DC has provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive preview of James Tynion IV’s Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3, which goes on sale next week, on February 26, in comic shops and online. As part of the run-up to Dark Nights: Death Metal, the issue has been gaining a lot of buzz, and before it even hits the stands, DC has already announced that it will be getting a second printing. Besides the road to Metal 2, DC has revealed that the new villain Punchline, who is taking Harley Quinn's place at the side of The Joker, will join the fray in this climactic issue after her debut in Batman #89.

You can check out the official solicitaiton text for Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3 below for more details:

Apex Lex Luthor's first run-in with the Infected didn't go as planned, and the Batman Who Laughs' influence is continuing to spread. Now Lex must find out who in the world can think like the Batman Who Laughs-and there are only two folks who come to mind. The first is Batman, who probably has his own ideas for Lex; the other is The Joker, who also likely has his own ideas, but who just maybe wants to see this twisted doppelgänger sent back to the Dark Multiverse he came from. It's a gamble Lex has to take, because the Infected are gearing up for round two!

Dark Nights: Death Metal is DC's follow-up to their 2017-18 series Dark Nights: Metal, which brought widespread changes to the DC universe and introduced fans to the Dark Multiverse and a popular villain, the Batman Who Laughs, who has been a featured character in almost every major story Snyder has written since. The series will also include several "Metalverse" one-shots throughout the summer months, expanding the vast world created by the Death Metal storyline (presumably similar to the one-shots that gave backstories for the Dark Knights in Metal).

The series spins out of the events of Scott Snyder’s Justice League run and the Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen miniseries by James Tynion IV. The Earth has been consumed by Dark Multiverse energy, having been conquered by the Batman Who Laughs and his evil lieutenants, corrupted versions of Shazam, Donna Troy, Supergirl, Blue Beetle, Hawkman, and Commissioner Jim Gordon. Some heroes, like Wonder Woman and the Flash, have made compromises as they negotiate to keep humanity alive in this hell-born landscape. Others, like Batman, are part of an underground resistance looking to take back control of their world. Superman is imprisoned, cursed to literally power Earth’s sun for eternity.

But a mysterious figure provides Wonder Woman with vital information she might be able to use to rally Earth’s remaining heroes to resist the Batman Who Laughs. Can the Justice League break away from the Dark Multiverse and defeat Perpetua?

Dark Nights: Death Metal is a six-issue monthly series with issues #1-3 shipping in May, June, and July. The series will take August off, and then ship again in September, October, and November.

Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3 will be on the stands on Wednesday.