With the second issue of DC Comics ’ Batman and Robin released today , we asked author Grant Morrison why we need a new Batman , how reasonable Bruce Wayne really was , and whether Batman is actually sci - fi or not after all .
There ’s something iconic about the title “ Batman and Robin ” ( as well as the idea of Batman as this well - adjusted , not - entirely - bed - up character ) – With make a new # 1 and new series to proceed the story you ’ve been tell since 2006 , is this your attempt to open up the character to another hearing who either have never been concerned in the character , or who may have rove off as Bruce Wayne became more and more grim ?
I had n’t consider of it in those terms . The ‘ drab ‘ n ’ gritty ’ , noir feeler to Batman has been reasonably successful over the last 25 years , so I do n’t know if I ever imagined it keeping readers aside . It ’s an interesting idea . If the style of Batman and Robin opens the door for fresh or returning lecturer , I ’d be very happy .
You ’ve peach before about this title being a mix of the ’ 60s Adam West TV show and David Lynch , with Chris Cunningham ’s peculiar brand of inappropriateness thrown in as well … This seems to continue to an extent both the pop - art imagery of early in your Batman move with Andy Kubert , and the uncanny psychological dark of Batman RIP – Audiences are used to seeing a screwed - up Batman thanks to things like The Dark Knight , but the comedy / brightness that you bestow to the character has kind of been shied aside from since , perhaps , Bob Haney and Adam West . Is it important to you that the character has that correspondence ?
surely . The Bruce Wayne interpreter I try in my head when I ’m write is sardonic , upper - class , utterly self - see and hyper - intelligent . He ’s see it all , he ’s been desensitized to a great deal of stuff the sleep of us might find shocking and I ’ve always imagined him as a man with a very refined , jet - black sense of temper .
There have been other endeavour to do a ‘ brighter ’ Batman , of course . Immediately after Frank Miller reinvented the wheel with The Dark Knight Returns and Batman : Year One , Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis launch a brilliant outpouring of stories which owed more to Adam West than to Frank Miller . Bruce Timm and Paul Dini ’s Batman from the Animated Series was portray as a tough but psychologically - healthy mortal and Miller and Lee ’s All Star Batman and Robin has plenty of room for comedy , so these look of the character have never really work away and make an intrinsic part of the appeal of Batman for many people . The Batman TV series was immensely popular after all and retain a certain undeniable magical spell even today .
I conceive any good , long - run good - evolve fictional character will naturally number to have many faces and scene . Batman ’s had 70 years to build up quite a complex and layered ‘ personality ’ .
Of course , one of my all - metre favored Batman panels was publish by Haney and drawn by Jim Aparo and shows Batman stroll down the sunlit streets of Gotham , check out the mini - skirted girls and accompanied by the line to end all lines : ‘ Yes , Batman digs this day ! ’
I ’m not saying that ’s the Batman we want to see on every page , but I have a go at it that he might have this aspect to his character . I love the feeling of a Batman who enjoys a peaceful perambulation down the summertime sidewalks of the city he maintain safe . There ’s something very human about that and it relieve oneself him much more relatable and rounded . I can certainly see the Dick Grayson Batman digging this solar day on a more regular basis !
To my head , you ’ve firmly put the sci - fi back into Batman , after years of his comics becoming more and more … mundane is n’t the correct Holy Writ , but more of a hardcore crime account book . Then you get along and abruptly there are crazy psychosomatic drug hallucinations of aliens and then Bruce Wayne gets micro-cook back in metre by an evil god . Is this just examine to wreak back all the pre - silvery Age ideas from the character ’s history that’ve been miss , or do you find as if Batman works well as a construct when the weirdness of his rogue veranda gets amped up ?
Putting Batman up against average street criminals or organized gang bosses is o.k. but it ’s a chip one - side in Batman ’s favour , given his preparation . I tend to assume that Batman fit out every single night as Gotham ’s Guardian and kibosh dozens of robberies , muggings , suicide or whatever all the time . Those ‘ ordinary ’ , ‘ quotidian ’ criminal offence are his bread and butter but they do n’t really challenge him and they do n’t necessarily make for compelling narration , so I prefer to focalise on the wilder , weird nights of his career and I like to see him facing insanely brilliant , flamboyant psychotic who can really put him under pressure and take him to his terminus ad quem . Watching a billionaire Batman disarm poorly - trained , poverty - stricken muggers effortlessly or shell up skinny junky might be fun for a fit or two but does be given to raise thorny issues of course of instruction and perquisite that the basic adventure hero construct is not necessarily fit out to deal with adequately .
