It's been the better part of three years since the release of Injustice: Gods Among Us , and DC's comic book prequel is still going strong. This week DC is kicking off the final leg of that prequel saga as Injustice: Year Five makes its digital debut on the DC Comics app and other digital stores. Year Five will chronicle the final conflict between Superman's regime and Batman's resistance leading up to the events of the game. Look for all sorts of classics DC villains to enter the fray in this volume, including Doomsday, Bane and Killer Frost.

We recently had a chance to chat with writer Brian Buccellato about the new series and what fans can expect from this final conflict between Batman and Superman. Buccellato also discussed how next week's Injustice: Year Four Annual fits into the bigger picture and whether there might be a future for the comic once Year Five is finished.

Injustice: Year Four Annual #1 cover by Bruno Redondo

Injustice: Year Five #1 cover by David Yardin

I think it's pretty simple. It's got the entire DC Universe and pretty much everyone on the table where anything can happen to them. You have major characters who are at risk of actually dying and staying dead. And then you have the classic role reversal for Superman, who becomes more and more villainous as he's doing what he thinks is the right thing. So you have the perfect setup for any number of stories about this world where Superman becomes a fascist and a despot and Batman has to rise up against him. That's an open playing field that can go on, I don't know about infinitely, but definitely for a long time.I think very early on, the editor Jim Chadwick and I talked about what good ideas for Year Four and Five might be so we could start planning it out. I pitched him "year of the gods" in Year Four and "year of the villains" in Year Five. That sort of organically flows back into the game, because the comic does take place in these five years between the Joker killing Lois and the status quo of the video game. I think transitioning to the villains in the fifth year brings us to where we are in the game and where Bane and Doomsday and Killer Frost are all working with the Regime.Absolutely. I think it becomes a sort of arms race for allies. We've gone through and seen so many heroes affected and be a part of the Injustice world, but now there are villains on the table. Superman needs as many people as he can find on his side, and of course Batman needs people to combat Superman. They make their own deals with the devil in order to change this war, and that involves bringing in the villains.I think it's almost complete. There are a couple more things he's going to do that are pretty treacherous and remind you that he's a bad guy. But he's already done some terrible things - killing Green Arrow and Montoya. Lots of people have died at his hands. People have been hurt at his hands. He's taken their freedom. He's done a lot of terrible things already. Things that if you named Joker or Lex Luthor, you'd have no question that these are the villains. But part of it is that we want to hold onto the fact that it is Superman. There is good in him. He claims he's doing things for the right reasons. It's a little more of a subtle shift for a lot of people, but he's pretty bad already. And it's only going to get worse.Yeah, I mean, it is superheroes and people with powers and costumes and magic rings. It's definitely a fantastical world, but I think you want to focus on what's grounded and what's real within the context of these fantastical things. You can't have a war without compromise and without gray. There's no black and white war. So Batman has to make concessions, and he makes mistakes, and Superman makes mistakes. There's a lot of "one step forward, two steps back" on both sides. I think it reflects the natural ebb and flow of a large-scale war, and this is a five-year-long war we're seeing. You can't make it black and white. There has to be subtlety, and there has to be nuance to have it work.Well, the simple fact is that they're in the video game. In the story mode of the game, they're on the regime's side, so we want to find out how they got there. There will be a little bit of me explaining how things get to the status quo they are in the beginning of the video game. There are some choices that are natural extensions of that. There are also some characters that you might be surprised are in this year. It's a bit of a combination. We have to get to a certain point. We know how Year Five ends because we've seen the video game. It's about finding interesting ways to get us there and then also finding interesting ways to explain how certain certain characters became involved.For example, Catwoman throughout our whole entire series has been on Batman's side, but in the video game she's on the Regime's side. This year you're going to find out, "Well, how did that happen?". I don't want to call it tying up loose ends because that makes it sound like it's a chore. This is all about having a fun storytelling experience but we have certain things we have to get to and explain so that everything makes sense when we're all done.