You've probably heard by now things are a bit different in the pages of BATMAN. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are taking the idea of Batman to a different place. After the events of Endgame, things didn't look too good for Bruce. But Gotham City needs a Batman.
Issue #41 is now on sale. You can read our review HERE. If you haven't read it yet, there will be some big spoilers below as the two talk about the new direction, the new "Batman," and tease what's coming up in this arc, including that crazy last page.
COMIC VINE: When going for this new direction, was Jim Gordon always the first choice?
SCOTT SNYDER: Yes, for me, the whole idea came out of that. It wasn’t just to make a big robot-Batman. It was more a sense, if we really do Bruce in and have him go down in the way we always pictured him, fighting his greatest enemy, with the city hanging in the balance, who would step up and be Batman next? For me, I love when Dick Grayson was Batman. I had a great time writing him. I thought about Tim. I thought about who else would. I felt all those people train and get ready for that job. I’ve never seen anybody sort of thrust into the position who was an ally or fan of Batman but was also just extremely human and was not expecting it at all. The notion that Gordon gives us the chance to see what it would be like to be Batman. When you loved Batman, you love what he stands for. You’ve been there at his side, as a fan, the way we are, and as a friend. Now all of a sudden, now you’re him. Go out there and be Batman.
CV: How did the design of the armor come about?
GREG CAPULLO: Anytime we have to create anything, Scott gives me notes with what’s in his mind’s eye. It’s a matter of trying to convert that through my blender and put it through my mind’s eye to what I think works. A couple of the notes were along the lines of really really tall ears and a mecha-suit sort of along the vein of RoboCop and stuff like that. There was the jumping off point. From there, we all have our influences and stuff that we’ve seen. You just put it in your blender and see what comes out. You sketch things you think will look cool. I always go by shapes. Shapes dictate to me. I don’t want to think about much other than what it’s going to look like as a shape on the paper. Just give me a RoboCop with really really tall ears.
CV: And what about Jim’s new look? His haircut?
CAPULLO: Scott wanted a high and tight Marine-cut on Jim, which I gave him. It kind of looks like a mohawk but that’s more about the fact that his hair is receding. If I gave it Scott exactly the way he wanted, you don’t get much more than what he has. I never drew it to be a mohawk. To me, a mohawk would be a little taller. Also, I had friends in the Marines. These were two guys you didn’t want to mess around with and they sported that when they were in the Marine Corps. It’s not really something that looks funny because these guys would kill you. Maybe if I add a little bit of stubble, Scott will be happier, but you’re not really going to get the “Bruce” look from Zero Year. Scott told me some important background about the USMC. If I wast 100% sure we didn’t see Gordon without a shirt before, I’d love to give him a Marine Corp tat somewhere on his body.
CV: Is there a set list of specs on what the suit can and can’t do so all the writers are consistent?
SNYDER: Yeah, there is. There’s actually a diagram that got sent to everybody from editorial. It’s funny because I was talking to Brenden Fletcher from BATGIRL and he was like, “Can we make it fly?” I told him, no, it can’t fly. It can slow itself down from falling but I think everybody wants it to have secret compartments with all kinds of cool things they make up. Sometimes you can allow some of those things but sometimes you have to draw the line somewhere. It doesn’t have lasers and it can’t take off like Iron Man.
CAPULLO: My work around it is, I don’t care about the diagram, if someone adds something, it came after. There were some refinements. I’ll work around anything.
SNYDER: Yeah, we can add on to the diagram.
CAPULLO: But no one else can without our permission.
[laughs]
CV: Is this new Batman program sanctioned by the police department?
SNYDER: It is sanctioned by the police department but he’s also not officially a cop anymore. The idea we really want to get across in the first couple issues is Gordon believes. The reason he takes on Batman is because he wants to see if Batman can work as an extension of the system that people put in place to protect them. If Batman is subsidized by the city government, even though he’s built by a private corporation, he’s part of it. He works with the police force. He basically represents an arm that’s an extension of the law, of government, of business, of the things that Gordon has believed in his whole life in a lot of ways. He’s saying, if Batman works with checks and balances, and is almost like a public servant in this way, can he work? For me, there’s also something powerful in that. It asks, can Batman be the city itself? Can he work within the city and still help you? Or is that impossible?
CV: Could there be more than one Batman suit in operation or would that be too expensive?
SNYDER: [laughs] I don’t know, you’ll have to—
CAPULLO: Alfred! I think we’ll put Alfred in when Gordon needs a little assistance. It’ll just be missing one gauntlet.
SNYDER: He only has the one hand, dude.
CAPULLO: One gauntlet.
