“BATS OUT OF HELL” part one! After the harrowing events of DARK NIGHTS: METAL #3, the JUSTICE LEAGUE has scattered around the world to find the only artifacts that can fight back against the invasion of the Dark Multiverse. The League thinks they know how to take back their world, but they are not prepared for who is standing in their way. The Seven Dark Knights of the Dark Multiverse. All the brilliance of Batman, but none of the morals. Barry Allen, The Fastest Man Alive, is the first to get a taste of their plan, as BATMAN: THE RED DEATH takes him on at the Fortress of Solitude.

Dec 2017

DC Comics

76194134184203311

33

5

October

2017

1

A

Direct

1st

United States

$2.99

Modern Age

Superhero

English

Magazine

The Flash (Volume 5) #33 is an issue of the series The Flash (Volume 5)

Bats Out of Hell Part of the ”Dark Nights: Metal” event.
Bats out of Hell, Part One

The Flash Vol 5 33
EDIT
”Bats out of Hell”

Cover
Textless
Variant
Textless Variant
Cover
Cover Gallery
The Flash Vol 5 #33
December, 2017
Rated T for Teen (12+)
Executive Editor
Bobbie Chase
Cover Artists
Ethan Van SciverJason Wright
Variant Cover Artists
Cover Variant #1
Howard PorterHi-Fi Design
Bats out of Hell
Writers
Joshua Williamson
Pencilers
Howard Porter
Inkers
Howard Porter
Colorists
Hi-Fi Design
Letterers
Steve Wands
Editors
Brian CunninghamEddie BerganzaRebecca TaylorAndrew Marino
Previous Issue Next Issue
The Flash Vol 5 # 32 The Flash Vol 5 # 34
“ I know I’m not exactly the Bruce you were hoping for. But I am Bruce. We all are. Let me remind you of a story we have in common. On my world, I developed ways to eliminate the Justice League... then they found out and were so disappointed in me. I betrayed their trust. It was a dark time for the League. But in all honesty... I was holding back. Now imagine if seven Bruce Waynes put their heads together... what horror they could be capable of. If they were to... say... develop separate murderous Batcaves meticulously designed with each of you in mind. So I hope you appreciate our work, because... you’re going to die here. Ha. Ha. Ha. “
— Batman Who Laughs

Contents
Synopsis for ”Bats out of Hell”
A practical task in the midst of madness. One week ago, a mountain appeared in the center of Gotham City, and with it, twisted versions of Batman, which have championed the disaster. The true Bruce Wayne was trapped in the Dark Multiverse by a hooded devil. Gotham, Central City, Coast City, and Detroit are cartoon warzones. Heroes are scattered, looking for answers, for weapons. However, Superman is convinced that if he can get to Batman, he can bring him back and rectify the disaster.

The plan is to make Steel use his hammer, made of Nth Metal, and attune it with the Dark Multiverse to open a portal utilizing the Anti-Monitor’s tuning fork, which Batman hid under the Fortress of Solitude. Flash and Superman run until they reach top speed, then Flash releases all of his speed into Superman, throwing the other hero between dimensions and hopefully sending him where he needed to go.

Exhausted, Flash tries to help Steel, who is investigating the Cosmic Tuning Fork. Flash cannot shake the feeling that he has encountered a device like this before, but Steel keeps the conversation practical, remarking that the tuning fork will maintain the link to the Dark Multiverse. Flash puts out a call on Justice League comms, hoping for good news, but his allies - Wonder Woman at the Rock of Eternity with Doctor Fate and Lady Blackhawk, Green Lantern in Thanagarian space with Mister Terrific and Plastic Man, Aquaman at the Forbidden Walls of Atlantis with Deathstroke - can find none of the Nth metal they will need to defeat their foes.

Then, a voice breaks in on comms. Cyborg, who has been missing for hours, is only able to blurt out that ”they” are coming for the heroes.

Suddenly, at the locations of the other three heroes, evil versions of Cyborg’s Boom Tubes open up and scoop up the various teams. Flash is left shouting into a silent radio, when two of the evildoers show up in the Fortress: Murder Machine and Devastator. Murder Machine defeats Steel, and Devastator destroys the multiversal tuning fork, as Barbatos wants it rebuilt in another place. The two villains remark that on their worlds, Barry Allen was only known for one thing: dying. Angry, Flash runs into the remains of the tuning fork, attuning himself to the Dark Multiverse, and vanishing.

