DC Announces “Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen”

DC’s ‘Year of the Villain’ completes its gestation when James Tynion IV and Steve Epting’s new miniseries “Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen” comes onto shelves this December. According to an interview at Screen Rant, the series is set to put the event’s two main antagonists, Lex Luthor and the Batman Who Laughs, on a collision course that spins out of the pages of ‘Justice/Doom War’ in “Justice League” and ‘Infected’ in “Batman/Superman.”

The series comes in the wake of Lex Luthor’s awakening of Perpetua, in which he became “the Silver Surfer to Perpetua’s Galactus.” This advanced in parallel with the Batman Who Laughs’s infection of various heroes, creating his own Justice League, the Secret Six. “Hell Arisen” looks to turn the two plots into a zero-sum game where only one villain can walk away with their victories intact.

The series promises to send Luthor to war against the Secret Six, with the two parties “intersecting in the biggest, most dangerous way.” Although the Batman Who Laughs may be the only one capable of saving the Multiverse, Tynion still emphasizes that “whoever wins, we lose,” and that “this is Hell vs Hell.” It seems like neither villain is going to be making a turn towards heroism, it’s simply a clash of contradicting egos.

“Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen” is “not the last step in the road” for ‘Year of the Villain,’ but it does begin its “sin­ister conclusion.” Expect to see the final threat of the story come into view as the heroes of the DCU are faced by whichever hell rises. “Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen” #1 goes on sale December 18th wherever good comics are sold.