Interview: Matthew Rosenberg on Returning to DC vs. Vampires: World War V

Darkness is returning to the DC Universe in a sequel to one of the bloodiest Elseworlds ever created. DC vs. Vampires: World War V brings fans back to a world where a vampiric plague has transformed the DCU and caused a schism between allies, friends, and family.

DC vs. Vampires: World War V picks up shortly after the original series’ shocking ending. The Vampire King Nightwing has been replaced by Batgirl and a fragile truce has been forged between the undead and the humans. But tensions arise when one vampire refuses to take sides. Screen Rant caught up with DC vs. Vampires: World War V writer Matthew Rosenberg to see what’s next for this grim universe.

Screen Rant: Matt, we’re you surprised at the success of the original DC vs. Vampires and its side series?

Matthew Rosenberg: I think I’m supposed to probably say “No, of course we knew”. Anytime people are excited about things it’s always surprising to me in the modern day. I’m flattered and honored and I really loved what we did but yeah, I was surprised by it for sure.

DC has really been building up its Elseworlds line lately by revisiting popular, non-canon stories. What drew you to coming back for a sequel to DC vs. Vampires?

Matthew Rosenberg: The big things for me was we were just having fun. Otto and I were making the book at the time with Ben Abernathy. I think like six issues in Ben said to me “The book’s doing well, we should probably talk about doing more.”. A big part of what I love about the book is DC’s commitment to supporting our voice and our vision of this with their characters and all of us making something that goes as hard as we want and really pushes things as much as we want. And that’s been so fun and seeing audiences react to it and seeing them be shocked and amazed and outraged is such a joy and the audience has been amazing. I couldn’t resist when DC was like “Come do more.”. Of course, I’m gonna say yes.

You’ve previously written stories in the Prime DC continuity. As a writer, what’s the appeal of working on an Elseworlds title as opposed to something set firmly in the main continuity?

Matthew Rosenberg: There are difficulties and things that are easier for both. But the fact that it’s an Elseworlds frees us up to do one thing which is really crucial, which is centered on the idea that no one is safe, that you can’t trust anyone, that you can’t assume anyone is going to be alive in the next page. It’s so important to the stakes of the universe and the story we’re telling. We knew early on we needed to update the status quo. And I remember having calls at the beginning of the book being like “Can I turn this person into a vampire…what if he dies?” And they were like “Yep, do it.”. Hopefully my being shocked at what we can do and the things we can get away with transfers to the audience. I feel like it has in a lot of ways. We’ve had a lot of twists and turns that people don’t see coming and we’re gonna have a lot more coming up. And that’s all due to the fact that people buy into the Elseworlds. They care about the characters because they know them and love them, but they also understand this could be the last time this character’s ever walking through the door. That’s a thrill as a storyteller to get to do.

How’s it been working with Otto Schmidt again? Was it ever a question that you needed him on this book?

Matthew Rosenberg: Otto’s amazing. This is my third book with Otto. He’s one of the best in the business, bar none. I would work without Otto for the rest of my life. I think he’s amazing, he’s such a great collaborator. He’s such a genius artist. At the start of the book, there was a passing moment of “We don’t know that Otto is going to be available.”. And I said, flat out “If Otto was not available, we have a big problem.”. He’s my partner on it. I want him back. And luckily, Otto felt the same and so he jumped right back in. So it’s been a blast. There’s so many things he does better than anyone else in comics. He’s an amazing storyteller. He does great character acting, he’s great on action.

Matthew Rosenberg: But I love his designs. I love just looking at the way he draws his characters and getting the chance to be like we’re moving forward in time. Seeing his new visions of them has been a blast. I love his Swamp Thing, I love his Green Arrow. His Black Canary is just a classic, so he kind of didn’t touch that too much. So seeing him take them on is just a joy because there’s nothing he can’t draw.

The last issue of DC vs. Vampires really kind of came at us with another gut punch, with Barbara Gordon killing Nightwing and taking his place as the leader of the vampires. You want to talk a little bit about how that ending and how it’s informing your new story?

Matthew Rosenberg: That is the one thing that we really wanted. When we knew for sure that we were doing the sequel, that was the ending we went with because we wanted something where people would feel that gut punch moment of Nightwing’s death and Barbara ascending the throne. But also we knew people would have questions. We knew that people would be like “Is that it?”. And it’s hard when you make a book like this because so many people are messaging me, seeing them at signings and cons and they’re like “That’s the end?!” and I can’t be like “No, more’s coming!” because I can’t reveal that. But yes, at that point, we knew we had so much more story to tell. So that was the setup for that and thanks to the audience for being patient and bearing with us.

Matthew Rosenberg: Now we’re at a place of six to nine months later. There’s a sort of a peace between Barbara’s vampires and the humans and it’s not going well for anyone and a lot of people are trying to end that peace or upset it in some ways. It’s fun because we end on a status quo shift and then we’re starting a new book and a new status quo. It’s the logical progression of where we were but we cut out all the boring diplomacy stuff and the peace talks. And now we’re right into the moment where the peace is either going to hold her break and that’s where we wanted to start.

Matthew Rosenberg: Barbara is one of my favorite characters in all of comics, and so it is bittersweet to get to vampirize her and turn her into our big bad, but I think there are very few characters who people are going to trust to be the leader of of the vampires that take over the world and Barbara Gordon has a character where when you tell people like she’s the big bad they go “Well, yeah, that makes sense, she’s got the brains for it.” So yeah, it’s really fun to get to pick up and shake everything up again.

