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Red Death

The Red Death is a fictional appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is an alternate-universe version of Batman (Bruce Wayne) from Earth -52 of the Dark Multiverse, who fused himself with the Flash (Barry Allen) to gain superhuman speed after losing his sidekicks to crime. Created by writer and artist , the character debuted in Dark Days: The Casting #1 (September 2017) as a member of the Dark Knights, a group of evil Batmen serving the dragon . In the storyline, the grief-stricken Batman of Earth -52 captures the , injects him with a cryostasis serum, and uses a modified cosmic to merge with the Speed Force, becoming a corrupted speedster driven by a fear of aging and loss. The Red Death plays a key antagonistic role in the Dark Nights: Metal event, invading the main alongside other Dark Knights to conquer it under ' command. His appearance embodies themes of desperation, corruption of heroism, and the dangers of unchecked ambition in the Batman mythos.

Publication History

Creation

The Red Death was introduced in the 2017 DC Comics crossover event Dark Nights: Metal, written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Greg Capullo. As one of the inaugural antagonists in the series, the character debuted in the one-shot Dark Nights: Batman - The Red Death #1, written by Joshua Williamson and illustrated by Carmine Di Giandomenico, which expanded on the event's core narrative. Snyder and Capullo, known for their long-running collaboration on Batman during the New 52 era, conceived the Red Death as a manifestation of Batman's darker impulses within the newly established Dark Multiverse cosmology. The Red Death forms part of the Dark Knights, a cadre of malevolent Batman variants originating from the Dark Multiverse—a shadowy realm of failed and fear-driven alternate realities. These twisted counterparts represent Snyder's exploration of Batman's archetypal fears and obsessions, reimagined as apocalyptic threats to the prime . The Red Death specifically embodies Batman's relentless drive for preparedness, corrupted into a fusion with the Speed Force, the extradimensional energy source empowering DC's speedsters. Snyder drew inspiration from Batman's core , positing a scenario where a catastrophic event in overwhelms the Dark Knight's human limitations, compelling him to seize the Speed Force to prevent future tragedies. This concept echoes classic Batman-Flash interactions in Silver Age comics, such as the 1966 team-up in #67, where contrasts between Batman's methodical intellect and the Flash's superhuman velocity highlight their . Greg Capullo's design for the Red Death emphasizes its theme of corrupted heroism through a striking visual : a crimson integrated with speedster elements, including a evoking the Flash's emblem but warped into jagged, bat-like wings. The red palette inverts Batman's traditional black armor, symbolizing a perversion of his into unchecked velocity and destruction, while maintaining Capullo's signature angular, muscular aesthetic seen in prior Batman works. This fusion not only serves the story's horror-infused tone but also reinforces the Dark Knights' collective identity as nightmarish reflections of the Caped Crusader.

Appearances

Red Death made its debut as a shadowy teaser in Dark Days: The Casting #1, published on September 13, 2017, hinting at the emergence of twisted Batman variants from the Dark Multiverse. The character's full origin story was explored in the one-shot Dark Nights: Batman - The Red Death #1, released on September 20, 2017, which detailed its fusion with the Speed Force as a desperate bid for eternal vigilance. Red Death assumed a central antagonistic role throughout the six-issue Dark Nights: Metal #1–6, spanning August 16, 2017, to March 28, 2018, where it invaded the primary alongside other Dark Knights to serve the entity . Following the events of Metal, the character returned in a supporting capacity, contributing to multiversal threats tied to Perpetua and . Red Death also featured in minor cameos within the Dark Nights: Death Metal event (June–January 2021), reinforcing its ties to ongoing Dark incursions.

Fictional Biography

Origin Story

In the Dark Multiverse, Earth -52 existed as a realm of unrelenting catastrophe, where an aging Bruce Wayne struggled to maintain order in a crumbling amid escalating global threats. The , including Barry Allen as the , ultimately perished in a desperate battle against an overwhelming enemy force, leaving Wayne as one of the last heroes standing and amplifying his sense of isolation and failure. This devastating loss shattered Wayne's resolve, pushing him toward increasingly radical measures to salvage his world. Consumed by grief and determination, Wayne targeted the Speed Force as the key to transcending his limitations, focusing on the dying Barry Allen, whose connection to it was fading. He captured Allen and strapped him to a modified rigged as a makeshift Cosmic Treadmill, forcing a high-speed into the Speed Force despite Allen's warnings of the catastrophic risks. In a brutal act of desperation, Wayne absorbed Allen's essence and Speed Force conduit, effectively killing his ally and fusing their beings into a single entity dominated by Wayne's will. The resulting hybrid, known as the Red Death, granted Wayne unprecedented speed powers, enabling him to dismantle Gotham's criminal underworld in blurs of red . However, the Speed Force's proved intoxicating, fostering an that accelerated Wayne's physical and eroded his control, transforming his vigilantism into a frenzied . As his power surged uncontrollably, the Red Death erected a metaphysical wall within the Speed Force to contain its overflow, inadvertently severing his world's access to this vital and hastening Earth -52's inevitable collapse. This act of containment marked the entity's tragic pinnacle, dooming his reality while drawing the attention of greater cosmic forces.

