McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Dark Father - Dark Knights: Death Metal

 

The Dark Father is a Batman from one of the Dark Multiverses that defeated Darkseid and acquired his powers as well as mastery of the Anti-Life equation. He even changed the parademons into pararobins! Interesting. Anyway, he is put in charge of powering the sun or at least making the captured Superman of the new world power it anyway. The Death Metal Batman and Wonderwoman infiltrate...the Sun I guess! and free Superman, who punches Dark Father out into space! Theatrical to say the least. 

This figure isn't what I was looking for, but overall it's not bad. After buying the Death Metal figure line, you assemble all the pieces, and they fit pretty nicely, but not so tight you are worried about disassembling him. He has pretty decent range of motion, especially in the legs. The cape is a bit boring, flat with a peg in piece at the back and front to keep it from flopping everywhere. I do like the cracked skin details and metal look to him, though it's not like, a very strong presentation. I kinda wish he came with his Omega beam gun from the comics and maybe a smirky look instead of the blank look we got, but what are you gonna do?

McFarlane Toys Batcycle - Dark Knights: Death Metal

 

This just an amazing vehicle that I couldn't pass up. I did pass on many of the other McFarlane vehicles, mostly because they don't really fit in my collection vision. I am very tempted by the upcoming Batmobeast, an evil Batman who is a sentient car (this Dark Knights line is so crazy), but it's so huge I wouldn't know where to put it. If I'm going to get a vehicle that big, it'll be an actual Batmobile I'm looking for. 

This one has amazing sculpt details in all the bone textures, the bat face, and the details of the bike parts. It's hard not to criticize some things in my head like "uh, that's not how those bones look...and those shouldn't even be bones!" but I push it aside because it just looks so neat. The bike completes the Death Metal look and makes me want to get the scythe death metal Batman version (probably won't unless there's a sale). The bike has working wheels that are well made, and turn at a swivel point too! 7-inch figures look pretty comfortable on it, but six-inch and true six-inch figures make it look a little too big. 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Batman - Dark Knights: Death Metal

 

The Death Metal comics wouldn't be metal without a sweet Batman in a spiked trenchcoat and a crazy scythe guitar, amirite?! This version of Batman only appears as a variant cover for the Death Metal comics. Taking place in the time after Perpetua is freed and the Source Wall falls, he struggles with the other heroes who survive to take back control of the Multiverses. Batman in this verse uses a black lantern ring to resurrect the dead and leads his army of zombies astride his Batcycle to fight the Batman-Who-Laughs. Pretty sweet imagery!

In the comics, he is mostly portrayed holding a scythe while riding a skeletal Batcycle (guess which review is next??), but I couldn't pass up on this version. He is fairly well articulated despite the trenchcoat limitations and obviously, the guitar is hella sweet. They did a pretty decent job of the paint, but once again miss some small areas like the lack of paint on his shoulder jacket spikes. 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Wonder Woman - Dark Knights: Death Metal

 As the Earth is enveloped by the Dark Multiverse, everything is transformed into a hellish landscape. Many heroes are captured or killed. Wonder Woman forges a new weapon made of her lasso and invisible jet to create a Chainsaw of Truth (I did not make this up!). The chainsaw radiates Anti-Crisis energy (I feel very lost in these comics sometimes), and with it, she is able to go toe to toe with The Batman Who Laughs and his Dark Knights. 

This is a pretty awesome look for Wonder Woman. I love the armour, the helmet piece, and even the strange chainsaw! And can we talk about the cool blue hair?? Amazing. The figure, despite having heels, stands fairly well as they are pretty wide and solid. The sculpt and paint are great here, and the articulation is better than the others in Death Metal. The articulation range is pretty unhindered for the most part. This is a good figure! 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Superman - Dark Knights: Death Metal

In the Dark Knights: Death Metal storyline, Perpetua is freed from her prison and takes over the Multiverse. Many DC heroes are locked up in New Apokolips, Superman being one of them. As Wonderwoman comes to rescue him, she finds him changed. The Dark Father has imprisoned him to power the sun, whilst using the Anti-Life equation to weaken him. Normally Superman is resistant, but with a constant drain on his powers, while being used as a human battery, he is vulnerable. It isn't explained very well, but it seems he has absorbed or taken over by the Anti-Life equation, making his arm undergo some metamorphosis. 