SNYDER: It’d be hard to operate.
CV: Who’s going to be Jim’s supporting cast? Who’s going to help him when he’s out in the field?
SNYDER: Well, I don’t want to spoil it too much but one of the things we want to do is keep some of the characters you really love from regular BATMAN and not introduce a full cast that’s new. Jim is obviously a character we’ve used a lot in BATMAN. I don’t think it’s going to feel quite as left field as people think it will, once you see him as Batman. Alfred will be in the book, characters we’ve established, without giving too much away, over a long period of time, are going to be in the book. We want it to feel almost like classic Batman but with this very very new figure at the center of it. Jim Gordon is there, in the suit that’s very new but almost like the way the story is built, the look of the city, and the supporting cast, you’re going to see a lot of familiar faces. Some surprising ones as well.
CAPULLO: I think it’s very mirrored. The new cast is very mirrored. I think it’ll be successful given the traditional original Batman flavor given to the whole thing. Scott was right and smart with the characters he put in.
SNYDER: Thank you.
CV: How many people will know the new Batman’s secret identity?
SNYDER: It’s only the people that need to know. I thought about it. What if everyone in the city knows he’s Batman? Would that work? I just felt that they wouldn’t do that because ultimately it puts everyone he loves and works with in danger. It makes it impossible for him to ever function publicly. I felt they would keep him anonymous, but there’s checks and balances and people that need to know—Maggie Sawyer, the mayor, people like that know who he is.
CV: Will we see Jim out of the armor often and in the black under suit?
SNYDER: Definitely. He sort of literally and figuratively comes out of his shell as the arc progresses. But you’ll see him in the black suit every issue. He’s Batman after all. It was fun keeping it a bit of a secret that he had another suit. I think a lot of people figured Batman would only be in the robo-suit, but we wouldn’t do that to you guys.
CV: Is it wrong that I’m suspicious of Geri Powers’ motives?
SNYDER: [laughs] I don’t know. You’ll have to keep reading. I’ll say this. I didn’t want to create someone who’s a mustache-twirling villain. Anyone except our big villain, who comes in issue #43, you’ll see him in a big way for the first time—Mr. Bloom.
The arc is one where we try hard to explore a lot of ideas about Batman. She’s not coming into it to create something bad. She does believe, wholeheartedly, in the idea that the city needs a Batman. Maybe it’s time for a Batman that restores their faith in the system. One of the things we start to talk about in issue #41 and a lot more in 42 and 43 is, historically, the city hasn’t felt safe in the way it’s been protected by the people that were elected, the police until Gordon can about and the police changed. We’re trying to explore this idea of can Batman work better if he’s part of a system of checks and balances that people put in place to protect them.
CV: Anything else you want to tell us about what sort of villains and threats can we expect?
CAPULLO: For me, this has been great fun. I’m two issues in, that are in the drawer. I just got the third script. This is a completely fresh book for me. Not only does Batman look different with the armor, there’s monster kind of villains. They’re larger than life kind of stuff, leading up to the revelation of our main enemy, Mr. Bloom. People are going to love this ride. It’s fun visually, it’s action-packed, and some of these characters, people are going to remember for a long time.
SNYDER: And I have to say one thing. [laughs] This idea, when I pitched it, it’s way out there. When you start reading it, you’ll see it’s not quite as out there as you think it is. There’s some big surprises coming about favorite characters that I think when readers are wondering what’s happened to certain people. There’ll be a lot of fun stories. The thing is, I cannot imagine this story being even feasible without the art team on this book. This is an idea, when I pitched it, I was like, I love this idea. Greg loved the idea. It was also that this was going to be really hard to make real. When the first pages came in, and I can’t spoil what’s coming, but even for the issues he just did where we reintroduce something—a key figure…
CAPULLO: Yeah, that was a lot of fun.
SNYDER: I saw it and was like, these guys, they can make anything not just real but alive and vibrant on the page. I feel like in every interview I want to thank them because they can make anything amazing. It’s really incredible, honestly. I saw pages and was like, “Oh my god! This is crazy.” But it’s so much better than I expected.
CAPULLO: Thank you, thank you.
SNYDER: I love everyone I work with but you guys, this is the best art team in the world. It’s just amazing to watch.
CAPULLO: Well thank you, from me and I’m sure the other guys too.
CV: And I thank you guys too because we’re getting some great comics here.
CAPULLO: Wait until you see this arc. It’s so much fun. It’s not hype, this could be off the record, whatever. It’s so much fun.
CV: What about that last page?
SNYDER: You’ll have to wait and see what the deal is with Bruce, if that is Bruce!
BATMAN #41 is now on sale. Check it out.
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