Williamson Promises a "Quiet Tension" Between Batman and the Flash in "The Price" Crossover

The DC Universe's greatest detectives will be investigating a cold case from the Justice League's past, while dealing with the fallout of the publisher's recent events. As part of its February solicitations, DC Comics announced "The Price," a four-part crossover that will bring Batman and the Flash together this winter.

Taking place in The Flash #64-65 and Batman #64-65, the story is written by Joshua Williamson and drawn by Rafa Sandoval and Guillem March. Artist Chris Burnham will be providing covers for all four issues.

The crossover takes place in the midst of Heroes in Crisis and follows recent events in Batman, making it a can't-miss story for fans of both the Dark Knight and Scarlet Speedster. "The Price" will bring these two heroes to the very limit of their friendship, but can they solve the case before turning on each other? CBR had a chance to talk with Williamson about this crossover, how it came to be, whether Batman and the Flash will come to blows, and the return of Gotham Girl.

CBR: When does “The Price” take place? The Flash only just learned about Wally West's demise. Now he's working with Batman. Does this story take place concurrently with Heroes in Crisis, and is this case connected to the shooting in any way, or is it something different?

Joshua Williamson: It takes place after The Flash #63, Flash Annual #2, Heroes in Crisis #4 and Batman #63. It’s pretty caught up in terms of the continuity. It’s connected to the tragedy in Heroes in Crisis in that it’s affected the Justice League and the heroes of the DCU emotionally. Batman and Flash have a bit of tension between them and must set that aside to solve an old case that has reopened.

Even though it ties directly with what’s going on in Heroes in Crisis, it can still stand on its own as a Batman and Flash detective story. By the end, you’ll see how these four issues tease some of the big plans we have for the epic future of the DCU.

NEXT PAGE: Wally West's Recent Murder Is the Source of Batman & Flash's Tension

There has yet to be much reaction to Wally West's death, but I'm sure you'll be covering this in The Flash soon. What does his demise mean for Barry Allen on a personal level and in regards to his career as the Flash? How does he even keep going at this point?

We cover the initial aftermath of Wally’s death in the Flash Annual #2 in January 2019. Barry is obviously very effected by Wally’s death. It’s still very raw for him. Wally was his surrogate son. He trained him, and Barry helped get him into Sanctuary, so he feels responsible for what happened to Wally. Barry is really shaken after Wally’s death, but knows he still needs to fight as the Flash and look for justice. It’s what Wally would have wanted.

Batman’s going through a lot, too. He’s taking a few hits emotionally this last year and now he’s trying to hide the pain he feels over Wally and all the heroes that died in Sanctuary. Between Bruce and Barry, they’re struggling with a lot of anger beneath the surface that is going to eventually explode.

How does Barry feel about the Trinity at the beginning of your story? There's no way the Flash feels like working with Batman after he failed to protect Wally, so how and why do these two end up teaming up? It's clear this isn't going to run smoothly, so could this be the last team up between the two?

The Events of Heroes in Crisis have 100% affected his relationship with the Trinity, mostly Batman. Batman and Flash are working the Sanctuary tragedy case together, but another case erupts that they must solve. They know that they can’t let their personal feelings get in the way of helping save a life. But we do get a lot of passive aggressive and quiet tension moments between them.

And really in this case, they feel like they couldn’t save Wally so maybe they can save someone else.

You and Tom King previously worked together in the 2017 crossover "The Button," but solicitations say it's just you this time around. Was there any kind of collaboration involved in this story between the two of you, or are you and the art team just taking over Batman for two issues?

This one is all me. On the first crossover we did, I wrote about 75% of it, so stepping into this one by myself wasn’t too difficult. Originally Tom and I wanted to team-up and do this crossover earlier in 2018, but the schedule just never worked out. We were both building to big stories with "Flash War" and the Bat-Wedding and didn’t want to interrupt that. We came close a few times. So, we’ve been talking about a story to tell with Batman and Flash together in the middle of Heroes in Crisis.

The schedule finally worked out, but after a lot of talks we decided I would do this crossover solo, so Tom could focus on the main Heroes in Crisis storyline. Batman and Flash are my two favorite DC characters and I love writing them together, so this was no problem for me.

Tom and I talk on a regular basis, so stepping in for two issues won’t derail anything he has planned for the title. In fact! This crossover helps make big moves for both Batman and The Flash titles.

NEXT PAGE: 'The Price' Will Explore Gotham Girl and Bane's Connection

You've worked with several artists over the course of your run on The Flash, and "The Price" has you working with both Guillem March and Rafa Sandoval. What's it like to be working with two artists with two distinct styles, and how do you make sure the story you're telling comes through?

It's great. Rafa is one of the regular artists on Flash right now, and will be for a bit. When we first started working together, I asked him what he was interested in drawing, what kind of stories he wanted to do and he asked for “Batman and the Flash investigating a case.” And so I was like, “DONE." Seeing him draw Batman has been awesome. Rafa has a great big future ahead of him in comics.

Guillem March is doing the Batman chapters and he’s someone I’ve wanted to work with for a LONG time. We’ve never been able to work together but I’ve followed his work and I’m excited to see him draw Batman and Flash together. Guillem did an issue of Justice League, one of the Legion of Doom issues, I don’t think it’s out yet, but it is KILLER. It’s so good. His art on that issue really helped me get an understanding of what to give him with the script.

With them… I trust them, y’know? I trust them to take the story we’re building and add their own style to it. I don’t like writing an issue until I know who is drawing it, so I can try to play to their strengths. And with these two artists, they have a LOT of strengths, so I had a lot of fun building the issues with them in mind.

How does Gotham Girl fit into all this? She was a big part of Tom King's first year on Batman, but she hasn't been around in quite awhile. Where does this story find her, and does this tie in at all to Bane's manipulation of the Dark Knight, or is that part of the surprise?

Well, I don’t want to get too deep into it, but yeah, Gotham Girl’s story is picked up again in this crossover. She hasn’t been seen in the book for a while and there is a good reason for that. We dig deeper into her origins and how she was last seen with Bane at the end of Batman #50.

I want to dig into what it’s like to be a young hero in the DCU. The pressure there. How being a hero comes with a cost, and is everyone willing to pay the price? Should the more experienced heroes, who know the costs, try to stop them from being heroes?

Your story promises to go back into the Justice League's past, but how long ago into that past, exactly? Will we be seeing any callbacks to old continuity, or is this a previously unknown era of the League?

Even though Batman and Flash have known each other for a long time, it’s a more recent past. They’ve both been through hell in different ways recently, and they suspect there might be a reason for that. Again, this story will reveal pieces of the greater story we’ve been building in the DCU recently. There are a lot of mysteries in the DCU right now, and its two greatest Detectives are on the case.