Yesterday the news broke that Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are sort of taking a vacation from the current activities in Gotham City. They're actually not going far as they're moving the title into the past. BATMAN: ZERO YEAR is set to go back to before Bruce Wayne became Batman. We got a taste of that in BATMAN #0.

What does "Zero Year" really mean? Will the story completely take place in the past? What villains might we expect? We asked Scott these questions and more.

Comic Vine: Is this going to follow the events of BATMAN #0 from last September?

Scott Snyder: Yes. That issue really does provide a small window into probably what might be the quietest section of the story.

CV: Will BATMAN #21 pick up immediately where the cliffhanger left off?

SS: No, it won't. Issue zero kind of was a tiny glimpse into the beginnings of the story in some ways. I wanted to give you...I guess it's sort of like a trailer with the stuff we felt okay showing you from it.

CV: What made you decide to move away from the present and journey into Bruce's past?

SS: For me, it's something I've always wanted to explore. I really felt like there was a period in Bruce's life, especially given the continuity in the New 52 that's been unexplored in terms of whether or not he operated in secret, whether or not the legend of Batman existed before he came out publicly. I really felt there was an area, that transformative period in his life, that just wasn't explored.

For me, more importantly, it's really a matter of trying to tell the stories that matter the most to you. The Bruce that we've been using, our Bruce and the Bruce you see in the New 52, has things and moments in his past, in my mind, we haven't shown you yet. They're really really important and key. I wanted to do a story that was where we explore his transformative years but do it in a way you haven't seen before. I promise you, it's nothing like YEAR ONE. It's nothing like Batman Begins.

It's really its own thing that's meant to be something that you open and you see that from page one. We wouldn't want to retread anything that has been done before, that's been done much better than we could ever do. You know, I can't redo YEAR ONE. I can't make YEAR ONE better than YEAR ONE. It's a masterpiece you can't touch. But I do think that one of the things that was interesting to me was exploring this period in Bruce's life in a way you've never seen before.

CV: The story was announced as taking place over eleven issues. Does that mean you sort of have it all mapped out already? You're not going to need ten issues or twelve?

SS: Yeah, I hope so. You never know. Maybe I'll get there and be like, you know what? "This massive crazy climax needs ten more pages, Greg, what do you think?"

Honestly, eleven issues is pretty much where we've mapped it out to be. I'm really excited about the scope of it.

CV: Is this the Riddler story you've been teasing since NYCC?

SS: No, I can't say. Honestly, I really want it to be a surprise who the villain is in this. It might be someone established. It might be someone brand new. This is one of the few times I really don't want to give any spoilers at all. I want you to open the book and judge it on its own merit. I completely understand the nervousness, the excitement, anger, fear and all the emotion that comes with opening up a book that revisits Batman's formative years.

We're all so excited and proud of it, I just want you to judge it on its own. I don't want to prime you with "Guess what's coming!" I would love to just know what you think of it without me hyping it to you beyond just saying...one thing I can tell you is that you haven't seen Bruce's early years done like this.

CV: So I guess you won't tell us if there will there be other familiar rogues?

SS: No, I just don't want to tell you. This one time, I just want to play it really close to the vest and say, "Just open the book and see what you think." Again, I know what the expectations, the fears and all that stuff are around Batman's early years stories. I'd love for you to just judge it on its own without me trying to sell it to you or anything like that.

CV: Is DC going to try to "sell it"?

[laughs]

SS: I don't know. I have no idea.

CV: I guess we'll see what gets announced.

Will the entire story take place in this time or will there be any flash-forwards?

SS: I'm not trying to be coy, dude. I just want to give anything away about what happens or how it's structured or any of that stuff except to say, the closest thing to a spoiler I'll give is you're going to learn more about the history of the Wayne and the Kane families. Again, you haven't seen these years done this way before

CV: So we won't see Bruce dressed as Batman? Or you can't answer that either?

SS: I'll venture to say that I'm not going to keep him out of costume for eleven issues. That I'll tell you. There's a spoiler for you, I promise you'll definitely see Batman in this story.

CV: Are you concerned about being separated from the rest of the Bat-universe for almost a year?

SS: Yeah, I'm concerned about it. I definitely feel like those guys are my family and yeah, I'm nervous about being in the past. I talked to editorial and I talked to my friends like Jeff Lemire and James and the other guys about it and said, "What do you think?"

The conclusion I really came to Tony, and everyone out there reading Comic Vine, is just that this is a story that really matters a lot to me. If you're going to be on BATMAN, you might as well take the risks and just do the stories that you want to do, that you love. You have to trust that if you love a character enough, in the DNA of the Batman you write, fans will follow you and agree. Otherwise, what the hell's the point? Do you know what I mean? What am I going to do, stay in the present and do stories that I like but matter less to me than this one? Or go back and do a story that I think is maybe the best thing we've done on BATMAN so far. It could be the thing we're proudest of. Or do I avoid it just out of fear that sales will go down or for fear that we'll be in the past and everyone else will be in the present? You have to take those risks if you're going to do stuff that matters to you, personally.

This isn't some gimmick. This is really the story I want to tell. DC's been really generous about letting me do it. I hope you guys will follow us through it because it matters a tremendous amount to us.

CV: You know I'm really excited about the past, seeing what has happened or hasn't happeed. What do you think will be your greatest challenge in this?

