If you say “90s comics” to longtime readers, most of them will recall big guns, points costumes and pouches, and a general willingness to take every story to the “extreme.”
No one at DC Comics symbolizes that better than Jean-Paul Valley, the man known as Azrael who once took over as Batman while Bruce Wayne recovered from a broken back.
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If you’re going to revisit an era like that for a major event like Convergence, you might as well get a living legend, a man who helped define modern action comics, to write these modern classics. Enter Larry Hama, who steps in with artist Philip Tan to bring Azrael (or Az-Bats) back to the DC Universe. The writer gave us a few teases about Convergence: Batman: Shadow of the Bat, what makes this era’s Batman and Azrael tick, and the freedom of writing Convergence tie-ins.
Larry Hama: The dichotomy is an obvious plot generator, but I’m more interested in what the characters share: The sense of loss, and the need for resolution/justice/closure.
What’s the fundamental essence of Batman to you? Why does he work so well across decades and in so many different contexts?
LH: Psychotic vigilante with a cape–What more can you ask for? Other vigilantes use guns, but Batman prefers to smash the faces of evil-doers to a pulp with his fists. He tells you right from the start that his gig is strike terror into criminals. All this is very easy to understand and relate to.
What specifically defines the Batman of this era? Having just recovered from a broken back, what is his mindset here?
LH: A little too much soul-searching for my tastes.
What are the advantages and disadvantages to writing slightly “lost stories” like this. I.E., taking characters out of a specific era and launching the story from there?
LH: You can take them to places that they never could have gone to within the constraints of their original era. Oft times we can’t see those constraints and limitations while they are binding us.
LH: I’ve never plotted out a long story arc. I’ve always written stories pretty much panel by panel.
What’s it like working with Philip Tan? What of his modern storytelling techniques and art style can you apply to this story, which stems from the nineties?
LH: I haven’t seen any of the finished pencils yet, but if you’re not a complete auteur, comics are a collaborative effort. I write in what used to be called “Marvel style,” which involves writing a “plot” first, that describes the action of the story, and gives the artist a lot of leeway with the visual storytelling. I then get back those penciled pages and write the dialog and captions, often riffing off what the artist has done- sort of like trading licks in a jazz improv.
Batman:Shadow of the Bat #1 is on-sale now.