Does the presence of a Green Lantern make it harder to write a vampire apocalypse?

Matthew Rosenberg: You know, there’s a couple of characters that are very tough. What’s funny is that when the book came up, originally it was James Tynion’s idea to do this book, and he and Ben Abernathy were nice enough to invite me in. James was of the mind that Flashes were a really big problem. They metabolize things too quick there, they would run around and bite everybody. And it would be over. And so James was like “You gotta get Flashes off the board right away.”. You know, vampires are vulnerable to light, Green Lanterns handle light spectrum. It’s a no brainer to me that they’re a big problem. And so they have to go.

Matthew Rosenberg: There are some Green Lanterns. You’ll see some new Green Lanterns on the book and some of them won’t make it. But I will say that one of the main characters in our book going forward will be a Green Lantern. And it’s a new Green Lantern. And there may be something familiar about them besides the lantern but it’s a person who’s never been a Green Lantern before. And they may be my favorite character to write. I love them so much. And so I think if you’re a Green Lantern fan, sorry about Hal. We all miss him. But there’s hope in the universe.

Shifting over to Damian, he played a pretty crucial role in the original series, and now he’s back as this third party who’s causing headaches for both the vampires and the humans. What was your line of thinking for Robin?

Matthew Rosenberg: Damian is one of the best characters at DC. He’s this beautiful mix of good and evil and that war that’s constantly inside him. He’s a rebel, he’s a force of anarchy in the world, so he’s fun to play with. But also we have this interesting thing with the fact that Bruce is dead. Batman died. But Talia is still alive. He has the good angel on one shoulder and the bad angel on the other, the good angel’s gone. And now he is giving over to darker instincts. A lot of creatures in the animal kingdom fall into a sort of hierarchy and when you become a vampire. You respect, for the most part, the hierarchy of the vampire monarchy and the queen and the king. Damian is just one to not fall into the natural order. He’s not one to kneel, even if his genes are telling him to, he’s going to question that.

Matthew Rosenberg: But also, Damian is a guy who, just because he’s fighting next to you, doesn’t mean that you want him there. So he is fighting against the vampires and he is a nuisance to the vampires and also a frustration with the humans, because he is threatening the peace. He’s threatening everything that they’ve built. There’s a very fragile peace between the humans and vampires and the vampires want humans to deal with Damian and this humans are insistent that he’s a vampire and he’s their problem. But he’s not, he’s everybody’s problem. I love that role for him, just thinking he knows what’s right. He’s going to do it and screw everyone else. That’s the most fun Damian to write and so even though he’s a little vampire nightmare, he’s still, at his core, exactly what I love about Damian. He doesn’t feel like the other vampires and he doesn’t feel like the other humans. He’s his own horrible little dude.

I don’t think it’s spoiling too much since it has been revealed through solicitations, but you’re introducing a new Batman into this world. Where did this idea come from and what can you say about them?

Matthew Rosenberg: In the original series, we killed a lot of the biggies. All of that was in motion before we knew we were going to keep going. But when we knew, we had a chance to change it. When you kill a Green Lantern or a Flash or a Superman or Batman, you feel it. It’s a heavy moment. And I think the DC Universe naturally wants a Batman. He’s as crucial to the universe as air and sunlight are to us. Nature abhors a vacuum and when there’s no Batman, the DC Universe will create one and so do we bring Bruce back? Is there a new Batman? We’re gonna reveal what it is. I think people will be shocked, some people will say they saw it coming, a lot of them are liars. Some of them will have seen it coming about but I think it makes sense. We wouldn’t do it if it didn’t make sense. And we wouldn’t do it if it didn’t serve the story.

Matthew Rosenberg: Obviously, we’ve lived for a while, in the book, in a world without Batman. And it hasn’t been a good world. And so we’re putting the Batman back in to see if we can change that. And he’s gonna be a big part of it. And the Batman/Green Lantern dynamic going forward is going to be a big part of the book, which I’m very excited about. I think people will get it and be amused and horrified and titillated by it, because it’s my favorite part of the story right now. Ask me again tomorrow, and I might have a different answer. But I love the dynamic between our Batman and our Green Lantern, I think they’re incredibly fun. When Batman appears, it’s quiet, it’s small when he first appears. But it will be bigger and bigger until it is a Batman-sized problem for everybody.

Last question. Is there anything you want fans to know to get them pumped about the first issue?

Matthew Rosenberg: I would say our fans have been awesome and we really appreciate it. And people being patient while we built more of this. We wanted to take our time and make sure everything was up to the quality of the first book. I think we’ve not only met that, I think when all is said and done, I feel this is maybe even a better story. We’ve traded in some of our mystery and intrigue for some other mysteries and intrigues. We’re just trying to do everything bigger and crazier and more fun. If you read the end of issue six, it’s a twelve-issue series, I’m asking you to get the issue six. If you get to the end of issue six, and a smile doesn’t cross your face then I don’t know what to tell you. Because issue six is the thing that I set out to do. It was my original pitch for continuing the story. I was shocked they let us do it and I’m still amused and shocked. We love these characters and love these worlds and I’m hoping that the audience gives us a chance to show why.

DC vs. Vampires: World War V #1 is available on August 14th from DC Comics.