DC Comics Universe & Year Of The Villain: Hell Arisen #3 Spoilers & Review: TIES INTO EVERYTHING! Punchline Plus Dark Nights: Death Metal, Generation Zero, Generation Five / 5G & Crisis?!

Spoilers, Top Story

DC Comics Universe and Year Of The Villain: Hell Arisen #3 Spoilers and Review follows.

TIES INTO EVERYTHING!

Punchline Plus Dark Nights: Death Metal, Generation Zero, Generation Five / 5G Timeline and Crisis?!

The book opens with Apex Lex Luthor, fueled by the powers of the Martian Manhunter and the Legion of Doom, defeated by the Batman Who Laughs’ Secret Six!

In the midst of presumed torture of Luthor, the Jokers joins the party and…

…opens fire…

…sending the Secret Six and their infected super-hero allies scurrying.

The Jokers warps away with Apex Lex Luthor…

…because Warp is under this thrall as…

…is the rest of the Brotherhood of Evil.

Here’s that team’s classic Who’s Who bio entry.

We then have the debut of new Joker ally Punchline’s debut and she has classic Luthor ally Mercy Graves as her prisoner.

At that moment, Lex Luthor using the powers of the Martian Manhunter…

…enters the Joker’s mind…

…the learn the differences between the Batman Who Laugh’s toxin and this Earth’s toxin; the secret ingredient is dark metal. With that info, Apex Lex Luthor believes he has a plan to take down the Batman Who Laugh’s and his forces.

He leaves Joke’s mind and tells Mercy its time to go, but Punchline remains in control.

The Joker then tells Luthor that he’s in over his head with this Perpetua business and what he did to the Legion of Doom.

The Joker and Punchline go off to do their silly yet dangerous business; its a reminder to Lex Luthor that if you’re true to your nature then you can defeat the threat.

Apex Lex Luthor reverts to just Lex Luthor and has Mercy deliver a message to the Batman Who Laughs.

Luthor dons classic armor and goes to the Hall of Justice…

…to confront the Batman Who Laughs and all of his forces with…

…the transformed Legion of Doom with a few additions!

Also, earlier in the issue, we see that the Batman Who Laugh’s has his own prisoner in the bowels of the Hall of Justice…

…Superjudge, presumed last of the Monitors, Nix Uotan popularized by Multiversity; is he relevant or irrelevant with the classic Monitor’s return in the last arc of the previous Justice League creative team?

The Pulse:

A lot I didn’t expect in this issue that seems to tie the last few years into what’s to come. Awesome. Great art and intrigue. 9 out of 10.

John is a long-time pop culture fan, comics historian, and blogger. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Comics Nexus. Prior to being EIC he has produced several column series including DEMYTHIFY, NEAR MINT MEMORIES and the ONE FAN'S TRIALS at the Nexus plus a stint at Bleeding Cool producing the COMICS REALISM column. As BabosScribe, John is active on his twitter account, his facebook page, his instagram feed and welcomes any and all feedback. Bring it on!