As for the sci - fi elements , there ’s really very little actual sci - fi in the Batman deed of conveyance or in Batman and Robin . Batman RIP was sure enough an attempt to recuperate those element of Batman ’s long and contradictory history which no longer fit the profile of the Grim Avenger ( although it ’s dainty to see a lot of that material resurfacing in the Brave and The Bold toon , which have one of the most enjoyable takes on the character I ’ve seen for a recollective time ) .
I do n’t have many comic in my tattered , bathtub - damaged ‘ assembling ’ that date before 1972 when I became a ‘ sports fan ’ and a collector . My era of comics is the ‘ dark-skinned years ’ of the 70 and 80s , not the so - called ‘ silver years ’ , so contrary to popular belief , I do n’t have any especial emotional affixation to 60s comics , other than John Broome ’s Flash write up which ravish me as a little tiddler .
I grew up with Neal Adams and Denny O’Neil , Len Wein , Engelhart , Starlin , Gerber , McGregor so my comic - writing manner can be traced back to some combination of O’Neil ’ ‘ relevance ’ and Starlin ‘ cosmic ’ . Silver age , not so much .
Something that strike me about Batman RIP was the meta - deconstructionism of the Batman mythos – When Jezebel Jet told Bruce Wayne that it was n’t healthy to be Batman , she may have been evil and hear to undermine his charge , but was she really completely wrong ? With a new ( and probably temporary ) Batman who ’s going to not have those demon , are you attempt to show how a healthy Bruce Wayne would do thing ?
I also want to show a healthier Gotham City too . That whole Son - of - Sam , Rorschach - narration – ‘ This city is an open sewer where the rat prey on the upset dreaming and filth of umm … other rats … where sneering , gnaw urban predators … blah blah … ’ – has become clichéd , tired and unconvincing . If Gotham was so bloody frightful , no - one normal would inhabit there and there ’d be no - one to protect from criminals . If Gotham really was an open gutter of crime and corruption , every story set there would serve to evidence the complete and utter failure of Batman ’s foreign mission , which is n’t really the content we want to post , is it ? You ’ve generate Batman and all his allies as well as Commissioner Gordon and the city still ooze out a nauseous miasma of darkness and death ? I ca n’t buy that . It ’s just not naturalistic and flies in the face of in - story logical system ( and you know I wish my comic naturalistic ! ) so my artists and I have taken a unlike tack and we want to show the cool , vibrant side of Gotham , the vim and excitement that would draw people to live on and visit there .
Gotham needs as many faces as Batman – it should be the tacky , sexiest , jazziest city on Earth . It has the best restaurants , the expert theaters , the best artwork , the undecomposed criminal , the estimable crimefighters etc etc . People put up with the uncanny criminal offence for the sheer bombination .
Why does Damian require to be Robin , if he ca n’t show off to his dad ?
finally , Damian wants to be Batman . Being Robin is a step along the room .
Are you going to reference Dick Grayson ’s former attempt to be Batman in the former ’ 90s at any point in Batman and Robin ?
credibly . I ’ve tried to keep Dick Grayson ’s full graphic symbol history in mind , much as I did with Bruce Wayne in the earlier volumes of the story . yield 2 has a character to Grayson ’s sentence as a measure fuzz in the Bludhaven PD and the Bat - Bunker has a few trophies of his Nightwing adventures .
You ’ve talked before about how the first yr of the series works out , with artist Frank Quitely drawing the first and last three issue . What materialize after the first twelvemonth of the ledger ? Are you planning on sticking around with Batman as a part , or will you be finished with Gotham for awhile once # 13 rolls around ?
That was the original plan but I ca n’t seem to stop occur up with ideas for Batman , so we ’ll see how it goes .
Okay , last one . How would you trade Batman and Robin to people who have n’t picked up a Batman comedian in years ?
Batman is dead . Robin is now Batman and Batman ’s malevolent son is now Robin . Everything is new again . If you ever liked Batman and do n’t want to see how that dynamic act out , then may the Lord have mercifulness on your ironic and shriveled worthless stalk of a ‘ somebody ’ ! G’wan , g’wan , g’wan and corrupt Batman and Robin before the whole creation start laughing at you for missing out ! miss this is like miss your own natal day !
Batman and Robin # 2 is in comic stores now .
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