Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: dc comics, Death Metal, the hands

The Hands – New Big Bad Of The DC Universe (Death Metal #6 Spoilers)

Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 continued the cosmic battle between The Darkest Night (formerly The Batman Who Laughs (formerly Bruce Wayne)) and Perpetua (formerly God). During which we discovered the identity of those above Perpetua and those who rule over her. Because handily, at this moment in his godhood, The Darkest Night knows too. The Hands.

They appear to be the only ones that Perpetua is actually afraid of.

She had previously noted in Death Metal #2 that The Hands were the others of her kind.

Been there done that. The Hands, previously unnamed, punished her for creating a multiverse full of crises.

The Source and the Source Wall are part of Jack Kirby DC Cosmic legend, the boundaries of the universe, or Multiverse – made up of the body of dead gods, all joined together. And recently fractured in the previous Metal series, letting Perpetua loose onto the multiverse and revealing her as the DC multiverse's original creator. And learning what The Hands did to her.

It's what Hands always do. They tried to hold her. And so she creates crisis after crisis to weaken that hold.

So the recent actions in Justice League and Metal were just the final straw, not the primary cause of the splitting of the Source Wall. And now it looks like The Hands are about to clap back. Of course, it may be worth noting that the DC Universe has had issues with Hands before.

DC Comics has often shown the beginning of creation with a giant hand creating it all, first seen by Krona in Green Lantern vol. 2, #40 by John Broome and Gil Kane, as Alan Scott travels from Earth-Two to Earth-One. It was assumed God was the Hand of Creation.

Crisis On Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman and George Perez revealed that the Hand that Krona saw was not that of God, but that of the Anti-Monitor, and it was his act of observance, that created the Multiverse, turning it into a predestination paradox.

In Swamp Thing #50 by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and Rick Veitch, the Hand was later seen reaching down from Heaven to embrace the invading Great Evil Beast.

In John Byrne's Ganthet's Tale, it was revealed to be an illusion created by the Guardians to prevent anyone wanting to use time travel to defeat them, seen as the progenitors of the universe itself.

With the New 52, in 2013, Geoff Johns wrote Green Lantern Vol 5 #17, set ten billion years ago, Krona once again observed a hand at the beginning of creation…

But this time, the hand was wearing a Green Lantern power ring, belonging to Volthoom, the First Lantern.

And it keeps popping up again…

…and again…

…and again…

…and again.

And most recently visually referred to in DC Rebirth as the hand of Doctor Manhattan reaching through time to change history.

In Justice League #22, by James Tynion IV and Francis Manapul, if Geoff Johns wants to write his story set ten billion years ago, Tynion goes back twenty billion years to prove a point…

…and it turns out the hand is that of Perpetua, recast as the creator of the DC Multiverse. And creating the World Forger, Monitor, the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor/Mobius to manage it all (and rewriting Mobius' previous new origin from Geoff Johns' Darkseid War –  it seems personal at this point,)

Will we get to see The Hands in all their digital glory in Death Metal #7?

DARK NIGHTS: DEATH METAL #6
written by SCOTT SNYDER
art and cover by GREG CAPULLO and JONATHAN GLAPION
Swamp Thing variant cover by DAVID FINCH
Mister Miracle variant cover by STANLEY "ARTGERM" LAU
B. Rex variant cover by LUCIO PARRILLO
1:25 variant cover by DOUG MANHKE
1:100 black & white variant by GREG CAPULLO and JONATHAN GLAPION
ON SALE 12/15/20
$4.99 US | 32 PAGES | 6 OF 7 | FC | DC
CARD STOCK COVERS
The battle rages as the entire DC Universe stands against the Darkest Knight! Villains fight alongside heroes working as one to banish this demon from the deepest corners of the Dark Multiverse. Meanwhile, the Robin King lurks nearby, his army of Groblins in wait. The dogs of war are loose and no one is safe.

I bought mine from Piranha Comics in Kingston-Upon-Thames. Piranha Comics is a small south London comic store chain with a small south-east store in Kingston-Upon Thames's market centre, which runs Magic The Gathering nights on Fridays, and a larger south-west store in Bromley, which also runs Magic nights and has an extensive back issue collection and online store. If you are in the neighbourhood, check them out.

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