Batman: The Dark Knight has been bombarded with delays ever since the first issue was released late last year. With the relaunch occurring, DC has decided to give it another go. This time around David Finch will stick with the art and hand over the writing duties to Paul Jenkins. Jenkins has been writing a variety of titles for Marvel over the past few years, but is back at DC to not only write Batman: The Dark Knight but also the first story arc in DC Comics Presents, featuring Deadman. Comic Book Resources caught up with Jenkins and found out some of the answers that fans have been wondering about regarding this troubled series.
CBR: Is issue #2 the first "Dark Knight" issue you're writing, or are you writing issue #1 onwards from the September relaunch?
Paul Jenkins: It's issue #1. Understand it's part of the job, we have a responsibility to the people that we're doing contracts with; I had a contract with Marvel, so the timing of me coming onto "Dark Knight" #1 and the ending of my contract were kind of close, so I couldn't be listed on the first solicitation because of that reason. Having said that, yes, I wrote the first issue, so I've been on board since the first one.
CBR: You said that there are big themes you are trying to hit in "Batman: The Dark Knight." What are some of those themes?
Paul Jenkins: The first arc we're doing is really about fear. It's about what happens when fear enters your life. Here's this guy who had his fair share of it over the years, he sees it manifesting all around him, and it leads him to question, "Wow, what does it mean to me that I've been afraid?" Everyone undergoes it, and is there a portion of Batman that feels these things that have to be fear? So we get this big theme that kind of runs through, and it's around our sixth or seventh issue he really begins to understand what is happening, and how do you approach fear and how do you beat fear?
At the same time we have a lot of subplots. We have this really cool new character we're bringing into the book, that's big for our story. At the same time we have another subplot where Gordon's getting undermined by this guy from the previous "Dark Knight" story, so we're bringing in all these themes and continuing them through. We've got a couple of stories laid out, and then this time next year probably we'll be working on a really big thing that comes back into the Batman universe. We've got long-term plans; I think people would be happy to hear that.
CBR: So does that mean the comic will go back to being a monthly comic starting in September?
Paul Jenkins: It absolutely will be. Obviously I couldn't go to San Diego this year because of the little one, but Dave told me he fielded a lot of questions: "Is the book going to be on time now?" "Are you going to come out with it regularly?" The answer is absolutely yes! At the moment, against the publishing schedule, we're really beginning to pick up speed. I think the readers were frustrated a bit, that's why they asked so many times. We didn't get all these books in the can before, what's there to think we'll get them all now? What there is is that he doesn't have the two to three weeks it took him to write an issue, so I know the schedule is going to be hit this time.
For the entire interview, including talk about linking the title to continuity, head over to Comic Book Resources. Batman: The Dark Knight #1 hits stores next month.
Posted by Dustin Fritschel
