Coming a week earlier than anybody expected, comic shops around the country tomorrow will release All-Star Batman #3, which pits Batman and Two-Face against, among other things, the redesigned KGBeast.
During a recent conversation with writer Scott Snyder, he talked about the importance of bringing back elements of the DC heroes’ legacy post-Rebirth, but also of going outside of the box of what fans expect.
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“Whenever we do something that’s a little off the beaten path, I feel like fans have responded so postively, it makes all the creators excited and enthusiastic to push their boundaries,” Snyder told ComicBook.com at New York Comic Con last weekend, as documented in the industry above.
“All of us appreciate the fact that fans have rallied not only behind us taking risks and doing different things, but also behind the shared history that we all have as comic fans with these characters,” Snyder continued.
In addition to All-Star Batman #3 taking the action up yet another notch, superstar artist John Romita, Jr. also had a chance to re-envision the KGBeast — a villain who has had fairly little to do in recent years, but who has appeared (in non-costumed form) on Arrow and in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice as well as in recent storylines where he squared off against the likes of Aquaman.
Romita paid close attention to detail, the pair said, so much so that after an incidental bullet strikes the gun on the Beast’s hand at one point in All-Star Batman #3, the gun stops working for the rest of the issue.
“The process of designing — or re-designing, depending on how you look at it — any of the characters is really a groupthink here, between Scott’s vision and the editors, and even Danny Miki and Dean White, all have some input into this,” Romita told ComicBook.com when we asked him about the new look for KGBeast, who was last seen in Aquaman and The Others. “There was a very very fair amount from everybody about designing the character. Got some past reference and some future ideas from everybody. I don’t take any great pride in the way it looks. I take pride in the way it ended up, but not that I take pride in me re-designing it. This is the way it should be. Scott’s got such a grasp of the characters in his huge cranium. I have to bow to his expertise. When he has a visual idea, I still have to bounce off of it.”
“You saved me from that crazy S & M costume, remember?” Snyder joked back to him. “I leaned more towards the original, with the crazy leather and cut outs with the hairy chest. Then, I was like, ‘Come on, we can make it scary. We can make it scary.’ John was like, ‘No, no no.’ Which was smart. You were right, I was wrong.”
All-Star Batman #3 hits the stands tomorrow from DC. You can get a copy at your local comic shop or order it digitally here.