Flash emerges in Central City, where the Red Death is in charge. Here, he finds Wally and Iris, who he tries to comfort after the powers of the Red Death made them age at an incredibly fast rate. But suddenly, he falls into a pit of darkness where he is assailed by visions of failure and death.

Landing with a thump, Flash muses that something similar happened to Superman back in Metropolis. However, he can now reach Aquaman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman on the comms, in similar darknesses. Cyborg cuts in again, trying to warn them, but is overridden by an outside power. One of the villains, the Batman Who Laughs, is now the voice on the comms, and sets the stage for them: being every Dark Knight a version of Bruce Wayne, they all developed counter-plans to put out the members of the Justice League, and just imagine if their combined mind gave birth to Batcaves specifically projected to be death traps against the Leaguers. It would be fun, and that’s where they all are right now.

Wonder Woman finds herself in a cave, surrounded by abandoned weaponry, from spears to powered armor. Aquaman finds himself in a grotto full of sunken ships. Green Lantern finds himself in a lightless honeycomb structure. Flash finds himself in a cave decorated with spiked treadmills and the framed costumes of dead friends and foes.

Out of the darkness step a Dark Knight, one for each member of the League, and one with an origin tied to them. And the Flash knows that speed is useless if there is nowhere left to run...

Appearing in ”Bats out of Hell”
Featured Characters:

The Flash (Barry Allen) (Flashback and main story)
Supporting Characters:

Deathstroke (Slade Wilson)
Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson) (Flashback and main story)
Iris West (Cameo)
Justice League
Aquaman (Flashback and main story)
Cyborg
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) (Flashback and main story)
Superman (Flashback and main story)
Wonder Woman (Flashback and main story)
Lady Blackhawk (Kendra Saunders) (Flashback and main story)
Mister Terrific (Michael Holt) (Flashback and main story)
Plastic Man (Flashback and main story)
Steel (John Henry Irons) (Flashback and main story)
Wallace West (Cameo)
Antagonists:

Anti-Monitor/Barry Allen (Dark Multiverse) (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Barbatos (Dark Multiverse) (Voice) (Cameo)
Dark Knights (Dark Multiverse)
The Batman Who Laughs
The Dawnbreaker (Earth -32)
The Devastator
The Drowned (Earth -11)
The Merciless (Earth -12)
The Murder Machine (Earth -44)
The Red Death (Earth -52)
Parliament of Owls (Flashback only) (Cameo)
Godspeed (Dark Multiverse) (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Reverse-Flash/Barry Allen (Dark Multiverse) (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Rogues (Dark Multiverse) (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Captain Cold (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Golden Glider (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Mirror Master (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Weather Wizard (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Other Characters:

Batman (Bruce Wayne) (Flashback only) (Cameo)
Darkseid (Flashback only) (Cameo)
Detective Chimp (Flashback only) (Cameo)
The Flash/Barry Allen of Godspeed’s Earth (Dark Multiverse) (Single appearance) (Dies in a vision) (Cameo)
The Flash/Wally West of the Sanctuary Barry’s Earth (Dark Multiverse) (Single appearance) (Dies in a vision) (Cameo)
”Old Man” The Flash/Barry Allen (Dark Multiverse) (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
”Sanctuary” The Flash/Barry Allen (Dark Multiverse) (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Iris West of Old Man Barry Allen’s Earth (Dark Multiverse) (Single appearance) (Dies in a vision) (Cameo)
Kid Flash/Wallace West of the Sanctuary Barry’s Earth (Dark Multiverse) (Single appearance) (Dies in a vision) (Cameo)
Nightmaster (Jim Rook) (Flashback only) (Cameo)
Nightwing (Flashback only) (Cameo)
Alfred Pennyworth (Earth -44) (Deceased) (Mentioned only)
Eobard Thawne (Deceased) (Mentioned only)
The Flash/Barry Allen (Earth -1) (Deceased) (Mentioned only)
The Flash/Barry Allen (Earth -44) (Deceased) (Mentioned only)
The Flash/Bart Allen (Earth -44) (Mentioned only)
The Flash/Wally West (Earth -44) (Mentioned only)
Justice League (Earth -21) (Mentioned only)
Gods of Olympus (Mentioned only)
Thanagarian Empire (Mentioned only)
Locations:

