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*Year of the Villain*
Year of the Villain
	Official promotional logo
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Genre	Superhero;
Publication date	May 2019 – March 2020
Main character(s)	DC Universe

Year of the Villain was a crossover comic book event published by DC Comics. Beginning May 2019, the event narrated the aftermath of Dark Nights: Metal and the prelude to Batman/Superman vs. The Secret Six and Dark Nights: Death Metal. The crossover and one-shots received generally positive reviews for the characterization of certain villains.

Background

The event was officially announced on February 13, 2019,^[1] with DC naming 2019 "The Year of the Villain." The event would feature stories written by several authors, with a focus on spotlighting popular DC villains. The event began on May 1, 2019, with the release of an exclusive 32-page comic titled DC's Year of the Villain, ahead of Free Comic Book Day on May 4th.

Prelude

After the Source Wall was shattered,^[2] four entities known as the Omega Titans began invading Colu, forcing Brainiac to summon the Justice League for help. But as Amanda Waller and the new Task Force XI destroyed him, his great-great-grandson Brainiac 5 informs the League that Brainiac was using them to make sure the Omega Titans would destroy Earth, so there can be no interference for him.^[3]

Over time, Lex Luthor found a mysterious object related to an unknown force known as the Totality, while forging a new Legion of Doom, which includes a revived Brainiac and The Batman Who Laughs. The Totality is presumed to be linked to Perpetua, an ancient goddess who was made to vanish by her three children, the Monitor, the Anti-Monitor and the World Forger.^[4]

After faking his death through a bombing and with Perpetua's help, Luthor manages to transform himself into a human/Martian hybrid version of himself called "Apex Lex".^[5]

Main plot

"The Offer"

Apex Lex recruits several supervillains to join Perpetua's cause, in exchange of giving them a source of unlimited power. In response, the Justice League recruits heroes around the universe to fight against the new Legion of Doom.

"Dark Gifts"

The villains debut their newly acquired powers from Lex's offer, leading to the Justice/Doom War.

"Evil Unleashed"

The heroes deal with the consequences caused by the new powers that the villains gained from Perpetua.

"Doom Rising"

Perpetua began forming a symbol when heroes and villains began their clashes as she announced the rise of Doom.

"Hostile Takeover"

The villains have unleashed their true power onto the world.

"Hell Arisen"

Apex Lex has freed Perpetua, but they both must overcome The Batman Who Laughs first.^[6]

Titles involved

Title	Issue(s)	Writer(s)	Artist(s)	Notes
Preludes
Justice League	#25–39	Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV	Jorge Jimenez, Javier Fernandez
Year of the Villain	#1	Various	Various
Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen	#1–4	James Tynion IV	Steve Epting	Finale of the storyline
Tie-in series
Action Comics	#1013–1017	Brian Michael Bendis	Szymon Kudranski
Aquaman	#50–55	Kelly Sue DeConnick	Robson Rocha, Daniel Henriques
Batgirl	#37–40	Cecil Castellucci	Carmine di Giandomenico
Batman	#75–85	Tom King	Tony S. Daniel	"City of Bane" arc
Batman and the Outsiders	#3–7	Bryan Hill	Dexter Soy
Batman: Detective Comics	#1008–1016	Peter J. Tomasi	Doug Mahnke, Jamie Mendoza
Batman/Superman	#1–6	Joshua Williamson	David Marquez	"The Infected" arc
Catwoman	#13–17	Joelle Jones	Joelle Jones, Fernando Blanco
Deathstroke	#45–50	Christopher Priest	Fernando Pasarin
Event Leviathan	#1–6	Brian Michael Bendis	Alex Maleev
The Flash	#75–86	Joshua Williamson	Howard Porter, Christian Duce, Scott Kolins
Harley Quinn	#63–67	Sam Humphries	Otto Schmit, Sami Basri, Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmuno, Aaron Lopresti, Matt Ryan, Tom Derenick, Trevor Scott
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy	#1–6	Jody Houser	Adriana Melo
Hawkman	#14–22	Robert Venditti	Patrick Olliffe, Tom Palmer	#17-22 part of "The Infected" arc
Justice League Dark	#13–19	Mark Buckingham, Daniel Sampere
Justice League Odyssey	#11–15	Dan Abnett	Will Conrad
Nightwing	#62–68	Dan Jurgens	Ronan Cliquet
Red Hood: Outlaw	#36–41	Scott Lobdell	Pete Woods
Supergirl	#34–39	Marc Andreyko	Kevin Maguire	#34-35 part of "Event Leviathan" arc #36-39 part of "The Infected" arc
Superman	#13, 18–22	Brian Michael Bendis	Ivan Reis, Joe Prado
Teen Titans	#32–38	Brian Michael Bendis	Adam Glass, Bernard Chang
The Terrifics	#18–24	Gene Luen Yang	Stephen Segovia
Wonder Woman	#75–750	G. Willow Wilson	Xermanico
One-shots
Harley Quinn’s Villain of the Year	#1	Mark Russell	Mike Norton and Amanda Conner
Black Adam: Year of the Villain		Paul Jenkins	Inaki Miranda	"The Infected" tie-in
Black Mask: Year of the Villain		Tom Taylor	Cully Hamner
The Joker: Year of the Villain		John Carpenter, Anthony Burch	Phillip Tan, Marc Deering
Lex Luthor: Year of the Villain		Jason Latour	Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie
Ocean Master: Year of the Villain		Dan Watters	Miguel Mendonça
The Riddler: Year of the Villain		Mark Russell	Scott Godlewski
Sinestro: Year of the Villain		Mark Russell	Brandon Peterson
The Infected: The Commissioner		Paul Jenkins	Jack Herbert	"The Infected" arc
The Infected: Deathbringer		Zoë Quinn	Ben Oliver
The Infected: King Shazam!		Sina Grace	Joe Bennett
The Infected: Scarab		Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum	Freddie Williams II

Critical reception

The one-shots of this crossover received generally positive reviews. According to Comic Book Roundup, the one-shots received an average score of 7.8 out of 10. ^[7]

Future

Between July 2018 and March 2019, Scott Snyder announced Year of the Villain will be followed by Dark Nights: Death Metal, a crossover event for 2020, which will be the sequel to Dark Nights: Metal. Snyder stated: "Everything is coming back, we want to pay it forward. The Omega Titans, Barbatos, the Forge, it’s all coming back. Everything you read, our goal is to reward. All of it culminates in like a year in like a Metal event."^[8]

Collected editions


Title	Material collected	Published date	ISBN
Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen	Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #1–4, Year of the Villain #1	June 2020	978-1779502421
Year of the Villain: The Infected	The Infected: King Shazam! #1, The Infected: Scarab #1, The Infected: Donna Troy #1, The Infected: Deathbringer #1, The Infected: The Commissioner #1	June 2020	978-1779502544