Batman Eternal #1 arrived this week with a shocking look at the future of Bruce Wayne and Gotham City. Now fans will have to follow the weekly year-long series to see how Bruce ended up in the horrific scenario at the mercy of a ruthless villain who has seemingly taken Batman’s world apart bit by bit.
Scott Snyder and James Tynion revealed at Emerald City Comicon that they wrote the skeleton and ending of the story but a team of writers will weave multiple stories leading up to the big finale. The writers promised to show nearly every friend and foe in Batman’s gallery and show every corner of Gotham City.
In the 6 month in the future preview from Batman #28 we saw Harper Rowe as new sidekick Bluebird, Stephanie Brown in her Spoiler costume held captive by Selena Kyle who rules the Gotham Underworld but she’d no longer Catwoman.
Who else will appear in the epic and how do they fit in the long game orchestrated by the writers? James Tynion and Tim Seeley revealed the collaboration process and which members of the Bat-cast they will take on with Comic Book Resources:
“I think the biggest thing is that we knew we wanted to show the larger Gotham. In the New 52, we’ve had a couple of Bat events where we’ve seen the characters touch on each other, but we haven’t seen them working as the Bat Family to solve one larger mystery — not even all together but all as a part of one interconnected story and world. That was a key piece we wanted in the series,” said Tynion.
“And we have a great opportunity in “Batman Eternal” to dig into some of the smaller characters who you’re very unlikely to see have their own comic book series. One of the major characters we’re bringing into “Batman Eternal” #1 is, we’re bringing [classic Gotham cop] Jason Bard into the New 52 continuity as a new recruit. He’s our entry point to the entire Gotham Central storyline that will run through the full year. You’ll see in the first issue why that storyline is so central. But we also have, in issue #2, the introduction of Vicki Vale, who is going to be another very key figure throughout the whole year. A story with the scale of “Batman Eternal” lets us explore the smaller corners of the DCU and of Gotham City.
We also get to have characters cross paths or let them interact with characters they never have before. That was the name of the game when we were coming up with all the different subplots: Who are the characters we want to pair together? One of the big discussions we had at our first summit was centered on that. For instance, I’m writing a lot of a storyline that’s centered on Tim Drake and Harper Row, which will lead to the events of “Batman” #28. Ray is mixing together Batwing and some of the strangest supernatural characters of the DC Universe. It’s a lot of fun, showing off characters we haven’t seen in the New 52 yet.”
“I really liked the way we did this. Everyone is writing Batman because obviously, he’s Batman. But beyond that, everyone gets to be the “lead” on a different set of characters and see them through to the end. In my case, I get to be the lead on this Batwoman/Batgirl/Red Hood storyline, which is an action adventure story that weaves throughout, with some espionage and worldwide adventure hopping stuff. And because we’re allowed to weave in characters we want to play with, I kept with my whole “Monsters and Dames” idea and picked up the Catwoman story, since she’s a character I like, and then, of course, I stuck Killer Croc in there,” said Seeley.
“We get to play the lead on those stories while saying to the other writers, “What do you need to set up your story?” So James will call me and say, “Can you set up this Harper and Jason story?” and I say “No problem. Here’s two pages you can follow up on.” We’re all weaving our stories into the larger whole while working together to follow up on each others’ storylines.
It’s really all about where we want to take the individual relationships. I’m really excited about setting up Jason Todd/Red Hood and Batgirl. I’m explaining what their history is now. Jason is this anti-Robin who’s quick to pull out a gun and shoot somebody in the face. Batgirl is obviously very moral, the rock of the Bat Family. You put them together, and you can make people care about them amidst this great adventure. That’s my favorite thing about it, and my Catwoman story functions in much the same way. How is she involved in this world, or what about her keeps her in this story as both an ally and a villain?”
Batman Eternal #2 arrives next week.
Here’s our review of issue one.
By Editor