your ass torn apart........ Pretty messed up Doctor Fate!  Anyway, that's what we've gotten so far from these one-shots.......... but guess what?  This one isn't like the rest.  Let's jump into this issue and see what Batman would be like if he became the God of War.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins on Earth  -12, where Batman is holding the lifeless body of Wonder Woman after a great battle with Ares.  Yeah, it turns out that Ares went and made himself a new helmet that increased his power a hundredfold, but during his last skirmish with Batman and Wonder Woman, it went and got knocked off and in order to win the day, Batman decides to put it on to defeat the warring God and become him........ Even though, he was told that the helmet would corrupt you completely.  So yeah, Batman killed Ares and then waged his war against anyone who stood between him and what he believed to be just and fare until The Batman Who Laughs showed up and told him what the deal was with the Dark Multiverse.  Really, all of this is pretty standard fare for what we've been getting from these one-shots, but it's still pretty cool.

To change things up a bit, since Wonder Woman is off with the Resistance trying to figure out how to stop Barbatos and the Dark Knights, The Merciless is going to Langley, Virginia, where ARGUS, The DEO, Task Force X, Cadmus and the military have come together to talk about what's to be done since the Justice League have gone MIA and General Lane's option seems to be the only one that anyone is talking about, probably because he goes nuts halfway through and tries to kill The Merciless and everyone in the room by dropping the Valhalla bomb on them that is made up of Modoran sonic tech, Chemo particles and Kryptonian sun stones.

In the end, even though it was believed that this bomb could kill anything, The Merciless just absorbs every bit of it as he lets us in on a fucked up little tidbit of information about when he killed Ares.  Yeah, it turns out that Wonder Woman wasn't actually dead when he believed her to be and when she tried to remove the helmet from him, he ended her life himself even though he loved her.  Yeah, Wonder Woman is going to mind fuck the hell out of him when they go up against each other.

That's it for this Metal one-shot and while I haven't been really enjoying these issues because of their formulaic nature, this issue actually breaks the mold a bit by putting The Merciless up against Steve Trevor, Amanda Waller, Father Time, General Lane, Sasha Bordeaux, Mr. Bones and newcomer Colonel Jonas, who seems to be behind the character Damage, who will appear in the Dark Matter titles after Metal has concluded and while they obviously don't stand a chance against this character, the narration he gives about how he became what he is and what he did on his world was beyond awesome and the amazing artwork of this issue just propelled it even higher in my mind.  So yeah, this is by far my favorite Metal one-shot and if you've enjoyed them up to this point, you need to check this installment out as well because its not only giving you an awesome character, but setting up events for the rest of the event and beyond.

Bits and Pieces:

While this issue started out just like any other of the Metal one-shots, it didn't take long to see that this installment was a cut above the rest and quickly became my favorite.  Not only is the art fantastic, but Tomasi lays down an awesome backstory for The Merciless, gives insights to the rest of the event and even gives us a little twist in the story by the end.  Definitely a one-shot you should pick up.

8.5/10