On the heels of the announcement of the back-ups appearing in Batman that came earlier today, Newsarama has posted an interview with Scott Snyder discussing what we can expect. Besides the story being based off of the Court of Owls, Snyder answers some other questions as well.
Newsarama: Scott, when was the decision made to increase the page count and price on Batman, and what was the motivation for the change?
Scott Snyder: I know fans are nervous and excited, but also some of them have reached out to me. I have a lot of story I want to tell that involves the Court of Owls, and I had artists that I really wanted to work with.
I had the option, because I have a lot on my plate, of having another writer do a back-up or doing something completely unrelated to Batman in the back-ups, the way they did in some books, but I had so much fun doing the back-ups on Detective with Francesco [Francavilla] in those early issues, that gave added content and added story and secret storylines to the main story and the main feature, that I figured, look, if they're going to do extra pages of the book, I want to do them myself. So I signed on to do the back-ups. So I'll be doing them for the future, indefinitely.
Newsarama: How does the content of the back-ups enrich the feature story and what will they focus upon?
Scott Snyder: The first one, in issue #8, Rafael's first one, is going to be contemporary. It's really going to be almost more of that issue. I don't want to give away too much about what's happening in that issue, but this is the point in our Court of Owls story, since it's 11 issues long, where everything is sort of exploding all over the place figuratively for Batman and Gotham. It's right in the middle of a kind of war for Gotham, for its soul.
So everything's going crazy, and this issue in particular, in issue #8 and the back-up, gives you the sense of the scope of the attack that the Court of Owls is planning on unleashing on Gotham, and how impossible it's going to be for Batman and his allies to do as much as they need to do to stop it.
The back-up really gives you the sense of the scope. Issue #8 is very much about Batman at war with the court in a way that's going to be super-intense and fun. The issue #8 back-up is the place where you'll learn about how broad the attacks are going to be on Gotham, and also, you'll learn about how it's going to affect other books in the Bat-family. You'll see the scope of it as it impacts other members of the Bat-family in the back-up, which leads into the "Night of the Owls" story people have been hearing about, that we're doing in the Batman Universe in 2012.
And then issue #9 begins a three-part arc in the back-ups that I've been really excited to tell for awhile that's called "The Fall of the House of Wayne." It's a story that's very much about the Wayne family history with the Court of Owls, but it's told through the point of view of Jarvis Pennyworth, Alfred's father. And so it's very much an Alfred and Jarvis story, too.
So you'll learn a lot about the Wayne's relationship to Gotham and to the Pennyworths, you'll learn about the Pennyworths, and you'll also learn about, above all, the Wayne's history and conflict with the Court of Owls. It will have big revelations that will reverberate in the feature as well.
Newsarama: What time period is that in Gotham history?
Scott Snyder: It takes place 30 years ago, before Alfred was caretaker of Wayne Manor. And I don't want to give too much away, but there's a lot of suspense in it because Jarvis believes something terrible is happening, and he's telling you what's been going on with the Waynes and the Court of Owls. As I said, it will reverberate in the feature, and it will give you a much greater scope of how the Court of Owls have operated in Gotham over the years.
For the entire interview, including talk about the creators Snyder will be teaming with, head over to Newsarama. Batman #5 is available next week.
Posted by Dustin Fritschel