Role in Dark Nights: Metal

In the central events of Dark Nights: Metal, the Red Death arrived in the primary as one of the Dark Knights, a cadre of corrupted Batman variants from the Dark Multiverse summoned by the ancient demon to conquer and reshape reality in darkness. This invasion force, including the Red Death, targeted key heroes and locations to destabilize the world, with Barbatos exploiting Batman's fears to fuel the assault. The Red Death's presence amplified the chaos, leveraging his fused Speed Force abilities to strike swiftly and disrupt heroic efforts across the globe. The Red Death clashed directly with the Justice League, using his unparalleled speed to outmaneuver heavy hitters like Superman and Wonder Woman during assaults on strategic sites such as the Justice League Watchtower. These battles highlighted the Red Death's tactical ruthlessness, as he evaded blows that would fell lesser foes and pressed his advantage to isolate and overwhelm the team, contributing to the League's initial setbacks against the Dark Knights' coordinated invasion. A pivotal confrontation unfolded when the Red Death pursued Barry Allen, , across timelines in a bid to corrupt the Speed Force itself using fragments of Nth Metal, aiming to poison its positive energies and extend the Dark Multiverse's influence. Barry, drawing on his deep connection to the Speed Force, lured the Red Death into a trap at , where ensnared him with her , amplified by the constructive energies of the positive emotional spectrum from allied Lanterns. This forced a psychic severance, allowing Barry Allen's consciousness to overpower Wayne's control; Allen then sacrificed himself, causing the Red Death to explode and be permanently destroyed.

Powers and Abilities

Speed Force Fusion

The Red Death's core power derives from a forced metaphysical merger between Batman (Bruce Wayne) and the Flash (Barry Allen), granting him direct access to the Speed Force, the extradimensional energy source that empowers speedsters in the . In this fusion, Batman defeats and integrates Barry Allen's essence into his own body by driving them into the Speed Force using a modified Batmobile-Cosmic hybrid, resulting in a corrupted conduit to this energy plane. Batman's unyielding will and descent into madness twist the typically pure, positive Speed Force into a "negative" variant, inverting its heroic potential into a destructive force driven by vengeance rather than justice. This corrupted Speed Force bestows abilities that surpass conventional speedster limits, enabling superhuman velocity capable of matching or outpacing the Flash. Key manifestations include generating electrical blasts through electrokinesis and creating energy constructs in the form of bat swarms to slow or attack opponents. Red Death can also invoke Speed Force storms that rapidly age targets, accelerating them hundreds or thousands of years in moments. These powers allow the Red Death to traverse extradimensional pathways and enhance his lethality in combat. The fusion introduces instability, with Barry Allen's consciousness persisting as a voice in Red Death's mind, urging him to stop his rampage and adding psychological strain to the merger. Batman's tactical intellect uniquely amplifies the fusion's utility, permitting calculated applications like preemptively mapping trajectories for speed-based traps or exploiting velocity for ambush precision, blending raw speed with .

Enhanced Physical Traits

The Red Death's fusion with the Speed Force grants him several superhuman physical enhancements that complement his velocity-based abilities, drawing from the energy field's protective and augmentative properties while integrating 's peak human conditioning. These traits allow him to withstand and exploit the extreme conditions of high-speed movement and combat, making him a formidable physical threat beyond mere acceleration. His durability is markedly enhanced by the Speed Force , which envelops his body and mitigates friction, air resistance, and kinetic impacts that would otherwise pulverize a normal human. This protective field enables survival in scenarios involving supersonic travel or direct collisions. In addition, the aura provides resistance to extradimensional energies, allowing him to operate in environments hostile to positive matter entities from the central . Strength receives a significant boost through the combination of Batman's disciplined physical prowess and the amplification from Speed Force , enabling feats of destructive power even at rest. For instance, he can deliver punches with sufficient force to bisect a opponent cleanly in half, demonstrating raw striking capability independent of his speed. This enhanced might scales with his motion, allowing him to overpower other speedsters in close quarters by leveraging inertial forces. The fusion heightens his reflexes and sensory perception to superhuman levels, permitting hyper-accelerated processing of environmental threats in what appears as to him. This allows near-instantaneous reactions to attacks from fellow Speed Force users, such as evading and countering strikes from during high-velocity pursuits. To compensate for energy depletion, Red Death can siphon Speed Force from other speedsters or victims, as demonstrated by draining life force from Wally West II and .