This changed version of Superman only lasts for the comic run, at which point the multiverse is restarted, kicking off the ending and the Future State storyline. I do like his design and rocker aesthetic that goes well with Death Metal Batman and Wonder Woman. I do think that because of some missed paint areas and a head that is perhaps too unSuperman looking, he is the weakest figure in the Dark Father set. It's a mix of just off painting and sculpting with it kind of not being impressive enough on its own. I'll be honest, I wouldn't have bought this. My main reason is I wanted 3 out of 4 of the wave and figured one more would allow me to build the figure, which, might as well if you only need another couple of pieces to complete! 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Robin King - Dark Knights: Metal

 Yet another Bruce Wayne of the Dark Multiverse is Robin King. Even though I've read the comics and have done some cursory searching, there's no listed Earth negative number for him, but basically, imagine if Bruce had been homicidal as a kid. In this story, Bruce stabs the mugger in the alley, THEN kills his parents with the mugger's gone! Sounds like there were lots of red flags before this...so....yikes!

Hearing a robin chirp at his parent's funeral, he took that as a delusional sign of joy, and eventually became a leader of youths who would overthrow the old order of power. He would lead them and become the Robin King, and eventually when Perpetua executes her plan with the Batman-Who-Laughs to take over the Multiverse, would be in charge of the Crow Robins. 

This figure looks pretty neat. I like the face application and general design. I think that's the big draw for me to all the Dark Metal figures: how they capture a dark, corrupted alternate version of Batman with a quick backstory and a sweet aesthetic design. Being a smaller figure, they've gone the route of their other scaled-down figures of having slightly fewer points and poseability. His one, in particular, is kinda rubbery-overlay feeling many places, and the ankles are difficult to balance despite the large boot size. 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse The Drowned - Dark Knights: Metal

 

Bryce Wayne was born to Martin Wayne on Earth - 11. Like the Batmans before, her father was shot by criminals. After rogue Metahumans killed her lover, Sylvester Kyle, Bryce went about killing every metahuman as revenge. The ruler of Atlantis in this world, Aquawoman, proposed a peace treaty that proved to be unreliable and resulted in an attack. Bryce responded by killing the Queen and taking the trident to eventually lead a surface army to defeat the Atlanteans. In retaliation for the Queen's death, the Atlanteans drowned Gotham and a good part of the world. In order to win the desperate war, Bryce modified her body to adapt Atlantean features such as hydrokinesis, fast healing and breathing underwater. She defeated the Atlantean empire, drowning the world. Becoming The Drowned, she was soon met by the Batman-Who-Laughs who proposed his multiversal scheme. Side note, shouldn't she be The Drowner? Anyway, onto the figure review!

As with all the Dark Metal designs I really love The Drowned character design. It's a mix of dark green, gray flesh of an undead person with the attire of a pirate and the cybernetic eye of a cyborg? Anyway, all put together it's cool. Here's a quick breakdown of the figure's merits!

4th Annual Top 10 Most Viewed Figures!

 It's a few (*coughs many coughs) months late but I've finally gotten around to the 4th annual most viewed figures! This year I've dived headfirst into the absolute INSANE world that is McFarlane toys in a big way. As in, I've had to really push myself away from not collecting EVERY DC Multiverse toy that came along. Some were easy decisions (often mediocre face sculpts from live-action DC films) and others were tempting but from comic lines, I had never read nor cared a lot about (White Knight, Last Knight on Earth etc). Advance warning this list of 50% McFarlane, 20% import, and 30% older figures I recently got hold of. I did recently get a Spiderman PS4 figure THINKING it was the real thing but sadly it is a knockoff. Maybe one day if I get the real one I'll do another comparison. 

So here are the ten that you liked clicking on! 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Devastator - Dark Knights: Metal

On Earth -1, the story of Batman progresses, as usual, joining the Justice League and fighting for the safety of Earth from threats. On this Earth though, Superman starts using his power (not sure why) to kill those who stand in the way of the Justice League's mission. He even ends killing Lois (dark!), and Batman seeks to stop him. Superman manages to blow off Batman's kryptonite spear-wielding arm, resulting in Batman using is the dreaded backup plan: The Doomsday virus. Upon ingesting it, he regrows his arm and mutates into a monstrous Doomsday-like creature. As the Devastator, he manages to become the psychopathic monster required to kill Superman, but the virus actually spreads to the rest of the world, killing off humanity rapidly. It's at this time the Batman Who Laughs comes to Earth - 1 to induct him into the Dark Knights. 

