Batman shines in this issue - and I'm hoping this arc. In the recent arcs, I feel like Batman has been mostly a one-dimensional foil to villains and their schemes. Batman himself seemed to have taken a back seat lately. This issue offers hope for something different

I remember loving the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh line when I first read it when I was younger. I didn't think that psyche was Batman minus Bruce Wayne, though, I thought it was something completely different. Don't know if I loved that choice. It also doesn't feel like a big enough difference for a split personality. Just saying Also, it's hard to swallow that Batman wouldn't ask for a Superman help or something in this situation. Or that the Failsafe would click at the word of Batman murdering. There doesn't need to be any actual proof? Just the hearsay?

The plot itself isn't my favorite. Unstoppable robot can conquer the world and has no weaknesses whatsoever. Batman prepared for everything except a rogue robot? But, I'm liking the dialogue, the action and story choices are cool - the trap for the justice league in the alley was pretty cool, and finding refuge with Aquaman, smart. The I am a Gun story, intriguing start, I think I'm going to like it!

We go from Batman Zur en Arrh to a joker story with 2 timelines? Uh, ok. I want to ask why, but let's just roll with it. I don't really want a joker origin/year one. I think it'll be lame/weak. Just like I didn't need to know how Han Solo got his last name, I don't need this. If anything, just do the future story.

I feel like a whole lot of nothing is going on in this series so far. Issue 5 and what has happened? Things that could have been covered in a single or two issues.

I do not like this series. I think there are seeds of interesting story here but everything feels pretty disjointed and unclear. Crytoon's explanations feel like its pulled from a high schooler who thinks they're the deepest person. I also think this is an interpretation of Batman which is so out of sync with anything that is Batman. Maybe I would be able to swallow this plot better if it were a different character. The art style is not for me either. It's not for me.

I love the art and I love this Batman. He seems quite aristocratic, which is a take I haven't seen before and it's been interesting.

This is the type of plot that really makes it hard to follow DC events like this. The solution to nightmares and nightmare powers is truth, and truth can be hidden and found? And what is needed to counter 'Crisis Energy' is 'Anti-Crisis Energy'? Tacking on 'anti' to something is not enough for me as a reader to buy into some abstract mcguffin of a solution. There are these ethereal ideas such as the power of truth and crisis energy that don't seem to connect to anything solid so it's hard to imagine what they are and you have to just take it for granted which means the reader is doing so much of the work! And somehow these abstract ideas lead to very real things - and the reader can never truly understand these connections. There feels to be no solid/transparent internal continuity and solutions appear out of thin air, so why should I be invested in what's going on? Why should I care?

I don't know why the things that are going on are going on, or why the choices characters make are significant. Like Wonder Woman putting her lasso into the Forge to make everyone 'remember all of history' in order to fight the nightmares of the Batman Who Laughs? Huh?

I'm surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this one. With other Death Metal one shots, the anthology stories felt unconnected and sometimes just not interesting. But here, the setting was clear and the spotlights made sense/were internally consistent. Definitely corny moments but I really liked it, the brief snippets into characters I normally don't follow. Compared to almost every other Death Metal issue, I think it's the best - though the bookends of the story, with wonder woman, didn't do a thing for me.

A great body horror and unsettling story. Better than the alpha comic. Wondering if the other issues will be up to this quality

I really thought I missed an issue between the previous and this one. It felt so disjointed. I wish this entire arch had been told in a straightforward manner. It had great bones but the execution wasn't there. This issue was a disappointing wrap up to these stories, in my opinion.

I'm very intrigued by this hook. Wondering where it will go, but for now, I'm all in

This has been dragging on for too long. I was loving this arc, but it's gone on for...how long? The sojourn into the desert should have been much shorter. Glad his return to Gotham only took 1 page. I was like the Question's side story. Having Batman come in is kinda fun. I like the Dr Hurt ministory.

Was a big fan. No questions have been answered yet - but it's issue 1, so that's not a worry yet. Love the art and the feeling. The art demands attention. Make sure you have plenty of time because you might be rereading and reexamining each page.

Simply been loving this hardboiled story

Don't get why people rated it so low, nothing egregious about it. Just a new story arc intro! So not a lot of meat to it, but its laying groundwork.

