Gadgetory

hey guys his upon with the verge and about to talk to two of the biggest Batman writers working today James Tynan and Scott Snyder spoilered if you haven't read their work because we're about to get into it so guys basically you're working in a world where Batman is not boost way anymore what is that like well it's sort of Awesome actually because for me I mean I've been writing Batman for about four years with artists greg below who's just been incredible on the book and this year we really wanted to sort of have a final battle between Batman and Joker we realized once they kind of both went down it would give us an opportunity to look at the mythology from a whole new angle who would become Batman if the legend the only person that could really be Batman died what if Batman died and the city was left sort of completely unprotected who would step up so for us the answer was Jim Gordon so he's a deputized Batman he's a city sanctioned Batman and he's somebody who's believed in the systems that we put in place to protect ourselves the police local government is whole life and he wants to prove to the entire city the Batman can be a symbol of inspiration a symbol of safety a symbol of safe harbor and faith honestly in these kinds of mechanisms that we believe in when things are going well to make the city a safe place of course Gotham is going to throw tremendous obstacles in his way this new villain mr. bloom and the other sort of half of the story deals with Bruce Wayne Bruce Wayne comes back from this battle with the Joker with a totally new neurological landscape his mind has been healed of all its memories he has no memories of being Batman it's a new brain almost in his head so it's almost as though Batman died and Bruce Wayne came back this is the boy that none of us saved in the alley and it's who he would be if he had no skills no detective skills no no kickass fighting skills none of it and so overall it's a wonderful Gotham at least for me right now to be able to write in because it gives me so many new angles on these characters I loved from Bruce to Alfred to Jim Gordon two new characters that were introducing Duke Thomas and ultimately i think you know when you have a franchise in 75 years old it's so fun to go classic and use the classic villains and we will again you know to face and everything like that and Bruce if he ever comes back to be Batman again but when you get these vacations when you get these moments away from home and you get to look at your home differently it's so exciting and vibrant and the fans have been so supportive I'm really stunned I remember telling James and being like this might be the jump the shark or the ten sharks moment when we lose all of ourselves but things have held up and even you know gone beyond our expectations and the fact that fans are so supportive of us we really can't thank them enough it's just Gotham is the fans they're just wonderful to us so it's I feel like it's a great time to be in Gotham right now yeah absolutely and I mean it and it also it creates incredible storytelling possibilities like the ability to tell stories it like like you said this is a character that's existed for 75 years and in moments like this you get to tell tell stories that no one's read before which is hard to do very hard to do in in the batman midlands so with that you know we're now uh Scott and I are sort of show running a new Batman weekly Batman and Robin eternal which takes the perspective of the entire bat family as as one of Bruce's great at one of the greatest threats from Bruce's pass re-emerges but Bruce isn't there to tell them what this threat is and how dangerous it can be so it's now we have we have the opportunity to tell this story in this moment and you know and it's really really fun to see all of the Robinson and young characters interact with each other as in a world without Bruce Wayne as Batman so you guys are working in a world where there been a lot of see changes in comics in general where everyone's changing how comics work you had secret war zone convergence everything going on with image what's it like working in this environment where you were kind of challenging the status quo I mean I honestly feel like it's a golden age to be involved in comics where if you're talking about sort of the landscape from the air I mean creators like us we have more opportunities than ever to be to be daring you know on these superhero books as long as as long as you're sort of true decor and love the character at the DNA level companies now are welcoming calculated risk because of companies like image and I think because creator-owned books have done so well or and there's this kind of new fountain of creativity in that world and sustainable creativity where those books are selling and doing well so I think you know the superhero market wants that same energy that is willing to let creators like us take risks on the character as long as they know that we want the character true decor we love the character we're not trying to break it just bend in such a way that you get a brand new set of story opportunities like James said on these on these classic characters so really i mean i feel like the storytelling going on at marvel at DC at image there couldn't be a better time to be a comic book fan I mean a creator certainly there's so many opportunities and there's such a kind of sort of celebration I think right now of calculated risk on these characters but even it's just a reader as a fan like I go to my shop my local shop on Wednesdays and there's so many books that I'm excited to pick out to pick up from Star Wars all the way down to the most and ebook because there's a high level of quality right now because people realize that you know these these books if they're done well can sell on any in any genre in any company and any sort of publishing publishing em I mean I think Scott said it awesome so is it a challenge to deal with like the massive pop cultural response that