Gregg Hurwitz comes on to Batman: The Dark Knight this month with issue ten. The solicitation states the Scarecrow will be a big focus in this next story arc. Newsarama talked with Hurwitz about his take on the Scarecrow and how he plans on reinventing the character for the New 52.
Newsarama: Gregg, there are four ongoing Batman titles that star Bruce Wayne in the lead. As you start your new run on Batman: The Dark Knight, what does it offer that readers might not get reading the other Bruce Wayne comics?
Gregg Hurwitz: I think one of the things that Scott Snyder does so masterfully in Batman is really tie into the history of Gotham. It's very mythology rich. I really like Scott's writing, and I think he's doing a fantastic job on Batman. And Batman and Robin, of course, deals very heavily with the relationship between Damian and Bruce, and it's something that I think Pete Tomasi has been handling so well, because Damian is not the easiest character to write. And he's really managed to nail that.
One of the things that I've liked in Dark Knight is the freedom to write an arc that's very propulsive and thriller geared, with a lot of action. It also is very, very intensely psychological.
Newsarama: That's not a surprise, since Scarecrow's your first villain. But is that psychological side of Bruce also an interest of yours?
Gregg Hurwitz: It is. It's the angle of Batman that I enjoy and that I really want to explore. But I'm not implying that the other books aren't psychological as well, because I think that plays very heavily into every book that's playing with Batman. But I have a lot of room in there to dig into aspects of Bruce's psyche and the way that it interlocks with certain rogues.
And because of David Finch, I give him a lot of elbowroom, because he's such a heavyweight, to really open it up with big visuals. So for me, a lot of what the book is is a counterpart between key aspects of these characters' psychology, and trying to shine a light in those dark corners, whether it's the Scarecrow or Batman himself, interspersed with these broad, stretching, epic, dark visuals.
Newsarama: Now that you're a little further into the run, how has the Scarecrow story evolved into something that defines your run? And why did you want to use Scarecrow to kick it off?
Gregg Hurwitz: Well, when I originally chose this story, I was spring-boarding off this redefining we did of Penguin in the mini-series. I had a really strong urge to do that with another character from the rogues gallery, and I've always been fascinated by the Scarecrow.
Part of that is that I love that he's a psychologist. I love the academic background paired with the unhinged aspect of the character. I started to think, what would make someone that obsessed with fear? What's something that could happen in someone's childhood to make that a defining emotion and motive that propels them through their life? So I started to build that back-story much in the way I built a different type of back-story for the Penguin.
And for me, it became this dark counterpart to what Batman's relationship is with fear, because the things Bruce Wayne fears are different from what you would conventionally think on the surface. He dealt with an enormous amount of loss early in his life, and it taught him to be afraid of a lot of human emotion, some of them positive, because of what the cost can be from that. And so that's the interlocking aspect of this particular character from the rogues’ gallery for me.
It's almost like they're both dark foils. You know? It's not just darkness and light. It's sort of darkness and darkness. And that's what that first cover from issue #10 is. The top half is Batman, and the bottom half is Scarecrow.
For the entire interview, including more talk about Finch's art, head over to Newsarama. Batman: The Dark Knight #10 hits stores this week.
Posted by Dustin Fritschel