Still building up, not yet hooked.

I'm finding this a refreshing arc. Not everything has to be end of the world/time. A little world building meanwhile hinting at mounting tension in the shadows

Loved this issue and loved Nightcrawler. He was my brother's favorite, I never really got why, but this issue made me see why.

I love it when wars/vendettas like this are given a world to live in and don't exist on their own, free from connections to anything else. Also, Hunters Moon was so Hunters Moon, a shame but no surprise about their character choice.

Don't understand the Shadow King connection/avatars.... But I'm still liking it.

Intriguing start! In arcs like this, they always make defeating the rest of the world look too easy. This one felt a little more 'believable', for whatever that is worth. I'm interested to see where this goes

Don't think the casual 'chill' narration fits with the story. It feels jarring.

I love Liam Sharp and his art. I'm not as interested in the lives of these teens/young people. It's too slow starting off for me and the amount I can spend on new comics is very limited so I think this it for me

This felt like it went on for way too long for how little happened. Also, it felt very forced.

Like others of these one-shots, and Death Metal itself, I've been asking myself 'why do I care?' Some of them hook me, this one did not. Felt very contrived and forced.

Thought the overall plot was interesting, though the end felt flat. My problem with a lot of these Dark Metal one shots and stories is that they show an individual character, such as the Flash, and show them as SO POWERFUL AND UNSTOPABLE, but everywhere else they aren't. So there's a disconnect.

What a freaky Penguin! Feels maybe too long of a detour, even though I know it's retconning some Penguin lore for the future.

I don't think enough of a hook for the rest of the series but I definitely see the potential! I love Walter Mosley and am looking forward to seeing what he does. Also, I love the art.

The start of a new story arc, which isn't the clearest but I am still interested in

This venom arc hasn't been doing it for me, but I think that's due to how choppy the pacing has been. We haven't been with Dylan for quite a while.

Venom has been dragging on for me lately, but this issue just seemed to hit more..can't really explain it

I like this more personal conflict. But I still feel like beast's transformation into a hard right national security conservative takes me out of it because it's such a caricature.

Not enough to entice me to continue subscribing to X-Force. This conflict feels so contrived.

Who cares about Kraven? His threat feels forced rather than organic. And that last page? Huh? Also, why does he think the mutants are the apex predators? Because they can resurrect? Why not the Eternals? The literal eternals

I love a good prison riot / wrench thrown into self-affirming machinery. Let hell break loose, baby

This issue was alright, but this story has dragged on for too long, in my opinion

So there's a space casino that isn't much well-kept of a secret that is strong enough to destroy worlds? But the only people in the galaxy that see that as a problem are the X-Men? And not even the space-focused mutants - I haven't kept up with New Mutants, but wasn't that how they started off? And with Sunspot? Just, not as much for me.

I believe this is the one where Iceman saves the day but then Cyclops gets judged? Feels...out of place to me

Generally cool but I'm still tired of the current villain being the strongest most unbeatable force in the universe until the next enemy. I'm not over that yet. Also the trouble caused by the Summers bros escalating like that? Both feel cliche.

I just read the Sins of Sinister issues and this, to me, doesn't hold up. This feels like deus ex machina, forced. This didn't feel like an especially insightful strategy and for all the bureaucracy of Krakoa, there was never any contingency for this? I'll just make a list: 1. In Sins of Sinister, Juggernaut is shot through Thanos' head. Now, in an equivalent maneuver, he cannot break a robot. 2. Orchis magically hacks the entire gate system and Charles doesn't think twice about sending everyone through there? 3. Orchis publishes fake news showing that all the humans were killed, why doesn't Charles implant what he saw into people's minds to show otherwise? 4. Most importantly, weren't Charles and Hope and Exodus 'tainted' by Sinister's genes and put into the hole in Krakoa? So how are they back now? This was a frustrating read

The cover is very misleading. Don't know too much about Vulcan, so far he seems one-dimensional, though they hint at more. I love me a well written Magneto

As someone who didn't read all of X of Swords and doesn't know that much about about the lore of Arakko most of this went over my head. But I dug the vibes