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SDCC 2014: Batman: The Eternal Dark Knight Panel

Bruce Wayne has a busy year ahead of him. Come see what'll go down in his various titles.

It's Batman's 75th anniversary and DC's certainly doing its best to keep the hero busy.There's plenty of Dark Knight stories on the horizon and the publisher was at San Diego Comic-Con to chat with fans about the Caped Crusader's future. The panel consisted of Mark Doyle, Brian Buccellato, Pat Gleason, Greg Pak, Scott Snyder, Peter J. Tomasi, Marc Andreyko and John Cunningham.

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  • Snyder begins by thanking fans for all of the kind words about BATMAN #33.
  • Snyder says Zero Year is his favorite and the most personal Batman story he's done in The New 52. Says it was a joy and an honor to do the story.
  • Called Endgame "out of control" and it's a big "thank you" to fans for letting them spend so much time with Zero Year.
  • "The craziest stuff is definitely coming" Snyder says about BATMAN ETERNAL. "It's about to just level up. It's insanity."
  • "A lot of things coming down the road (in October) spin out of BATMAN ETERNAL" says Doyle.
  • Cunningham adds there's some "wild, wild stuff coming" in BATMAN ETERNAL.
  • Tomasi says it's a goal to make all of the Bat books distinct and he's excited to take Wayne out of Gotham. Says it all has a link right back to the beginning. "It'll be pretty cool. We've got some big things coming."
  • Tomasi says Kubert had a blast drawing ROBIN RISES: OMEGA #1 because of all of the action.
  • Gleason says it was extremely cool and he geeked out a bit after seeing Kubert illustrate scenes from his work in BATMAN & ROBIN.
  • "I love the tension and the buildup of all of this right now" Tomasi says about their latest story.
  • Tomasi added grief is often rushed aside too quickly so that's why they made sure to go all out with Batman's emotional responses to Damian's death.
  • "There's more to it than meets the eye" Gleason says about Batman's latest suit.
  • Buccellato says he knew huge stories were coming out for Batman so he wanted to focus on smaller detective stories and that's how it'll be moving forward.
  • "You guys are doing something special" Doyle says about DETECTIVE COMICS.
  • Buccellato says they're going to reimagine Anarky and jokes he can't elaborate because they don't want him to spoil anything.
  • "If you liked the first story arc we did -- where they met their Earth 2 counterparts -- you'll definitely want to pick up issue #12" Pak says about BATMAN/SUPERMAN's latest issue. "It's all about the characters, it's emotion. This is our heroes trying to save the lives of the older versions of themselves."
  • "What I love about the two of them is they've got the same goal but have a totally different way of going about it. They're both heroes -- they're never going to stop -- but how they go about doing things can lead them into very interesting contrasts and conflicts." Pak on Batman and Superman's dynamic. Says they're trying to explore that in new and different ways with every arc.
  • "She's such a fascinating character. It was so easy taking over because all of the other creators did such a rich job" Andreyko states about Batwoman and adds it's an honor writing her.
  • Question: "Are there any plans to bring back Nightwing? No offense, but I don't like the Grayson idea!" Answer: "Stay tuned. Keep reading. Give it a chance."
  • Question: "Stoked to see Ragman is back. Since Batwoman is also Jewish, will we see that play a role between them?" Answer: Andreyko jokes they'll have a Passover special issue. Then states there will be a part with the character that the fan should really like.
  • Question: "Scott, how do you come up with those riddles?" Answer: Snyder remarks they're "crazy hard to write" and he collaborated with various writers to make them better and better.
  • "October is going to be out of control" Snyder says about Endgame and all of the other stories coming out.
  • Question: "Will we see the return of the Joker?" Answer: Snyder says it's a 100% yes and he already has many of the ideas. Implies Joker now hates Batman after falling into the water and is coming to get him. "It's going to be scary, I promise."
  • Question: "Any chase of Nyssa al Ghul returning soon?" Answer: No.
  • Question: "Will Spoiler get a mentor?" Answer: Yes, there's there's huge plans for her. "She's a major character in ETERNAL and we have plans for her beyond that, too."

BATMAN #35 goes on sale October 8.