A review by thekarpuk
Dark Nights: Metal: The Resistance by Joshua Williamson

3.0

These secondary books tying into a mega-event can be such a mixed bag. At times it amazes me that some of this stuff was actually sold as single issues that they expected people to pay $4 for.

If there's one really good selling point for The Resistance, it's the first few chapters, which involve Robin and a motley crew of heroes and villains storming the mountain that grew out of Gotham in the main Dark Knight: Metal series. Each ring is controlled by a different Batman villain who received a magical metal card from The Batman Who Laughs.

This honestly could have been the whole book. Each circle could have made up a few issues, since there's rich possibilities with giving these villains complete power over a domain. But most of the pages are given over to inter-party squabbling between Robin and everyone else. In general I find super heroes working against a common enemy more compelling than when they fight amongst themselves, but the latter seems popular with many writers.

And that story ends on a pretty unsatisfying note, leaving the back half justifying its existence as a full-priced graphic novel by stuff in odds and ends from around the DC universe. I don't find many writers at DC to be deft hands at the one-shot, many of them seem constrained by 6 issues, so several of these stories I skipped after reading about half, since they failed to engage.

If you loved the main Dark Knight: Metal series, this one might be worth it on sale, but don't expect to be blown away by anything within.