Have you been reading Batman: Endgame? Have you read today's finale to the story arc? For fans wanting to see Batman and Joker go all out and not hold back in their battle against each other, this issue does deliver quite a bit. But you can read our review for the issue HERE if you want to hear how we fully felt about it.
We had the chance to talk to both Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo about this story as well as what we can expect in the FREE COMIC BOOK DAY issue and post-Convergence.
COMIC VINE: I’m sure I don’t have to tell you guys how great the issue was.
GREG CAPULLO: No, please do.
[laughs]
CV: It was amazing. It was epic. It was…you can read my review.
With this issue being the end of Endgame and possibly Batman and Joker, how much pressure did you guys feel before it went to print?
GC: Speaking for me, I was really confident that we had something really cool. But Scott being the writer, I’m sure had the lion’s share of pressure, right? I could just blame him. You didn’t like it? Aaah…it was that guy over there. [laughs] But I was pretty confident, even when I read the scripts. I was like, “Aw, this is gold.” I was ready to put my pencil to the paper with this.
SCOTT SNYDER: It’s scary because you’re taking the characters to a place that’s intimidating at the end, for both of them, in a real way. You get nervous. Is it epic enough? Does it do justice to the stuff you’ve set up? It’s pretty terrifying but ultimately I feel we try to approach Batman as though this version is our version and we know him better than anyone. We built him and he’s separate from the other versions. This version, I feel this is where their story would go. I tried to hint at it even in SUPERMAN UNCHAINED and stuff like that. You see references to how Batman will go down. For me, it’s where it needed to go. I hope.
CV: Was there ever a time that this would be your final story on BATMAN?
SS: Yeah, there was.
GC: I think Scott had it planned until he realized how long my contract was.
SS: [laughs] I was thinking of it as a kind of template. I thought this story, if we got to it, it would be our last and have a different ending. It would let us out in a way that put the pieces in a better place for the next writer instead of everyone being dead. That said, as we got further along, I realized it was a story that would allow us to go someplace really really different and special if we did it the way I had originally been thinking of it. The truth is, I would stay on this book with Greg, or any book, as long as he could put up with me.
GC: [laughs]
CV: So you’re saying it’s all up to Greg?
SS: Well, if when we get to the end of the next arc and Greg’s like, “Hey, I’d like to stay on BATMAN longer.” I would totally be up for it. But I think both of us also understand, we’ve been on the book a long time at this point. We’re totally grateful to everyone for that. If it’s our time to go then we’re really…I don’t know, lucky for having been able to do this.
GC: No doubt.
CV: What was the process between you two for the fight sequence between Batman and Joker?
SS: We just talked it out.
GC: The two coolest ideas were the smiley face with the knives for eyes. When he wrote it, he goes, “Let me know what you think about the scene with the smile.” I thought it was completely awesome! And then he wrote a scene I would have loved to do at any point. That was treating Batman as a bull and stabbing someone. I’ve always wanted to do that. It’s like he wrote that just for me. Apart from that, the direction was he wanted it to be the bloodiest fight ever. Scott would give me something like he gets stabbed with a knife in the shoulder. And then he stabs him in the other. I had to figure out how to make it look cool so I added Joker hopping around. Scott was saying that Joker is agile and faster than Batman here. I had to ask myself, how do I portray that? I drew him hopping around, bouncing off the walls, while stabbing him. That’s where I take that kind of essence he’s trying to put across and draw it into the scene. That’s where I choreograph and come up with a way to convey those ideas.
CV: Did you guys get any flack online over Alfred’s injury?
GC: MY GOD! POOR ALFRED!
SS: I didn’t hear too much. It was funny because I think that issue, the ending is so crazy too, where they’re going after him in the parade and everyone’s there—all the villains. I keep thinking we’re going to get hit by the blowback but I didn’t see a tremendous amount of it. I’m sure it’s out there.
GC: I saw stuff like, “Poor Alfred, he could use a hand. Haw haw.”
SS: Or Cyborg. I get a lot of Cyborg. I hoped people would understand we wouldn’t do anything like that if we didn’t have a story for it. For me, with this issue, he says, “There’s no one to mend anymore,” so he leaves it off. But maybe he’ll have a hand if there comes a time when Batman goes back to normal.
CV: With the new direction coming up in the FCBD issue and post-Convergence, can we assume there’ll be follow up with the Bat-Family?
SS: Yeah, the whole Bat Team is following the same line. We’re all in step together. When the idea for what’s coming up post-FCBD came to me—we have what we call a Bat Summit, I think it was back in December. It was all the writers there from GRAYSON, BATGIRL, GOTHAM ACADEMY, BATWOMAN, all of them. I pitched the idea to them and said, “If you don’t have a story for it that you’re happy with, we don’t need to do it. If you do and you like it as much as I do, then let’s do it.” It was really up to all of us, as a team, to decide if we were doing it or not. I think I’ve said that to you already but that’s the truth. You can ask any of them. Ultimately, when they liked it as much as they did, there wasn’t anyone in there that wasn’t excited, which made me so relieved. It became about how each of us would use it that was slightly different than the other one. You’ll see the repercussion of Endgame and FCBD in BATGIRL, CATWOMAN, GRAYSON, …across the line. To me, the only way to proceed or do a change like that is if you have a better story on the other side than you do on this side. It’s like, do you have stuff going forward that trumps this stuff you have now. That’s kind of how we all felt.
CV: Is there a resurgence of energy taking a different approach on BATMAN?
GC: To me, it’s like drawing an entirely different book. Not to quote the other team but it’s like I’m drawing Iron Man, sort of. In the first stories that Scott’s given, there’s new villains with monster-like qualities. Well, not ‘monster-like,’ there’s monsters. It’s like a totally fresh revitalization for me. I haven’t quite BATMAN and yet I’m on a different book suddenly. It’s really really cool.
CV: Is there anything you want to tell us about the FCBD or Convergence back up pages?
SS: I would just say two things. One, being friends with a lot of people that have tried things that have changed the mythology in big ways and taken risks. I talked to Dan Slott about SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN, Ed Brubaker when he had Bucky become Captain America and Charles Soule about killing Wolverine. Not to spoil things for anyone but none of us would ever do those things unless, again, we had better stories on the other side, for the characters. What we say is, enjoy it. To me, it’s almost like when you go on vacation and you love where you are because it’s so different and fun. Going on vacation also makes you realize how special home is. In the meanwhile, enjoy it because you don’t get many opportunities to go on vacation or to go to new places you wouldn’t have otherwise. For us, I hope our track record shows, with a story like this, we would only do it if it gave us a new purchase on the mythology of the characters.
The second thing I would say is thanks. Like we said, we had the incredible support of the fans, beyond what any of us expected, for four years running. It means a lot. We hope you like the story as much as we do but, more than anything, thanks for coming along with us this far.
Be sure to pick up BATMAN #40, on sale now, as well as the DC FREE COMIC BOOK DAY issue at your local comic shop on May 2, for a look at the next chapter for BATMAN.
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