Dark Nights: Death Metal #1 (2020)

In this new universe created by The Batman Who Laughs, Wonder Woman and a deformed Swamp Thing guard Themyscira which has been transformed into a twisted version of a prison hell, used to hold villains that refuse to defect to The Batman Who Laugh's new world order. After dropping off a new and mysterious prisoner that seems familiar to Diana, three new Batmen (Batmage, B-Rex, and Beyonder) escort Diana and Swamp Thing to meet The Batman Who Laughs on a graveyard site, along with seemingly different versions of Harley Quinn, Aquaman, and a strapped up Mister Miracle, respectively accompanied by three others: Dr. Arkham, Bathomet and Darkfather. Mister Miracle and Darkfather confirm that Superman has nearly succumbed to the Anti-Life Equation, to which The Batman Who Laughs follows up with the news that Earth 22 has fallen to Perpetua and her forces. Batman reaches Diana through a copy of Martian Manhunter's psychic link. Bruce reveals his plan to create a single world in which the little good that remains can exist in peace, without the interference of Perpetua's army. Diana disagrees with his plan, believing they need to save everything somehow, they are soon interrupted by The Batman Who Laughs, who senses Diana is out of the moment. Soon after, Bruce uses the Black Lantern Ring to raise the dead, creating a zombie army to fight the army of evil Batmen that The Batman Who Laughs summoned, which include Batman versions of Plastic Man, Etrigan, Deathstroke, Clayface, and Scarecrow. Bruce informs Diana that this is what he had meant by winning the little battles, but Diana still refuses to let go of the universe before Perpetua. Meanwhile, on the planet Ossex, Lobo finds an undisclosed item that he has been implied to have been searching for, announcing it's his time to make a return. Searching for a way to return everything that the world has lost, Diana enters the prison where the mysterious prisoner is being kept, who is revealed to be Wally West. He informs Diana that there are two separate sets of energy: Positive connective energy (the Speed Force, the Emotional Spectrum, and the forces of justice), and Crisis energy (the Anti-Life Equation, Chaos Magic and the forces of doom) an equal and powerful counterpart. Perpetua is apart of a race of powerful beings that are responsible for creating multiverses with positive energy and dying, giving their essence to their respective universe. However, when Perpetua created the prime multiverse, she used Crisis energy to do so, in an attempt to create an evil and chaotic multiverse. Once she was found out to have done this, her species decided to trap her in the Source Wall, hoping she may eventually grow to love the multiverse. However, all her years in the Source Wall had made her bitter and she would whisper to those with evil thoughts, hoping to bait them into freeing her. Eventually, this worked on Lex Luthor and he nursed Perpetua back to health after the Source Wall was broken in the Justice League's fight with Barbatos, and she escaped. Wally continues to reveal that Doctor Manhattan had attempted to mend the fractures in the multiverse created by all the prior crises, but he failed. So instead, the Quintessence gave the Justice League all of the positive energy in the multiverse, to fight off Perpetua who had all the crisis energy in the multiverse. The Justice League lost the fight, and Perpetua was given a direct conduit into the Dark Multiverse from the Batman Who Laughs, in exchange for the second-in-command position being taken away from Lex and given to him instead. Diana suggests that the remaining heroes create the first Anti-Crisis in order to have a fighting chance against Perpetua and bring back the multiverse, but the Batman Who Laughs overhears the conversation and interrupts. The Batman Who Laughs reveals that he has his bat-army torturing Swamp Thing in the upper level of the dungeon, and tells Diana to continue playing her role in his plans for her friends not to be killed at his hands. In fact, the Batman who Laughs is keeping several heroes alive because with their memories, they keep the Dark Multiverse going, and with it a constant source of crisis energies for Perpetua. After further antagonization from the Batman Who Laughs, Diana decides to kill him with an Invisible Chainsaw. In the final panels, Batmage reveals to the Batman Who Laugh's Robins that he has died. He tells them not to worry, and it's time to reveal the Batman Who Laugh's true plan, the "Final Bruce Wayne", a Bruce Wayne that appears to have the Doctor Manhattan symbol on his forehead, much like Wally. A severed and possibly confused Sgt. Rock is rambling about the toughness and brutality of war, while Batman comes to recruit Rock to his cause, picking him up for "one last fight".