Scott Snyder is leaving Batman with issue 51 but his Dark Knight stories are far from over.
At the WonderCon DC Comics Rebirth event the publisher announced Snyder is now a DC exclusive creator and launching All-Star Batman with an all-star team of artists including John Romita, Jr, Sean Gordon Murphy, Tula Lotay, Jock and more.
DC Comics and the fan-favorite writer revealed new details about the anticipated book. In the first arc Snyder and Romita, Jr team up for a tale featuring Two-Face. At the WonderCon event Snyder said he wanted to make Two-Face as scary as the Joker.
After an acclaimed creative collaboration with Snyder, Batman artist Greg Capullo is working on a new project with Mark Millar. John Romita, Jr (Superman, The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade) joins Snyder to launch the new book. Snyder reveals how All-New was born:
“All-Star really came about from having worked with Greg Capullo for a long time. When Greg decided he was going to take a break, I realized there were still a lot of stories I wanted to write, especially with our villains. I had this idea of bringing in the artists I’ve always wanted to work with. John was at the absolute top of that list for me. We had talked about a year ago where I basically said that the moment I have an opening in my schedule or any free time at all, I couldn’t wait to work with him on something. I would run for the chance, whether it was something like this or something creator-owned. Anything.” Snyder told DC Comics.
“What it came down to was that I realized I wanted to do a series called All-Star Batman that would invite all-star artists to work on some of the best characters in the world and kind of reinvent them within continuity for the Batman mythos. So I pitched him on a crazy Two-Face story. We live near each other, so we got to do it over beers in town. Honestly, it’s just been a big thrill and honor.”
The first story is a wild road trip inspired by classic action films:
“It’s really an anchor of the series for me. There are two big anchors in the book. The first is John’s story and the second will be Sean Murphy down the line. But this is our big lead off. We want to show you all the big, crazy stuff we’re doing with series.
The story takes them on the road. That’s one of the fun things that I pitched John on. If we do this story, how about we do it in a way we haven’t really seen before in Batman? I wanted to do a sort of grindhouse Death Race, Fugitive, Running Man, Defiant Ones, out-of-control story. Batman is completely out of his element, desperate to get Two-Face somewhere upstate, and just about every assassin in the DCU is hunting them at the same time. It’s really, really fun.
I wanted All-Star to be a book that said not only are we doing something different with the character, with Two-Face, but we’re doing something you’ve never seen in Batman before. That, to me, is saying “All-Star.” I would feel badly not writing something like that for John. I could do Gotham, and it would be safe. I know how to do stories in Gotham. But I wanted to take the risk and shoot for the moon with this. He deserves it as an artist, and the fans deserve it.
I wrote John this long note at the beginning of the first script where I said that I really want him to go to work proud and happy every single day. That’s above all what matters to me—making something we both look at and say, “We did this amazing thing that nobody has done before.”
Snyder and Sean Gordon Murphy previously teamed up for The Wake, a horror series from Vertigo. Snyder and Jock collaborated on Batman stories before and have Wytches, a creator owned Image comic.
Here are more official promo images from the all-star artists:
All-Star Batman hits August.
By Editor