The Dark Knights were a team of "warriors of the darkness" assembled by The Batman Who Laughs for Barbatos. These warriors are evil and twisted versions of Batman from the Dark Multiverse who were willing to fight to keep their worlds alive.
History
Taken from their Earths moments before their destruction, The Drowned, The Dawnbreaker, The Merciless, The Devastator, The Murder Machine and The Red Death first appeared when the Court Of Owls ambushed Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and a baby Darkseid. Using the final metal required for the Mantling, the Court turned Batman into Barbatos' doorway to our Multiverse.[1]
The Dark Knights then systematically took control of the homes of the Justice League (Amnesty Bay, Central City, Coast City, Detroit, Gotham City, Metropolis, and Washington D.C.) and the Watchtower. After the interference of the Gotham Resistance, The Batman Who Laughs called the Dark Knights to Gotham, only for the Resistance to be taken away by Doctor Fate.[2]
The Dark Knights assembled again when Superman and Wonder Woman escaped from Barbatos's conduit tower in Metropolis. The Devastator attacked Superman but was quickly stopped by the intervening of The Flash and Doctor Fate. With Earth's remaining heroes now revealing their location to the Dark Knights, they attacked the Oblivion Bar and killed Nightmaster.[3]
After finding out that Steel and Flash sent Superman into the Dark Multiverse on a rescue mission for Batman, Murder Machine and Devastator attacked them and stole the Anti-Monitor's cosmic tuning fork from the Fortress of Solitude. After fighting off Lobo, Devastator moved the tuning fork to Gotham. The remainder of Earth's heroes were transported to pseudo-Batcave by the Murder Machine. Each Leaguer was taken to their matching Dark Knight in their home city, while Dr. Fate, Mr. Terrific, Kendra Saunders and Deathstroke were attached to the tuning fork with the Teen Titans and Suicide Squad.
The Batman Who Laughs tells everyone that the Dark Knights' ultimate goal is to unleash the horrors of all -51 Earths from the Dark Multiverse and completely destroy the Positive Multiverse. After being defeated by the Dark Knights, the League was going to be added to the tuning fork, until Cyborg partially merged with his Mother Box and freed himself, Raven and the League. Barbatos worries that Cyborg is a wildcard, but the Batman Who Laughs assures his master that everything is still going to plan as the Justice League are unknowingly spreading his darkness across the galaxy.
The next time the Knights were seen, they split up to intercept the heroes searching for traces of Nth Metal. Despite resistance on their, the groups were captured, the exception being Wonder Woman, who the Batman Who Laughs spared so she could struggle in vain against the darkness.
The Knights were next gathered when they were hunting the team Cyborg took with him into The Bleed. Using a corrupted Carrier, they tracked down their ship, the Ultima Thule, and chased them. Though they failed to shoot down the Thule, they were able to damage it enough to allow a team to storm it. While Drowned, Dawnbreaker, and Murder Machine fight the heroes, the rest hang back to control the Carrier. However, the heroes repel the Knights long enough for Flash to sabotage the Carrier's engine, which accidentally turns the Red Death good. The group reunites on the damaged carrier as Red Death's conversion begins killing him. Laughs then reveals that their goal wasn't to shoot down the Thule: It was to charge it with dark energy and force it to crash into the House of Heroes, which it does. The Knights stay until right before the Thule crashes, then leave.
With most of the resistance to Barbatos captured and his dark army on the move, the Knights see to the captured heroes. However, Wonder Woman and Kendra Saunders manage to wake some of the captured heroes up, allowing Wonder Woman to reach the World Forge. When the forge lights up again, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman manage to harness Element X, and empower some of the other Leaguers with the metal. With the power of the Tenth Metal, the League destroys the Dark Knights, pulls the world out of the Dark Multiverse, and defeats Barbatos.[4] The only Knight who managed to avoid destruction is the Batman Who Laughs, who was captured by Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom.
Paraphernalia
Transportation:
See Also
- 41 Appearances of Dark Knights (Dark Multiverse)
- 9 Images that include Dark Knights (Dark Multiverse)
- Team Gallery: Dark Knights (Dark Multiverse)
Links and References
Footnotes
  Batman Villain(s) |
 This character is or was primarily an enemy of the Justice League, in any of its various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Justice League Villains." |