How Scott Snyder recruited Warren Ellis for Death Metal's Bat-Rex origin story

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And who's drawing it

(Image credit: Greg Capullo (DC))

DC's Dark Night: Death Metal begins Tuesday with the event's first issue, but it's grown well beyond the bounds of just the main limited series - including a short by Warren Ellis revealing the origin of the Batman Tyrannosaurus Rex - nicknamed 'B-Rex.'

That's right.  Warren Ellis. Batman. T-Rex.

(Image credit: Tony S. Daniel (DC))

Drawn by Jim Cheung, Ellis' B-Rex origin story will be featured in August 25's Dark Nights: Death Metal Legends of the Dark Knights #1 anthology. But how did they manage to get Ellis to write such an unconventional character, and write his origin no less?

We asked.

"I went to Warren with Marie [Javins, Death Metal's editor], and explained to him there was a robot dinosaur Batman, a monster truck Batman, even an evil baby Batman... we have all sorts of evil Batman, or he can create his own," the writer told Newsarama. "We just wanted him to work on it. And he wanted B-Rex."

"I've been waiting for someone to ask me to write something like this," Warren told us. "He is incredibly kind, and I'm hoping he'll do more with the second wave of Death Metal stuff," Snyder continued. "Marie thought it would speak to him, and she was right."

B-Rex is Bruce Wayne/Batman from a different universe in the DC Multiverse, now serving the Batman Who Laughs and Perpetua in Dark Night: Death Metal.

Dark Night: Death Metal #1 (with an appearance by B-Rex) goes on-sale Tuesday, June 16. Ellis and Cheung's B-Rex origin story will be in August 25's Dark Nights: Death Metal Legends of the Dark Knights #1.

Chris Arrant
Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)