The Superheavy arc continues in BATMAN #46. Jim Gordon continues his fight against Mr. Bloom as the armored Batman, even though he was sort of fired. While this is going on, Bruce Wayne is getting closer and closer to Julie Madison. And what exactly is Duke Thomas up to?
We talked to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo about the issue, arc, and a bunch of other things.
COMIC VINE: With Mr. Bloom’s past mentioned in BATMAN #44, will we find out what he’s been up to or where he’s been all this time?
SCOTT SNYDER: Yeah, you’re going to find out the entire story at some point. I mean, I know when, not just “at some point.” You will learn a little more about him in the next issue. Then you’ll get the full reveal of him before the end of the story where you’ll understand where he came from and why he is who he is.
CV: So we’ll find out what exactly he wants with Gotham and everything?
SCOTT: Yeah. 100%. His whole plan, who he was, who he is, all of it is not meant to be abstract. You’ll understand how he became who he is and also what his master plan is. One thing I’ll say to people reading this issue is a lot of the clues are in this issue and the last issue. A lot of the pieces that are put on the table between things that you see that seem like set pieces, whether it’s the collider or things in this issue, a lot of that stuff is going to come back in big ways later.
CV: Greg, what’s your favorite thing about drawing him?
GREG CAPULLO: Just the creep factor, especially when I can modify his suit. That’s when the fun really comes in when I can just elongate parts. As an artist, that stuff is fun. There’s no doing it wrong when you’re drawing a monster. There’s only doing it wrong when you’re trying to draw the likeness of an ongoing character. That’s where the stress comes from. Drawing someone like Bloom is just a pure joy. So the more wacky the story goes and the more I can play with the shape and do cool and scary things with it, that’s why little kids grow up and want to become comic book artists.
CV: I think this is the first time we’re seeing Duke Thomas with a helmet. I like it. We also saw other looks for him in a couple future scenes. Have you been playing around with different looks for him or is that up to the WE ARE ROBIN creative team?
SCOTT: He’s a character that’s extremely important to us. We’ve been playing around with different looks for him but his fate, I think will become clearer soon. I think part of it is just making sure that, first and foremost, he’s a character that makes sense and is also compelling. For me, he’s somebody who deeply believes that Robin and the concept comes from the street. Batman is the one on the gargoyle. He’s larger than life and he’s a superhero.
Robin is sort of the human connection. Robin is the one out there finding out about stuff, knowing the city, and even being out by day. His color scheme is different too. His color scheme will be different in this arc itself too as he dresses differently later on. But there’s a brightness to him that I really love. We’re playing around with him as a character first and making sure he’s really really somebody who is a gripping character psychologically and emotionally before we want to move him into anything.
CV: The helmet in this issue is pretty cool looking.
SCOTT: Thanks. I’m not gonna lie. Part of it is this, think about like this, in one way, and maybe this is not a good topic but you are technically looking at an issue where you have an African-American Robin in BATMAN as a singular Robin all of a sudden, right? He clearly has a relationship with Bruce that’s going to build in the next issue and issues after that. So in a lot of ways, it really is a big deal.
It is something I don’t think we look at as what the outside view of it is. I hope that speaks to what we think about the character in that way. This isn’t something where we’re trying to make somebody else Robin and put them in that mantle and be loud that they’re a new Robin. It’s much more about, for us, for this character to build a role for him, building a psychology and emotional profile that really makes sense for the book. We want to see how he fits and how he feels
CV: Will the mystery behind his parents be a long running mystery or will it be revealed sooner rather than later?
SCOTT: It’s revealed in 48.
CV: Who owns the copyright for the Batman name? Did Wayne Enterprises copyright it when Bruce revealed he was funding Batman Inc? Does Geri Powers hold the copyright now?
SCOTT: [laughs] There’s secretly a silent ‘e’ on Batman, the way she spells it.
GREG: [laughs]
SCOTT: No, I don’t know.
GREG: [still laughing]
CV: If she’s going to make an army of armored Batmen, does she have any rights over the name?
SCOTT: True, true…
CV: Okay, moving on! Why was Julie Madison chosen out of all of Bruce’s past loves? What is it about the character that you like?
SCOTT: I like that she was the first one. For me, there was something a power in the idea that someone created her to be someone that was going to be a compass for Bruce, emotionally. I think over the years, maybe she hasn’t been? She’s been touched on here and there. For us, I wanted to make her something that could really be a way out, not just symbolically. It’s revealed in this issue that she has kind of a link to the trauma in Bruce’s life. Also we want her to be fully emotionally that she could be somebody who completes him and allows him to be a sort of force for good in Gotham but also be happy in his life and be a full person in a way that any of us wants to be in life. There was a sort of power in the fact that she was the first. She was the first romantic interest. I would just stress that she’s, for me, a very very real character. She’s not a device to motivate him or suddenly trick you and say, “Ha ha, she’s part of the big villain plot.” She’s real. She’s like a real emotional facet in his life.
CV: Greg, was Scott specific in how he described the shower scene for you to draw in this issue?
SCOTT: [laughs]
GREGG: Scott wanted some naked sexual kind of stuff to be in that, right? So for me, it was like how do I put the melon in front at the right time or the garden hose like in Austin Powers. I don’t cover up the junk. For me, it was a fun scene but there wasn’t a lot to play around with so I said, okay, we’ll put the towel rack right there, we’ll put the little wisps of steam over there. It was all good fun. Hopefully we take a little attention away from Nightwing. He’s always getting all the girls.
CV: Was it your idea to include all the tattoos on her?
GREG: Scott put the tattoos on her the first time she appeared.
SCOTT: Yeah but you gave her the super-sexy…she has an owl tattoo on her thigh and…she’s much more inked than I expected. It was very startlingly…
GREG: Bad or good?
SCOTT: No, in a really good way. I love that she has a sort of mystery to her in that way too.
GREG: I also figured if I put a tattoo of an owl, people would give a big *gasp!* and say, “She’s one of them!”
SCOTT: The funny thing is Greg will do that and I’ll go, “Huh…what if…” But no, she’s a firm part of this and a real love interest for him.
CV: So no connection to the Court of Owls.
SCOTT: [pause] No. I’d love to be like, “You’ll have to wait and see…” Honestly, it was a fun gesture. I want people to understand she’s a real…I think a lot of what the story is about in this arc is real life vs comics vs legend. As silly as that sounds, in a Batman comic, this is Bruce as though he were alive. This is Bruce given back by the city, the city having apologized to him and given him life again. It’s setting him up so he can have an afterlife and live, you know? Julie is a part of that. She’s not a sudden plot twist where she’s gonna have a mustache she twirls and be like, “Ha ha, I’m the big bad.”
GREG: [laughs]
SCOTT: She’s genuinely part of a life that he’ll either retain or have to give up to die again and become a phantom that is Batman.
CV: That’s all the questions I have unless you want to add anything.
SCOTT: We’re coming for you Grayson!
BATMAN #46 is out this week. Check out the preview below! Inks by Danny Miki and colors by FCO Plascencia.
