SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Justice League #32 and Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #32.


Following a killer run on Wonder Woman with Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp pitched DC Comics an idea for a new series, one that's rumored to feature Princess Diana of Themyscira, as well as Batman. And while no official word has been given regarding Sharp's mystery series, DC did tap the acclaimed artist to illustrate two issues of "Bats Out of Hell," a tie-in crossover arc connected to the mega hit Dark Nights: Metal event by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo.

RELATED: Liam Sharp Teases Mystery DC Comics Project

"Bats Out of Hell" kicked off last week in The Flash #33 and continues this week in Justice League #32, which is drawn by Sharp and written by New York Times bestselling writer Robert Venditti. The story then spills into next week's Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #32, which again features words by Venditti and art by Sharp. "Bats Out of Hell" concludes on November 15 with the release of Justice League #33, by Bryan Hitch and Tyler Kirkham.

CBR connected with Sharp and Venditti to discuss the seven Dark Knights of the Dark Multiverse, and their ongoing invasion of the DC Universe.

CBR: Batman has always protected Gotham City, and his weapon of choice is often fear. That makes the idea of Batman as a genuine monster even scarier, and to make matters worse for the Justice League, Dark Nights: Metal and the "Bats out of Hell" crossover gives us seven Batman bad guys. Does it get any scarier?

Robert Venditti: No, I don't think so.

I've been hearing things about Metal for quite a long time now. Scott Snyder has done so much with the character and has had such a fantastic run with him, and yes, it is a scary prospect. You've already seen some of the Dark Knights roll out, in the series, in the one-shots and this crossover, but I can tell you some of the stuff that's coming up is even scarier. The Batman Who Laughs is probably as scary as it gets. It's a perfect marriage, because what Scott has really leaned into is this aspect of fear, and the horror elements that are possible in a Batman story. To have a chance to work on that kind of stuff and do some things with Batman that hasn't really been done with the character before – basically creating nightmare versions of Batman filtered through the Justice League – has been a ton of fun and, obviously, isn't an opportunity that doesn't come around very often.

Art from Justice League #32 by Liam Sharp and colorist Adam Brown

Liam Sharp: It was funny -- I had actually pitched the series that I am now working on (which I am not allowed to talk about but will be able to talk about in a few weeks, I believe) and I was getting pretty excited about. Then I heard about this huge Metal thing. I thought I would just be perfect for it, but I couldn't really complain because I had my own thing, but then I got the call about doing this Justice League issue and they were like, "You've got time before we get to your thing." And I was like, "Hell, yeah!" I wasn't going to turn that down. It sounded like the most exciting thing, and it was right up my stream. I heard somewhere along the line that Dark Nights: Metal had been pitched as if it was written and drawn to a heavy metal soundtrack, and that's just me in all senses. [Laughs]

I was absolutely thrilled to be a part of the whole Metal thing and as you say, the notion of a bunch of evil Batmen independently mirroring Bruce and everything that he is with the added powers of all of the members of the Justice League, how much worse can it get? How much more terrifying can you get? I was absolutely thrilled to be doing this and then when I saw Rob's script, I was like, "What have I got myself into?" [Laughs]

An evil Superman or an even Wonder Woman would be a pretty major shift for those superheroes in terms of characterization, but is an evil Batman really that big of a stretch?

Art from Justice League #32 by Liam Sharp and colorist Adam Brown

Venditti: I think it is. We talked a lot about the fear and horror aspects of the character, but Batman is also very hopeful. Through the Dark Knights, we are looking at all of the many ways that Batman could have easily gone very, very, very wrong, but instead he stays right. That speaks a lot about Batman. Obviously, visually, Superman and Wonder Woman would look much farther removed from darkness because Batman has always been drawn in the shadows and he's kind of a scary guy to begin with. He's never flying with the sun over his shoulder. But I think it is shocking to see him these evil versions of himself because, again, there is something about his character that is very hopeful. He has the fortitude and the moral compass because as we have seen time and time again in all of these years of reading Batman stories, he has never gone that route. In some sense, I find that very hopeful and inspirational.