superheroes are getting in Hollywood where you have these very static images of what super girls are supposed to do whereas you guys are changing the shop status quo from the source what's the relationship between the two for you guys I mean I think the it goes into some of what's copies just saying which is I think the fact that everyone's like the the film and television versions of a lot of these characters sort of become the central like iconic versions to a lot of people and to arrest people with powerful stories in the comics who have to do things that they can't do in the movie it's a good point you have to do something daring and interesting they in a way that's just like okay that you know this is why it's comments like comics have no budget well you can you know it like that Scott doesn't have to worry about the the bat Gordon like robos who like how much it's gonna cost you know like he can all of a sudden be like okay now it has like laser launch like it's coming out of the arms and all of that now I'm like and it's just like it's the only the only budget is our imaginations act like and that is the strength of comments is it's just through its whatever we can come up with and excite people with so yeah yeah the only other thing I point out cuz I thought that's beautifully sad is that you know when you come to a con like this what you realize is you know the filmic and televisual sort of and video game I think representations of these characters bring so many new fans in this con itself New York Comic Con is just so robust you see so many new faces people from all walks of life loving these characters because there's so much so adaptable and you realize how elastic they are because at core they stand for certain things like Batman for example teaches us that no matter how tragic your circumvent the circumstances are no matter what sort of but falls you no matter what obstacles you face if you believe in yourself and you determined enough you can be the hero that you dream of being despite all of the kind of hardship that you've um you've encountered in your life and if you take that as the core you can have him in space you can have him as an angry Batman you can have him as a as a happier Batman a Batman 66 there's so many interpretations and I think those those adaptations of him when you see Batman vs Superman or you see the animated series they bring so many new fans in and again like I don't feel there's ever been a better time to be a fan of the superhero world or the superhero genre when you look around and see such a diverse crowd people of all ages all walks of life race orientation everything celebrating these characters in all different kinds of ways I mean it's really a vibrant and I think multifaceted fandom right now so regarding Batman 44 you have Jim Gordon facing the question gentrification yeah police brutality in Gotham City what brought you into that mode especially in considering the last year well what I would say this story it's all kind of energy monsters and robots in a lot of ways but it's actually deeply about what Batman means to us in the real world so sometimes you have a story that you translate into comic book language like for example the best the best kind of example I can cite is the dark knight returns to me is is a comic book language story to mutant sir this crazy gang and two faces running around but ultimately as a kid all the issues in that book the Cold War urban decay they were all there just sort of in comic book language and sometimes in certain stories like zero year we do that and in other stories like and that's what we're doing in this one and super heavy but once in a while you kind of peel back the comic book language and show it in straight prose and say this is what this is about and truthfully when you have a bat man who is believed in the police and believed in again the systems and the mechanisms that we put in place in a city like New York or Baltimore or Gotham to protect ourselves you're going to get a story where you come up against the hard truths and the entrenched aesthetic problems the Batman sometimes is going to see and say what do I mean to these so we wanted it really to be the Keystone issue of the entire arc and to be something that said this is this is what this story is about and what I'd say is you know a lot of what we think Batman on the other hand like one of the great things about the characters you know what we're doing in Batman and Robin eternal you can do a story that globe trots it's all over the place and this story could not be better I really i cannot stress enough like doing a weekly series is hard and what James and the team has come up with Tony Daniel on art it is probably the best Batman story the year twenty six issues you're going to feel like you got so much bang for your buck it's a mystery from the past it's come back to haunt the present in ways that I think you'll find really potent and resonant conspiracies and secrets and in today's world I feel like a lot of the stuff they're bringing up even in comic-book language even in the most bombastic and cartoonish sort of translation will feel resonant and will feel potent it might not be the same issues we're talking about in Batman right now which I think are particularly kind of live wire but our goal is comic book writers i think is always take material it's personal to us always take stuff this resident that matters to us and write them through these characters so these characters matter and I can promise you that Batman eternal at 26 issues is one of those stories it's something that you should pick up if you love Batman and Robin it's pat Robin 75th anniversary you got every Robin you got a brand new villain whose scary in the way that I think of today villain should be scary and you got a great a great team on the book it's really something i'm proud to be affiliated with in any way thanks so much Scott sure thank you Thanks if you want to see more like this check out the birds