As the heroes and villains forge a desperate alliance to overthrow the Batman Who Laughs and Perpetua in the crossover event Dark Nights: Death Metal, Lex Luthor and Nightwing are two of the unlikeliest allies that find themselves working together against a common enemy. And while the duo embarks on a perilous mission to attack Perpetua's power source, they discover that they have a surprising amount in common in regards to recent events.
Writer Joshua Williamson will helm a five-issue storyline in the pages of Justice League, directly tying into Death Metal, as Nightwing and Luthor lead a ragtag team on a vital mission. Both characters find they have something to prove after recent shake-ups to their status quo.
"There's a cool dynamic between Nightwing and Lex because they're these two characters that have fallen from grace; Nightwing, with everything that's happened to him, and Lex, his rise to power and then rejection by Perpetua during Hell Arisen, him falling from grace but still having something to prove, like, 'I'm Lex Luthor, dammit! I'm going to take care of this!'" Williamson observed in an upcoming interview with CBR. "I wanted to be able to show the two of them on this journey together."
While Perpetua had cast aside Luthor in favor of recruiting the Batman Who Laughs as her trusted vassal, Nightwing was recently shot in the head by KGBeast in the pages of Batman. As Dick Grayson recovered, the Court of Owls and Joker both tampered with the young hero's mind, leaving his memories fragmented as he attempted to rediscover his true identity and reclaim his superhero legacy. The two characters will undergo parallel paths as the impromptu Justice League sets out for its mission.
"There's a weird, little thing in the first issue where you see Nightwing, he has hood up and pulls it back, and then the first time you see Lex, he has his hood up and pulls it back," Williamson teased. "I was trying to tell the reader that they're on the same path in this story in a way, they're both going through the same thing of trying to prove they both are who they used to be; he's still Lex Luthor, dammit, he says it! [Laughs] Nightwing is trying to make sure he's still Nightwing, the hero we used to know."
Written by Joshua Williamson and illustrated by Xermanico, Justice League #53 kicks off "Doom Metal" on Sept. 15 from DC.