Hitting comic stores on April 8th, writer Gail Simone, along with artists Jan Duursema and Dan Parsons, take on CONVERGENCE: NIGHTWING/ORACLE, which has the creative team taking on the pre-Flashpoint versions of Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon. Simone answered a few of our questions about the upcoming issue.
COMIC VINE: Gail, was writing this as awesome as the feeling I'll get when reading it?
GAIL SIMONE: HA!
Well, you know that feeling when you revisit something you dearly loved, and you find out it's even more awesome than you remembered? That's what happened here.
I got to write Nightwing and Oracle in their own story. That's a very, very happy task for me. Birds of Prey will always be one of the books I am most known for and a huge part of that was the core, which was always Oracle. Having her in this story meant the world.
CV: How did it feel to bring back Oracle for one more story?
GS: Barbara Gordon is the reason I have read comics all these years. It's like bringing the bazooka out of the attic and you find out it's loaded and ready to fire. I loved it.
CV: What is this story about?
GS: Our heroes are called out by two angry, alternate world Justice Leaguers, and we find out they are not even remotely nice, which is quite a challenge for Nightwing and Oracle.
CV: What did all of you want to bring to this Convergence story?
GS: It's not nostalgia, that's not what I was aiming for. I wanted to tap into what a living, breathing space the DCU had been, so huge and sprawling. It was never as neatly and fussily organized as the Marvel Universe but I actually LIKE that. I liked that there were rough edges and weird intersections.
I did miss the characters tremendously, but I think we found a way to present them that says new things, not just repeating a Greatest Hits album.
CV: The Barbara/Dick love story is something fans really embraced in the Pre-52. What makes their story so compelling to readers?
GS: That's a fair question. I think, a lot of the time in comics, because it was felt that the audience was all very young boys, romance was sort of stapled on casually, in a way that was unobtrusive to the adventure aspects, which makes a bit of sense, I suppose. But it also meant that a lot of the couples in comics were never really developed as couples, we never knew WHY Aquaman and Mera were attracted to each other, I don't think, until fairly recently. I don't think romance became a big element in superhero comics until the new X-men stuff, where we learned that everyone likes a love story told well.
With Babs and Dick, I think there was something there that just always worked, that always transcended that. I think it felt like it was real, in comparison to so many weird, perfunctory superhero romances. Dick and Babs always had that thing, that feeling of destiny. We felt it.
CV: Aside from Barbara ad Dick, will we get to see some other familiar faces in this story?
GS: Yes, but I am not saying who so DON'T EVEN TRY, nosey!
Thanks to Gail Simone for answering our questions and make sure to check out CONVERGENCE: NIGHTWING/ORACLE #1 on April 8th.
CONVERGENCE: NIGHTWING/ORACLE #1
Written by GAIL SIMONE
Art by JAN DUURSEMA and DAN PARSONS
Cover by JILL THOMPSON
Variant cover designed by CHIP KIDD
On sale APRIL 8 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 2, $3.99 US • RATED T
STARRING HEROES FROM THE PRE-FLASHPOINT DCU! Just as they’ve finally been reunited, the romance between Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon is sentenced to execution by Flashpoint Hawkman and Hawkwoman!