The Origin of the Devastator – Batman: The Devastator # 1

In today’s Dark Nights: Metal tie-in, we get to meet the Doomsday/Batman hybrid known as the Devastator from the pages of Batman: The Devastator # 1 written by Frank Tieri and art by Tony Daniel.

First things first, I feel like this was the weakest amongst the one-shots. It had decided to focus more on the fallout of the ending of Dark Nights: Metal # 3 rather than give us a meaty look at a Batman who worked on something to finally kill Superman in their “Dark universe”. It also just struck me that the Batman Who Laughs feels like that secretive anime lackey trope that’s a lot powerful and then shows his real scary stuff towards the end, acting like the mid-boss.

So anyway, we really don’t how Superman went bonkers in the Earth where Devastator came from. We rather get thrown into the closing moments of the fight. The murder and backstory are all done away with in the first few pages. No imagery though, just monologues from the Devastator Batman.

We do get to see the Green K spear which even looks just like the spear from Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

I’m willing to bet the creative team for this issue spent A LOT OF TIME checking different scenarios online to give us the pages that focused on the appearance of the big D.

We can also tell that Superman went bonkers because he’s gloating about his superiority AFTER cutting off Batman’s arm with his heat vision. As in he tells Batman that he and the rest of the League were weak compared to him.

Here’s the part that kinda turned me off a bit. There was never a background. He just laid it on the table that he had kept a strain of the Doomsday Virus from the Superman event “DOOMED” and worked on it to the point where he can use it at anytime in case he needs to go up against a rogue Superman.

Doomsday / Batman actually makes quick work of Superman just after his transformation. Two pages or so and we see Superman dead from the same way he died in BVS too.

After killing Superman, Devastator meets up with the Batman Who Laughs who offers him a chance of getting rid of another world that worships and adores him.

Check out tomorrow for more spoilers for Batman: The Devastator # 1!