This figure is BIG and really heavy! He looks great though, with very decent articulation given his size and bulk. I appreciate the articulated jaw and the sheer monstrousness of his spikes and skin texture. He's a cool addition to the Dark Knights and I can't wait to get my hands on the Drowned for a completed group picture! 

McFarlane DC Multiverse Grim Knight - Dark Knights: Metal

 Here we have another Dark Multiverse alternate Batman! Batman using guns isn't really a new thing, in fact, Detective Comics #27 had Batman use a machine gun at a criminal! The original idea for the character was an inspired pulp hero like The Shadow. Anway! So here as usual Joe Chill kills Batman's parents, but drops the gun while trying to take Martha's pearls. Kid Bruce grabs the gun and kills him. Can't say I blame this one! He later learns all the deadly tricks of combat and in his first year as Batman starts taking down the wealthy elite protecting Gotham's criminals by burning them alive! Hardcore!

He stashes and uses guns he's had all around the city. Needless to say, this Dark Universe builds up with the good characters of the world trying to control his absolute Judge Dredd attitude, and it's about to end when The Batman Who Laughs asks him to join his squad as his second in command on the prime infected world. 

I gotta say, it's all the crazy guns that drew me to this one. It also reminded me of the alternate Batman from the future in Batman Vs Superman. He looks kinda neat all stacked up with guns at the back, weapons everywhere on his moulded belts/bandoliers and the grenade launcher and uzi he comes with. Amazing! His poseability is fairly decent despite the belts getting in the way, and as a plus, though his ankles look oddly chopped up, he's got a solid balance and stance. I like the head sculpt, though sideways it appears a bit bizarre. My one wish is that they had bothered to paint the belt parts and guns....it's all just plain gray-black that isn't very inspiring. I will definitely end up doing this. 

McFarlane Toys The Merciless (Build-a-Figure) - Dark Knights: Metal

 It is assembled! It was very satisfying putting the figure together since it looks glorious! I think overall it was worth buying Wave 2 just to get this beast in hand. The Merciless is another member of the Dark Knights, led by Batman Who Laughs to give rise to a permanent Dark Multiverse. The Merciless is the dark mirrored reflection of a Batman who assumes the powers of Ares. Bruce Wayne of Earth -12 grows to be Batman in typical fashion. Ares, the God of War, creates a helmet that amplifies his powers a hundredfold. For a couple of years, Wonder Woman and Batman work together to stop him from conquering, falling in love in between. 

In a final conflict, Diana appears dead after being incapacitated by Ares, and Batman takes the helmet and dons it. Gaining incredible strength, magma control, pathokinesis (the ability to inspire rage and a desire to fight), and energy absorption, he kills Ares. He begins believing his old code to be worthless and becomes The Merciless. After awakening, Diana fears what the power will do to Bruce, and tries to remove it. So addicted to the helmet's influence, he kills her as well. He goes on a rampage that involves killing nearly every hero. His fight goes all the way to Themiscara and the Greek Gods. His world is about to end in the Dark Multiverse when Batman Who Laughs appears and recruits him to be part of his Dark Knights. 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Dawnbreaker - Dark Knights: Metal

 Bruce Wayne of Earth -32 is pretty similar initially. His parents die, and he sees the murderer, Joe Chill. His emotions leave him and are replaced by a cold void. A green lantern ring finds its way to him, and he uses its powers to find and kill Joe Chill. Now, Green Lantern rings don't usually allow the bearer to create a construct that kills, but Bruce forces his incredible willpower while flooding the ring with his cold emotionless void, breaking that one rule. After killing Jim Gordon for questioning his methods, the Green Lantern Corps comes after him. Then he up and murders them all! Wow. 

Afterward, he enters the Green Lantern Power Battery by shedding his former identity and adopting a Batman type persona after the cave of bats under the manor. As his world is crumbling, The Batman Who Laughs offers he join the Dark Knights in subverting the Multiverse. 

