Dick Grayson has had an especially rough couple of years, shot in the head by the KGBeast in the pages of Batman before having his memories tampered with by the Court of Owls and the Joker to form the more volatile Ric Grayson persona. And as Nightwing finds himself leading a ragtag Justice League team during the crossover event Dark Nights: Death Metal, a reunion with his old friends from the Teen Titans means he'll have to confront and explain his recent, traumatic history.

Justice League will feature a five-issue tie-in story to Death Metal launching next month, helmed by Joshua Williamson, Xermanico, Robson Rochoa and Daniel Henriques. Titled "Doom Metal," the story arc has Cyborg and Starfire join the new roster as it navigates the DC Universe's nightmarishly reimagined hellscape on a mission to topple the Batman Who Laughs and Perpetua. The mission will offer the team the chance to catch up, and for Nightwing to recount his controversial character arc while reintegrating firmly with the wider DCU.

RELATED: Dark Nights: Death Metal #3 Raises the Stakes With Cosmic Psychedelia

"It brings Nightwing back into this world," Williamson teased in an upcoming interview with CBR. "Nightwing has been out of it for the last two years, dealing with all of his stuff. He's kind of been on the outside of what's been going on in the DCU and this was an opportunity to bring him back into the DCU and get to see it all."

Williamson went on to specify, "There's a scene in issue #54 -- Part 2 of 'Doom Metal' -- where Nightwing and Cyborg and Starfire get to actually talk for a minute. They're crossing this valley of Starros but they have to do it quietly otherwise they could wake up the Starros. So they're making their way across and they just kind of talk about it: They talk about the fact that they haven't seen each other for awhile, that they've changed, what they're doing. There's even a moment where Starfire looks at Nightwing and she can see he has this scar on his head and she's like, 'Where did this scar come from?' and he has to talk about it."

Despite serving as the classic iteration of the Titans, the heroes have since been preoccupied with their own drastically different directions the past several years. "Doom Metal" will give them a rare opportunity to acknowledge how far each of them has come in a rare quiet moment in the madness all around them.

RELATED: Speed Metal Is the True Finale to Williamson's Flash Run - and Wally West Is a Huge Part of It

"All of these characters have gone through these big changes," Williamson observed. "With Cyborg, Starfire and Nightwing, if you go back and look at them in Titans versus now, they've all gone through these huge changes and they haven't had a moment to acknowledge the fact that they've all changed since they saw each other last, as they're standing in a valley of Starros in the Metal-Verse."

Written by Joshua Williamson and illustrated by Xermanico, Justice League #53 kicks off "Doom Metal" on Sept. 15 from DC Comics.