Equipment and Tactics

The Red Death's integrates with the Speed Force for enhanced performance, allowing sustained high-velocity movement. In tactics, the Red Death employs hit-and-run ambushes and uses Speed Force energy constructs like bat swarms to confuse, slow, and overwhelm adversaries. He also deploys cryostasis formulas to subdue foes. Predictive algorithms derived from the Batcomputer assist in calculating trajectories and preempting enemy movements, ensuring precision strikes even at high speeds. This strategic fusion of Batman's analytical prowess with speedster mobility emphasizes disorientation and overwhelming force over prolonged confrontations. The vehicle is a corrupted fused with the Speed Force via the Cosmic , granting it the ability to breach light speed barriers and navigate extradimensional pathways. This enhancement allows the vehicle to serve as both a and a weapon platform, equipped with machine guns and capable of ramming targets at impossible velocities.

Portrayals and Reception

In Other Media

The Red Death made its live-action debut in the television series The Flash, specifically in season 9 which aired in 2023. In this adaptation, the character is reimagined as Ryan Wilder, the of Earth-4125, who was adopted by the Wayne family and later harnesses the Speed Force to become a ruthless speedster villain driven by a desire to eradicate all speedsters after a tragic loss. Portrayed by , this version of Red Death serves as the primary antagonist in the season's "Rogue War" storyline, clashing with Team Flash in a multiversal conflict that culminates in her defeat. In video games, players can recreate the Red Death appearance for in Injustice 2, released in 2017 by , by using customizable gear pieces and shaders to equip a red-and-black suit inspired by the comic version to mimic the fused Batman-Flash aesthetic during fights. Additionally, the Red Death features as a boss enemy in DC Universe Online's 2018 "Metal Pt. II: The Dark Multiverse" update, where players encounter it in raids such as "The Phoenix Cannon" and "Into the Dark Multiverse," battling the speedster as part of the Dark Knights storyline. Merchandise featuring the Red Death includes collectible statues and figures from several manufacturers. DC Collectibles released a limited-edition statue of the character in 2018, standing approximately 8 inches tall and based on Capullo's artwork from Dark Nights: Metal, limited to 5,000 pieces worldwide. In 2019, introduced a Pop! figure of the Red Death as part of its line, depicting the metallic red suit and bat emblem in a 3.75-inch format. Prime 1 Studio followed with a premium 1:3 scale Museum Masterline statue announced in 2021 and released in 2022, measuring 30 inches tall with detailed metallic red paint and dynamic posing options, priced at around $1,299. As of November 2025, the Red Death has no major appearances in live-action films or animated features beyond its comic and television depictions.

Critical Analysis

The Red Death embodies Batman's and the perils of unchecked , portraying a version of who, in the face of familial loss and multiversal collapse, forcibly seizes the Speed Force to transcend his limitations, ultimately becoming a destructive force rather than a savior. This narrative arc highlights how Batman's relentless drive for control can invert his heroism, echoing themes from Alan Moore's The Killing Joke where a single catastrophic event shatters moral boundaries, leading to a "one bad day" that corrupts the vigilante's psyche. In stark contrast to heroic speedsters like the , who wield their powers for protection and redemption, the Red Death perverts the Speed Force into a tool of vengeance and domination, underscoring the dangers of Batman's contingency when applied to superhuman abilities. Critical reception of the Red Death has been mixed, with praise centered on its striking visual design in the Dark Nights: Metal one-shot, where Carmine Di Giandomenico's artwork delivers vibrant colors and dynamic panels that capture the character's blistering speed and menacing presence, contributing to an overall rating of 8.3/10 across aggregated reviews. However, the character faced criticism for its underdeveloped personality, particularly in crossover appearances, where motivations appeared confusing and the narrative rushed through emotional depth, leaving the Red Death feeling more like a than a fully realized . Reviewers noted that while the one-shot effectively establishes the Dark Multiverse's twisted Batman variants, subsequent integrations in the broader Metal event diluted the character's nuance, prioritizing spectacle over psychological exploration. The 's symbolism is deeply tied to its crimson aesthetic, evoking blood and rage as Batman violates his iconic no-kill rule by massacring in a desperate bid to eradicate entirely, transforming the Caped Crusader into a symbol of unchecked . This , drawn from the character's fusion with the Speed Force amid a world-ending , represents the bloody consequences of Batman's moral descent, where his obsession with prevention leads to genocidal excess rather than justice. The character's introduction significantly boosted the popularity of the Dark Multiverse concept within lore, inspiring fan theories about infinite Batman variants and their potential incursions into the prime universe, as seen in discussions around possible crossovers. Sales data for Dark Nights: Metal tie-ins, including the Red Death one-shot, reflected this impact, with the event's core issues and specials collectively surpassing 260,000 copies in initial printings, driving renewed interest in multiversal storytelling.

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