This isn't the first time by a longshot that Batman has had a power ring, but it is easily the evilest version! Change my mind! I like how they captured the figure. His skin is this dusky grey, he's got a mean sneer on his face, and his Green Lantern outfit really pops against the black underlayer. I added a slight black wash to most details to make things stand out more, as I'm finding more and more with these figures they are just missing a little something to make them more interesting. His accessory bats are neat, and his poseability works pretty well, though I wish he could look up more. Any flying character should have a lot more head flexibility.

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse - Batman Who Laughs with Sky Tyrant Wings (Dark Knights: Metal)

Bringing back the same Batman Who Laughs you know and love (see review here if you missed who the Batman Who Laughs is: Batman Who Laughs review), McFarlane toys made him part of the Build-a-Figure The Merciless because he's a much cooler iteration, and THOSE WINGS THOGH. 

Alright, let's rewind a second. Sky Tyrant is Hawkman of Earth 3 (No, not -3, just 3), where good and evil are reversed. He's of course hella evil and kills to prolong his own life. He actually dies on this Earth, but Hawkman of Prime Earth does end up being infected by The Batman Who Laugh's toxin and unlocks these memories and violent tendencies of his Earth 3 alternate self. He eventually becomes part of the Secret Six alongside other infected heroes. 

The reality is, Batman Who Laughs never actually rips off Carter Hall/Hawkman/Sky Tyrants wings and uses them. That's just a variant cover for Hawkman #18. It is cool though! I like how they mixed up the chest gear and wings for Hawkman into Laughs. The sculpting as usual is both unique in places, amazing, and highly detailed. They really left out some paint here that they would have previously put on though, which I think is a product of Todd rushing through figures as fast as they can be made. Not complaining, but definitely, it's noticeable the product painting is less detailed than usual lately. He comes with the wings, The Merciless head, shoulder pauldrons, blade, and of course the stand and card.

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Robin - Dark Knights: Metal

 

On the homeworld of the Batman-Who-Laughs homeworld, Earth -22, the Joker makes Bruce Wayne relive his trauma by repeatedly killing parents of children and then exposing the children to Joker Venom to turn them into infected orphans in the process. Batman breaks free and kills Joker, only to take in the children to try to find a cure. Eventually, Batman succumbs to his own exposure to the Joker venom and becomes the Batman Who Laughs. These children are the Crow Robins of Earth -22. 

This Robin looks great in many ways. He's got the slightly askew ties for his classic red and yellow robin costume, green fish scale shorts, and overly large green gloves and boots. The face sculpt is great, and it is a random draw as to which of the three Robin heads you get with the figure (grinning, screaming or winky face with open mouth). I love all the sculpted pockmarked arms and legs, the folds of the boots and gloves, and the way everything drapes. I'm not super impressed by the fact his face is a stark white but the rest of his body is a drab gray. It's a bit strange once you look at it long enough. The other thing I'm not fond of is the articulation. If DC Icons can do a Robin much smaller with double joints, what happened to this one? It's also a bit awkward, and unbalanced easily due to the way the knee joints are permanently bent. 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse: Batman - Dark Knights: Metal

 Did I buy this whole line so I could complete the Merciless build-a-figure to complete my Dark Knights: Metal villains? Yes. But are they all good figures?? Also yes! 

This iteration of Batman uses his DC Rebirth suit of black and grey with yellow highlights around the bat symbol and utility belt, but with a rough Badlands-apocalypse type look. This represents the very first artwork Capullo released for the Dark Knights: Metal storyline: Batman holding two axes, bloodied, tattered cape set against a hellish background. That's pretty metal! 🤘

This is a cool version of Batman. He keeps his DC Rebirth suit but is all shredded. They sculpted in those details wonderfully, as well as the intense expression on Batman's face. The articulation is tight but not too tight, and the axes look great. One or two paint details I find are missing comparing it to the original artwork. I REALLY don't need any more Batmen (Except the Black version of Mafex Hush), but with the build a figure piece, and the sweet axes, I couldn't resist. 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse : Infected Superman - Batman/Superman Vol 2 (2019)

Following parallel storylines with the Dark Knights: Metal stories, The Batman Who Laughs has created batarangs for some of DC's heroes with a Joker Toxin that creates corrupted versions of these heroes. These are for Blue Beetle, Jim Gordon (why), Donna Troy, Shazam, Supergirl, and Hawkman. The members infected, like King Shazam, soundly beat the snot out of Superman and Batman in a feat of cunning that is not usually Shazam in nature. In order to infiltrate these Secret Six, Superman purposely infects himself with the toxin to learn of The Batman-Who-Laughs plans. You can see how this isn't a great plan! 

