Comics / Comics News

SDCCI Batman Panel

By Dan Horn
July 21, 2011 - 23:44

Batman interiors by Greg Capullo

Thursday's SDCCI panel highlighting the combined efforts rounding out Batman's reboot books showed some very promising things, though heir to Detective, Tony Daniel, was nowhere to be found. David Finch was apologetic right off the "bat," confessing a newfound respect for writers. He explained that he hadn't realized "intellectual" tones could be so different from artistic tones, and thus he's asked Paul Jenkins, who couldn't attend due to just having a newborn with his wife (Congratulations!), to assist with scripting. Sly hints of villains using steroids were made as well, and I assume they were alluding to the cover image of October's Batman: The Dark Knight #2, sporting a jacked Two-Face.

Finch looked a bit abject for the rest of the Q&A session, as one annoying fan insisted on bringing up David's lack of punctuality again and again, and I have to say I feel a bit guilty for being too hard on the guy myself sometimes. You're a great artist, David, and we love you. Keep up the good work, and good on you for realizing your limits. We've all got them. I'm looking forward to what you and Paul cook up in the future.

Scott Snyder had some excellent insight on his upcoming Batman relaunch, stating that this arc would see the city of Gotham itself finally become aware of Batman as a sort of pest and swat him like a fly. Snyder remarked that everything Dick went through in Scott's Detective run and in Gates of Gotham was building Gotham up as textured and ugly place, one that would now become fully realized with Bruce's return.

Grant Morrison alluded to "tears and tears and tears" in the future for Batman Incorporated readers. He said as the battle with Leviathan ramps up and comes to its inexorable finale, fans can expect to have their heart-strings tugged quite a bit. I always felt a bit of an emotional disconnect from Morrison's Batman Inc, so I'm interested to see what kind of drama he plans on injecting in these last few issues. The Scottish writer also seemed a bit put off by the lull he had to endure as the new 52 went into effect, but promised more great things from Batman Inc in January of 2012.

Gail Simone took a lot respectful flak, which I now know exists, as fans mourned her Secret Six but also had some doubts about her choice to bring Babs back as Batgirl. She explained her Barbara as a college student by day, Batgirl by night, and said that routine could easily include Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain. Gail got a little emotional when talking about her connection to the character of Barbara, and she assured those in attendance that she would do her justice.

Batwing interiors by Ben Oliver

Other creators on the panel included Greg Hurwitz, writer of a new Penguin miniseries, Scott Lobdell, writer of the Red Hood ongoing, Peter Tomasi, returning writer of Batman and Robin, Batman Inc artist Chris Burnham, Gates of Gotham co-creator Kyle Higgins, and Judd Winick, writer of the new Batwing and Catwoman series, which he describes as "sexy, sexy, sexy." Honestly the Catwoman pitch Winick made sounded incredible, and Ben Oliver's art on Batwing is astounding. I'm suddenly now very excited about both of those books.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12