Dark Multiverse (Also in a vision)
Anti-Monitor Barry’s Earth (Single appearance) (Unnamed) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Godspeed’s Earth (Single appearance) (Unnamed) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Central City (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Old Man Barry’s Earth (Single appearance) (Unnamed) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Central City (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Rogues’ Earth (Single appearance) (Unnamed) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Central City (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Sanctuary Barry’s Earth (Unnamed) (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Sanctuary (Single appearance) (In a vision) (Cameo)
Speed Force (Also in a vision) (Behind the scenes)
Earth -1
Batcave (Mentioned only)
Earth -11
Batcave (Mentioned only)
Earth -12
Batcave (Mentioned only)
Earth -22
Batcave (Mentioned only)
Earth -32
Batcave (Mentioned only)
Earth -44
Batcave (Mentioned only)
Earth -52
Batcave (Mentioned only)
Multiverse
Earth 0
Sector 2682
Polaris System (Cameo)
Thanagar (Mentioned only)
Sector 2814
Earth
Arctic Circle (Flashback and main story)
Fortress of Solitude (Flashback and main story)
Batman’s Secret Room
Bialya (Cameo)
Egypt (Flashback only)
Valley of the Kings (Flashback only)
Tomb of Hath-Set (Flashback only)
United States of America
Amnesty Bay (Unnamed)
Drowned’s Batcave (First appearance) (Cameo)
Central City (Flashback and main story) (In ruins)
Jitters (In ruins)
Red Death’s Batcave (First appearance) (Cameo)
Big Belly Burger (Mentioned only)
S.T.A.R. Labs (Mentioned only)
Coast City (Unnamed)
Dawnbreaker’s Batcave (First appearance) (Cameo)
Gotham City (Flashback and main story)
Challengers Mountain (Displaced) (Flashback only) (Cameo)
Washington, D.C. (Unnamed)
The Merciless’ Batcave (First appearance) (Cameo)
Metropolis (Mentioned only)
Atlantis (Mentioned only)
Justice League Watchtower (Mentioned only)
Oblivion Bar (Flashback only) (Cameo)
Speed Force (Cameo)
Rock of Eternity (Mentioned only)
Sphere of the Gods
Phantom Zone (Mentioned only)
Items:

The Anti-Monitor’s Armor (In a vision) (Cameo)
Batcomputers (Cameo)
Batmanium (Flashback only) (Cameo)
The Batman Who Laughs’ Visor (Cameo)
Batsuits (Flashback and main story)
Bracelets of Submission (Flashback and main story) (Cameo)
Cosmic Tuning Fork (Destroyed) (Flashback and main story)
Dark Matter
Dawnbreaker’s Ring
Deathstroke’s Sword (Cameo)
Doomsday Virus
Drowned’s Trident
Green Lantern Ring (Flashback and main story) (Cameo)
Helmet of Fate (Flashback and main story) (Cameo)
Ikon Suit (Cameo)
Kinetic Hammer (Destroyed)
Lasso of Truth
The Merciless’ Axe
The Merciless’ Helmet
Nth Metal (Mentioned only)
Red Death’s Bat-Signal (Cameo)
Rocket Red Armors (Cameo)
Steel’s Armor (Flashback and main story) (Cameo)
T-Spheres
Trident of Neptune (Flashback and main story)
Wonder Woman’s Shield
Wonder Woman’s Sword
Wonder Woman’s Tiara (Flashback and main story) (Cameo)
Concepts:

Anti-Life Equation (In a vision)
Boom Tube
Crisis on Infinite Earths (In a vision)
Magic
Notes
The story continues from Dark Nights: Metal #3.
The ”Bats out of Hell” storyline continues in Justice League (Volume 3) #32.
It will be revealed that this story as well as the Dark Nights: Metal event takes place between the events of The Flash (Volume 5) #38 and The Flash (Volume 5) #39.[1]
Trivia
As he falls into the Red Death’s Batcave, Barry Allen glimpses many dark realities, including:
a world where an aged version of himself mourns over the corpse of an aged Iris West;
These versions of Barry Allen and Iris West heavily resemble the ”Future” Barry and Iris of the ”Destruction of Central City” timeline from The Flash (Volume 5) #26;
a world where his counterpart became the Reverse-Flash and allied himself with the Rogues;
a world where Godspeed murdered his counterpart during their first encounter;
a world where his counterpart became the Anti-Monitor during the first Crisis;
a world where his counterpart was sent to the Sanctuary and murdered both Wally and Wallace West.

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2025-06-05

2018-07-02 22:33:10