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DC and Warner Bros had a packed day at San Diego Comic Con with panels on upcoming films and Grant Morrison’s Multiversity overlapping with the New DC Universe: Batman: Are You Ready? panel which featured Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo (the creative team behind the ongoing Batman title) and Mark Doyle (the Batman group editor). While there were no big announcements and no discussion of the upcoming Batman and Robin Eternal or Robin War projects announced yesterday, there were a few noteworthy tidbits that came up during the panel that are listed below:
- Snyder and Capullo recapped part of their history together and how Snyder always writes detailed scripts that are sometimes more detailed than Capullo would like.
- They complimented their coloring team (which Capullo said he is allowed to handpick like with a creator owned comic).
- There was a brief discussion of Batman #42 with Snyder saying that the Bat-truck would return.
- Snyder also commented that Gordon will get his own Batmobile around issue #47 (which indicates that Gordon will still be under the cowl at least through that issue).
- There was some discussion about the new villain, Mr Bloom, that centered mostly around how Snyder and Capullo went back and forth for a while over the character design with Snyder emailing him pictures of flowers until they got the design right.
- Snyder said the goal of this arc as a Bruce story was to ask, “What if Batman died, and Bruce Wayne came back? I’ve never seen a story like that. He comes back without the pathology he had before. And if that’s taken away, how is he going to live without that aspect of his personality? So this is a really deep exploration of Bruce’s character. It wasn’t about taking Bruce off the table, it’s about moving the lens and looking at him from a different angle”
- A fan asked whether any of the Robins would team up with Gordon. Snyder mentioned Duke Thomas, who will become one of the central figures of the story.
- A fan asked whether Snyder preferred writing established villains or creating new ones. “I like both,” said Snyder. “Making your own iteration of the characters is one of the joys of writing comics.”
- Snyder is working on a development program for new writers through DC.
- A fan asked Capullo about the difference in physicality between Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon, with Capullo saying “Gordon is definitely keeping his carbs down. He’s never gonna be as big, he’s too old to get really big. He’s got to keep his mind from looking like a younger guy, cause it’s never gonna happen.”
- A young fan asked about whether the Joker would return. “He’s just a decomposing corpse. He’s never coming back,” joked Snyder, before saying he couldn’t spoil anything.
- A fan asked whether Gordon would kill his enemies, “We thought a lot about that, but Gordon recognizes that the older Batman would never have used a gun, which is why we gave him a batarang gun.”
And that’s a wrap. Not any news regarding any of the other Bat-books, but the con isn’t over yet.