The figure is great though. I don't know how close this is to the Superman #1000 from McFarlane produced at the beginning of this line, but I like it! It's got a very solid, bulky chest, and proportions that scream superman. The cape is plastic and pretty solid (oh well), but the look is awesome. I'm tempted to get the 1000 Superman just to compare notes and to have a non-Dark knights metal Superman for him to face off.

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse: Murder Machine - Dark Knights: Metal

 Bruce Wayne of Earth -44 started out all well and dandy as any regular 'verse Batman: parents murdered, Alfred raises him, becomes Batman, joins the Justice League. Here though, Alfred is horribly murdered by the rogue's gallery. Bruce becomes obsessed with the video of Alfred's death and the void left by his passing. With Cyborg's help, he builds an AI using Cyborg's technologies to protect Bruce and fulfill a role left by Alfred's passing. This AI, Protocol, starts into full Ultron mode by taking over systems like a virus and pretty quickly kills all of Batman's Rogue Gallery. 

To make matters more extreme, the machine starts taking over Bruce's mind, replacing him piece by piece with cybernetics. He succumbs, and the League tries to intervene. He kills all of them, ending with Cyborg. AT this point, The Batman Who Laughs recruits him, letting him know his universe is slated to die just like all the others in the Dark multiverses. 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse: Red Death - Dark Knights: Metal

 

So you're Batman AKA Bruce Wayne in the Dark Multiverse of Earth - 52. You've apparently lost a lot of Robins (what the heck), and your world is about t end via some of your Rogues gallery. You need the Flash's power of the speed force (why)! He refuses! So you chain him to the Batmobile, modifying it into a cosmic treadmill and somehow force him to use the speed force! (This is so wacky). He fuses into you, so now you're Batman but also the Flash, renaming yourself the Red Death. You end up killing a ton of your rogues' gallery but find a tempting offer from The Batman Who Laughs the only way to stop the eternal destructive cycle of these Dark multiverses is to ascend to the regular Multiverses! So you join forces. 

I love reading the Dark Knights: Metal for the crazy characters and this is definitely one of them. Red Death looks like he has a Batmanesque mask with a dark crimson body design similar to the Flash. The figure is spot on. I found out though he had a disconnected hip joint out of the box and the swivel was so stiff I had to boil and refit it to get it to work. That aside, it's a pretty nice figure! Very comic accurate, not much for accessories and came in a two-pack alongside the Flash himself! 

In my goal to collect the Secret Six, this was a must-have, and needless to say, most posts from now on will be McFarlane and will be Dark Knights Metal related! 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse - The Batman Who Laughs

The mother of the Anti-Monitor, Over-Monitor, and World Forger is kind of the villain of the Omniverse. Perpetua is a highly feared super celestial being, and not to be trifled with! She is responsible for creating the "Dark Multiverse", a set of multiverses made of all the bad decisions and nightmares conjured up by every other multiverse. Unlike other Multiverses, which see the light of day, the Dark Multiverses are constantly deteriorating and dying. It is out of these that we get the stories of the Dark Knights: Metal storylines. In one of these many nightmarish worlds, an amalgam of Batman and the Joker has created The Batman Who Laughs; a nightmarish tall ghoul dressed in black leather strips, a spiked collar covering his eyes, and controlling several "Robins" kept on chains. He is one of the Scions of Perpetua. He combines the tactical prowess of Batman and the nihilism of the Joker, along with his dark metal "collar" which acts as a visor into future events. He also has a weakness to Nth metal. 

The figure is one I had to have because...well it's the first Batman Who Laughs action figure. Reading the comics and seeing how McFarlane Toys is pretty much making every Dark Multiverse villain character required that I start collecting them all now! 

The figure is pretty great. It has really good poseability limited only slightly in the shoulders due to the sharp shoulder pads, and the neck due to the collar. These are design elements though, so no biggie. The psychotic look is so cool, and I can't wait for the version with wings and "Robin" figures that will be released. He comes with a few weapons which is always a welcome addition.