Last week we talked to Tony Daniel who will be doing some art and covers for the upcoming weekly BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #1. We just had the chance to talk to James Tynion IV, one of the "showrunners" for the twenty-six issue weekly series. We'll be seeing a new villain that ties into Batman's past along with the re-introduction of Cassandra Cain to the DCU.
(Art credits: Pencils by Tony S. Daniel, Inks by Sandu Florea, Colors by Tomeu Morey).
COMIC VINE: What made you decided to come on board another Batman weekly series?
JAMES TYNION IV: It’s a pretty simple answer. I loved doing the first one. A weekly series like this, it’s pretty unique in the fact that you get all the toys in the toy box. You get to play with all the biggest characters in a certain corner of the DCU. You get to tell a story with huge major repercussions. Honestly, I couldn’t say no. Scott [Snyder] and I had some ideas coming out of the first BATMAN ETERNAL. We knew we had stories we still wanted to tell. It’s really exciting to be back at it again.
CV: I’m excited too.
JAMES: Alright.
CV: How were all the different writers selected?
JAMES: We wanted to bring in some new blood in this story and give a few people who haven’t had a chance to tackle the Batman mythos before a big in to the story. Ed Brisson, Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly are making their Batman debut on this story. And then we’re bringing in some people who are making the Batman books great across the line right now. We have Steve Orlando from MIDNIGHTER, Genevieve Valentine from CATWOMAN, and we have Tim Seeley, from the first BATMAN ETERNAL and GRAYSON. Tim is very important for this series because this story features Dick Grayson up front and center. Having a member of the GRAYSON team, especially someone I had such a great time working with the first time, was absolutely key.
CV: What can you tell us about the old Batman case that brings about this story?
JAMES: The biggest thing that excited us about telling a story like this is right now we’re in a very strange moment in Batman continuity. Bruce Wayne does not remember he was Batman. Jim Gordon is currently running around Gotham City as Batman. Imagine there was a villain—someone so huge and terrifying that in Batman’s early years, no one else…this is the big bad. One of the worst people he’s ever faced. It got to the point that the things he had to do in order to defeat that person, are things that have weighed on him for years. He thought they were gone. If a figure like that comes back in the present and Bruce was the only one who really knows who this person is and remembers that mystery.
This is something where they don’t have the pieces in order to defeat what they’re up against. It’s a case that goes right back to the era that Dick Grayson was Robin. That is also key in our story. The reason that Bruce kept this case from Dick, that’s central to the mystery that we’re telling. This is a story about the nature of the relationship between Batman and Robin.
CV: With Dick being in this story, is the rest of the Bat Family going to discover he’s still alive?
JAMES: This is a seed you might actually see play out in GRAYSON, right before the launch of this. Stay tuned there. This is the big Batman story that brings Dick Grayson back into the Bat Family. Without Bruce at the center, it’s Dick really stepping up to be the center of the Bat Family, in this strange new world.
CV: What can you tell us about Cassandra Cain’s role, besides what you said at San Diego with her having a “central role”?
JAMES: I want to hit that note again. Cassandra Cain is one of the key characters to this story. She will be in the story from issue #1 on and at the heart of the mystery of what happened in the past and what’s happening in the present. That’s also one of the frustrating things because she’s not someone that can straight up sit you down and reveal exactly the machinations of the big villain that was building in the past.
It’s very very exciting to get to play with Cassandra Cain again. I grew up on Cassandra Cain stories and she is one of my all time favorite Batman characters. This is the story that’s going to bring her back in a huge way. There are going to be things that’ll be a little different. This is going to be us introducing a generation to Cassandra Cain. It’s not us bringing back the exact same Cassandra Cain that walked out of continuity after the events of Flashpoint when we launched the New 52. The people out there who have been loving Cassandra for years and years and years and have been wanting her back, we want to do the character justice by them. We also want the number of Cassandra fans to be quadrupled by the end of this so that everyone demands she stays in the DCU here and far into the future.
CV: Will she have a costume or codename?
JAMES: …That’s something you guys are going to have to wait and see. We’re not bringing her back in the Batgirl role. She’s going to be there as Cassandra. What we’re building her towards is something you guys are going to have to wait and see over the course of the twenty-six issues.
CV: I think I recall you saying in the past that Tim Drake was your favorite Robin. Is that still the case and will he have a big role?
JAMES: Yeah. All of the Robins are going to play into this story. Right off the bat, Damian Wayne is off on his adventures in ROBIN SON OF BATMAN. He’ll come into the story a bit later on. Right now, the first three Robins, Dick, Jason, and Tim, are going to be up front and center in this story alongside the new addition of Cassandra Cain and Harper Row. Harper will also be absolutely central to this tale.
CV: What are you most excited about in BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL?
JAMES: I’m really really excited about the opportunity to build a new A-list villain for Batman in the DCU. It’s an opportunity that writers rarely get to take. The character we’re building, Mother, she’s one of the most frightening concepts I’ve ever had. I am really really excited to introduce her to the DCU and scare the universe with her as much as much as she scares me.
Don't miss the BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL SPECIAL EDITION #1 available free on Batman Day, September 26. BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #1 is on sale October 7.