Things are going crazy in Gotham City, where Tom King’s Batman series has changed the long-familiar dynamic of the Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo five year run has been turned around, and Batman is being reinvented as a Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer-style action movie with art by David Finch and a script by Grayson and Sheriff of Babylon scribe Tom King.
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The next issue is due out next week — they’ve been coming fast and furious, twice monthly, as part of DC’s Rebirth initiative.
King joined ComicBook.com recently to talk about the series.
A recent issue had the pre-Flashpoint Psycho-Pirate in it. This seems like a strange thing, because there’s emotion literally riding high in a lot of DC verse coming out. Was that a coordinated effort, or was this just a happy accident that you’ve got psycho pirate while they’re doing Rage of the Red Lanterns, and a Justice League story about Rage, and all that?
It’s not a coincidence. Rebirth and the new DC is about a shared universe, and it’s about both the creators and the characters coming together to raise our game, and to make comics insane and fun, and talking to each other to show you that what happens in Green Arrow is going to affect what happens in Batman. What happens in Batman is going to affect what happens in Justice League. I wanted to bring in a villain that wasn’t on Batman’s roster to show that just because this guy hasn’t been to Gotham City before doesn’t mean he can’t take the train.
I love that scene in the end of #2 where in the same room you have Amanda Waller, you have General Lane, you have Psycho Pirate, and you have Hugo Strange. You have a bat villain, a Superman villain, a Justice League villain, you have Suicide Squad. The four pillars now of DC now that Suicide Squad is there, and they’re all there, and that’s the new DC.
That’s the threat that Batman has to face. He doesn’t have to face just the little mob bosses. He has to face the entire DCU going after him. That’s what I wanted to do with Psycho Pirate.
That kind of fits with the larger theme of what you guys have been doing, which is Batman isn’t just Gotham right now. Gotham is obviously a key part of his DNA, but it seems to me that it’s not just that.
Yeah. I think the word widescreen is a good word to use, because we’re borrowing from the widescreen comics of Warren Ellis on the Authority and Ultimates, and that idea of huge stories where this is going to be the summer blockbuster. Where you go in and you both are scared and you laugh your ass off, and then you’re scared again. I think to do that we’re going beyond … I love small- Look, I write small little books.
I write Sheriff, a small little crime book, and Vision, a small little family book. I’m going to put that energy into the intimate scenes, but I want this book to be bigger than that. I want this to be the book that kicks you ass and gets you standing and shouting in the movie theater. Yeah.
It’s funny, because you guys talked about doing summer blockbuster Batman when I talked to you and David for Rebirth, and then Hitch very much had that feeling with Justice League. It almost kind of feels like there’s this objective of building at least one book for each franchise that’s just that next level crazy.
Yeah, and then hopefully even beyond that level crazy. Yeah. We’re at the start here. This is the beginning. This is the small part. This is going to open up — The goal here is to have the greatest battle Batman’s ever had at the end of this year. It’s a trilogy of books.
This is the first, and I Am Suicide just announced as the second, and then the third one will be this hidden villain you haven’t seen yet, and Batman facing off each other, and one of them can’t be in this world anymore. I won’t tell you which one survives.
Both Janin and Finch have very different kind of styles in a lot of ways, but they’re both incredibly talented draftsmen. When you’re shifting gears within a storyline, do you take into account, oh, well I want to do this to play to David’s strengths?
I don’t have to play to David’s strength. David’s so strong he brings me up. He makes me look better, and being colored by Jordie Bellaire, the best colorist in comics, that doesn’t hurt either. I try to write scripts that David likes, but it’s not hard because I know whatever I’m going to do he’s going to make it beautiful.
Every writer has to adjust to their artist. That’s our job. My job is to make him happy. As far as I’m concerned the art is the star of the book. This is a visual medium. To me, it’s art first. The writing needs to recede into the background. I’m here to get out of David’s way, and I think you see the results, that he’s doing some of the best work I’ve ever seen him do.
