Batman and Robin has been focusing a lot on the father/son relationship since the series relaunched. That will change slightly in May with the Night of the Owls crossover. Peter Tomasi talked with Comic Book Resources on how the title is featured in the crossover as well as what is coming up in the series.
CBR: Let's move on to your crossover issue with "Night of Owls." The solicitation teases, "Robin faces Talon alone with the skies of Gotham City at stake!" The PR folks at DC Comics also shared that the particular Talon featured in your story was developed, at least visually, by Greg Capullo. What can you tell us about the Talon Robin faces off against? And how does he compare as a match for young Damian as compared to NoBody?
Peter Tomasi: The solicits are true. Robin pretty much faces this Talon alone in a wall to wall action packed story just outside of Gotham. Batman has his hands full with all the craziness that Scott's throwing at him at Wayne Manor, and members of the Bat Family need to step up and kick some serious ass to try and help set things right. With all of the Talon action taking place in Gotham proper, I thought it would be cool to move Robin into the outskirts for a little change of scenery in his battle. Capullo designed several cool looking Talons that stretch across the eras, and being a Revolutionary War buff, I gravitated to the last 25 years of the 1700s, told Scott [Snyder] and Mike [Marts] that I wanted to set my story during that period and then came up with the Talon of 1778's backstory.
CBR: Scott told us awhile back that it was up to each creative team if they wanted to include their Bat-book in the summer event , so what is it about Scott Snyder's "Night of Owls" story that intrigued you enough to include "Batman and Robin" in the crossover?
Peter Tomasi: It's simple, really: Scott had a great uber-story going and I wanted to be part of it. The fact that it has real time historical underpinnings got me excited even more, so I found a way to play along that everyone liked and had a helluva great time doing it.
CBR: Assuming your tie-in begins and ends in "Batman and Robin" #9, what can you tell us about what's to come in #10 and beyond in 2012? In your first arc, you re-imagined Ducard by adding a wife and a son to his story. Do you have plans to reinvent any other classic Batman rogues, or will the next arc feature a new villain as well?
Peter Tomasi: The Talon crossover does begin and end with issue #9 for me. I can't get into details about future plans at this juncture, but issues #10 through #12 feature a new main villain along with several other new nasties to help him out. And a little down the road, I do have plans to bring a familiar Bat rogue into the mix as well, so stay tuned!
For the entire interview, including more of the history of Henri Ducard, head over to Comic Book Resources. Batman and Robin #7 hits stores next month.
Posted by Dustin Fritschel