Sharp: I completely agree with Rob. It's definitely fascinating to see what could have been a natural way for Batman to go. And as Rob said, the fact that he doesn't go that way in the DC Universe that we're most familiar with is a testament to that character.

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I loved your work with the Red Death, and especially his Flashmobile.

Sharp: That was funny, because if there is one thing that I get a little bit freaked out about, it's drawing cars. It was the one thing that I couldn't draw as a kid. But when I got the brief about what this car was going to look like, I got excited. I really enjoyed Mad Max: Fury Road and that kind of feel. As a kid, I was also pretty into custom cars, so it wasn't like just drawing a normal car. It was totally different. I couldn't wait to start and I had a blast and I think it shows. It was a lot of fun.

Which Dark Knight do you like drawing the best? They are all so cool and super scary.

Sharp: The two that I like the best, design-wise, are the Batman Who Laughs and the Red Death. I love that mask, and I tried to echo it in the grill of the car. I was hoping that you could see a DNA thread through the design. The Wonder Woman one, The Merciless, is fun, too, because he is literally a knight. I wanted to actually go more barbarian with him, but [DC Editorial] asked me not to mess around too much with the design. [Laughs]

Art from Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #32 by Liam Sharp and colorist Adam Brown

Robert, Hal Jordan has faced some remarkable foes over the years, perhaps none greater than Sinestro. But when you come up against an evil version of yourself with a bit of Batman's DNA sprinkled in for good measure like he does -- the Dawnbreaker has got to be one of Hal's most challenging opponents.

Dawnbreaker has the power-set, obviously, with the ring and the ability to build constructs and ability to fly, but there is nothing that's going to negate what Hal's true power is and that's his willpower, his ability to overcome great fear. He's seen horrible, terrible things, up to and including the death of his own father, so he has the confidence to know that he has pushed through those things. For Dawnbreaker to put him in a cage and turn out the lights and try to scare him with spooky voices -- for Hal, that's almost funny. It was a great issue to write in getting to put those two up against each other. Bruce Wayne can have all of the strategy that he wants, but you can't make somebody afraid that doesn't get afraid, someone who can overcome fear. That's an interesting story to tell.

There's a great line from Hal talking about Dawnbreaker that's almost meta in the issue: "You can absorb light. I'll give you credit. That's new." It sounds like something you may have said when you heard about the character. [Laughs]

Venditti: That's right [Laughs] When they first told me about the Dawnbreaker and what his powers were and how he absorbs all light and he was all about darkness, I was thinking it would be quite a challenge. How are you going to tell a visual story in pitch black? It took me a while to come up with a storytelling device, and when I finally settled on the idea that Hal would use his ring to create a strobe effect and you would have these alternating light and dark panels of art, I was hoping that it would do two things. I thought it would show Hal being savvy with his ring by using it as a strobe because you can't really absorb the light if it is blinking on and off.

Art from Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #32 by Liam Sharp and colorist Adam Brown

Also, when it comes to haunted houses and the houses of horror, I don't like any of that stuff. [Laughs] It's always kind of freaked me out, especially the strobe light effects because you can't really get a bead on where the guys trying to scare you are coming from. I really wanted to play with the horror element with the strobe effect. I was really happy with how it turned out.

Before I let you go – and don't worry, we will slap spoiler alerts all over this – I have to ask you about the final page of Justice League #32. Because when you talk about horror, Cyborg being basically plugged into the Matrix fueling the Dark Knights' conquest of the DC Universe is pretty haunting.

Venditti: That was the first page that Liam turned in.

Sharp: It was the only page that was approved. [Laughs]

Venditti: I was like, "Holy cow! Is this what we're in for?" I couldn't believe when I saw it. I thought there was no way that he could draw 20 pages that looked like that one, in such a short amount of time, but he sure did it. Every single page is just as great as that one. And big hat tip to the colorist Adam Brown, as well.

Sharp: He did a fantastic job.

Venditti: The way the Aquaman scene looks versus the Flash scene and the Wonder Woman scene and the Cyborg scene, the versatility on display in coloring all of that stuff is staggering.