Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, the new creative team on Batwing, recently sat down for an interview to talk about the new Batwing. They also talk about wanting to link Batwing closer to Batman, if there is a link between the new Batwing suit and the Terry McGinnis Batman suit, the character of Luke Fox and an assortment of other things.
Newsarama: I know you and Jimmy had talked to me about wanting to link Batwing more directly to Batman. Was that the thinking behind choosing Luke Fox for the role?
Justin Gray: Jimmy and I wanted to make Batwing more relevant and important, and we thought this added a very dramatic element to the book. We wanted to come up with a way for Batwing to be more dramatic on its own, and yet still be vital to the core Batman books. Tying Lucius' family into the story opens up a whole new area of the Batman mythology and the Gotham mythology, and what it means to wear the symbol.
Newsarama: When the new armor was revealed, there had been guesses that the new Batwing had a connection to the Batman Beyond universe. And Lucius Fox Jr. does exist in Batman Beyond. Are you thinking of Luke as the same eventual character from the animated universe?
Justin Gray: It's hard within a large corporation to cross-pollinate different mediums. For instance, film stuff doesn't necessarily always make it into comics; comics’ stuff doesn't always make it into films; and video games and so on. So our core focus was to just be in the "hear-and-now," in the present, and see if we can make people excited about buying Batwing, to be honest with you. And that was our main focus in developing Luke as Batwing, and the direction that we're going with the book.
Newsarama: OK, give me a quick description of why Luke Fox, as a character, is exciting in this role. We found out a little about him in issue #19, but what does he bring to the stories?
Justin Gray: Since Jimmy and I started working on him, we've gone through a bunch of different incarnations. The two of us discussed over and over, all the different ways that we can add a different texture to this character to make him separate and different from the formula of, you know, "Bruce recruits an orphan," or "Bruce recruits someone who had a huge tragedy."
To read the entire interview click here! Batwing #19 is in stores today.
