With issue thirteen of Nightwing, writer Kyle Higgins takes a two month break and writer Tom DeFalco guest writes a two-issue story arc featuring Lady Shiva. Comic Book Resources talked with DeFalco about what readers can expect from the two issues and the highlights are below.
CBR: How did you end up being the writer to bring Lady Shiva into the New 52 in these three issues rather than tackling a story involving a different foe from Nightwing's past or an all-new one?
Tom DeFalco: You know, I'm not really sure. I think we had a big discussion — the people I was talking with were Brian Cunningham and Katie Kubert, and the three of us sat around and tossed out all sorts of possibilities and discussed different characters, what would be interesting, which character should we use, this or that. I remembered Brian said at one point, "You know, the character I always loved was Lady Shiva." And then Katie talked of a different character with a ponytailed weapon. She described it to me and I said, "Wow, that is a really cool weapon!" [Laughs] So Brian made the call to give Shiva that other character's weapon to make her more a visual threat. Then, I guess Brian discussed it with Mike Marts and the other Bat people and we decided to go with Lady Shiva.
CBR: What's going on in your issues and the origin #0 issue of "Nightwing?" Why is Lady Shiva involved in Dick's world?
Tom DeFalco: That's what Nightwing wants to find out! When Lady Shiva shows up, it always means someone is going to die because she's one of the deadliest and most expensive assassins in the world. Nightwing has to figure out who's going to die and "How do I stop it?" Therein lies the crux of both issues.
CBR: How is this Lady Shiva different from the pre-New 52 versions?
Tom DeFalco: I think you got to wait until the #0 issue first to see why, but this Lady Shiva is very different, but has the same traits in this completely new version of the character.
For the entire interview, including how DeFalco got involved with Nightwing, head over to Comic Book Resources. Nightwing #13, featuring DeFalco's work, is in stores next month.
Posted by Dustin Fritschel