SS: Honestly I think the greatest challenge with it is...at the end of the day, for me as a writer, a lot of the time it's just believing in yourself. Believing that if you love Batman enough and you have a story you believe in enough, you should do that story as opposed to playing it safe. I struggle with that all the time. So everybody out there, that's the truth. There's a lot of sleepless nights about should I do this earlier story that people might hate me because I'm going back to his transformative years or should I do a two-part Poison Ivy story or a three-part Mr. Freeze story that I know is safer. Or should I do something that I like but love less? At the end of the day, the challenge is to try and be bold. I take my example from that, from writers like Grant Morrison, Frank Miller and the guys you look up to that you know you mihgt not ever be as good as. But at least you can try to be as fearless as they are in some ways. You might fall on your face but at least you tried. That's what I'm trying to do here.

And to readers, I really want to make it clear, this is not an attempt to rewrite YEAR ONE. No one loves YEAR ONE more than me. I brought back James Jr, you know what I'm saying? YEAR ONE is sacred to me. There's no touching the hem of that book.

But in the New 52, that continuity doesn't track anymore. James would be six-years-old. Jim has a daughter, Barbara. Selina Kyle has a different origin. The Falcone Family has a different history. None of it tracks. Instead of trying to play Frankenstein and be like,"Which pieces of it can I save?" For me personally, I've tried to keep as much of Batman's history in tact as possible, and you guys know that. At some point you have to be able to say, "You know what? It's time for a new story that examines that," if you have one that you believe in. Not one that is respectful and tries to build on the stuff you want to keep from a story like that but isn't beholden to the past. One that tries to do something you haven't seen before.

That's really what this is an attempt to do. It's an attempt to give you something you haven't seen before about Bruce's transformative years while being respectful and keeping in tact the things we love the most about those things that are possible without being beholden to them in a way that hobbles the possibility of a story like this.

CV: And we are going to see him working on the Batcave and all that?

SS: Yeah! One of the things I've pointed out, in continuity, one of the things I love about YEAR ONE is it's a relationship story about Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne. I've actually argued that it's more about Jim Gordon than it is about Bruce Wayne. There's a lot that isn't explore even in that. For example, how he built the Batcave. Did he float things down the river into the cave itself? What was his first Batmobile? All those sort of fun things that actually matter to the history of the Wayne Family and his legacy. Those are things we're going to explore, the fun stuff but also the dark and interesting stuff about why Bruce does what he does.

I thing I can promise you is you're not going to see anything you've seen before. At the same time, I want you to understand that the things you love, the core of Batman and the stuff about his origin that matters to you, we care about that stuff the same way. We're not going to try to change and make you upset. Just know that we love this character more than anything in the world. We just want to let you open the book and see what you think.

CV: My daughter had a question. I think she's getting this from TINY TITANS. She wanted to know if you could address the rumor of penguins being in the Batcave.

SS: You can tell her I will try to stick in some sort of penguin symbolism or something somewhere as a tribute but I can't promise. I will do my best to stick a penguin somewhere in the Batcave at some point for her.

BATMAN: ZERO YEAR begins in BATMAN #21, on sale June 21.

First!

But also: 11 issues?? I have really liked Snyder's run so far, but seriously? 11? Isn't that a bit too much?

"GOD" the Batman continuity is so messed up I could be here do going into in depth detail about who messed up it is or all the bat characters that were messed up by the new 52 but think I just be beating a dead horse I hope this Batman Zero year can fix some of the continuity and some characters.

@Zeeguy91: I have to assume there's a reason for it. He stated he understands there's a risk being away for that long. The story must call for eleven issues.

Still not really impressed but ill check the first issue.

Would've preferred him to do something new as opposed to something we already know for the most part.

This is going to be amazing. I have a feeling this will be at a similar level of greatness to Year One.

I LOVE seeing what happened in the past, so this'll be great for me.

Also i'm so glad he's keeping a lot of it secret.

@MrUnknown: How is it something we already know when he kept saying it's something we haven't seen before several times?

I don't know why Snyder always does those long story arcs.

Can't wait to read it. I've been enjoying Synder's run on Batman so far with Death of the Family being my favorite stories.

I'm underwhelmed.

Out of all the new 52 books, Batman has definetly been the best in my opinion and that is in no small part due to the fantastic writing and cleaver planning of Scott Snyder. I have absolute confidence in him to deliver me a great story and keep me hooked for those 11 issues. If there is one person out there who i trust not to mess up Batman its Snyder, im still waiting for him to write his first bad book.

The Court of Owls story was eleven issues as well wasn't it? I'm looking forward to this story. It's about time someone looks more into Batman's past.

@MrUnknown said:

Still not really impressed but ill check the first issue.

Would've preferred him to do something new as opposed to something we already know for the most part.

this isn't something we already know...he already said that Year One really doesn't work in the New 52

After the horrible "Death of the Family" storyline I am glad DC and Snyder aren't hyping this up. Death of the Family was the most disappointing Bat series since Battle for the Cowl.

can not wait for this to start, It is a time that has been touched on here and there but never explored and i think its great Snyder has the Balls to bring it to life. If anyone can do it, its Snyder and Capullo, Its great how Snyder talks about how much he loves year one.

Really haven't been able to get too hyped about Snyder's Batman as it seems everyone else has. Court of Owls was overly long and ended limply. Death of the Family was great until the final issue which I just found anti-climatic. I dropped after #17, and this doesn't give me a reason to pick it back up again...

I'm glad he has the room to explore this, but the Batman mythos was doing such awesome things right before New 52 - James Jr, Oracle, the Morrison set of stories going from Batman to Batman and Robin to Batman, Inc. And now it's all so convoluted and annoying. I wish they hadn't imposed the five year thing. Then most of it could have still happened.

Snyder's last response is dangling...what was the question that goes with it? As for this actual arc, I think I'll wait to see reviews before I pick it up.

I'll pick it up but I have to admit, it's not making me excited at all. Infact I'm more looking forward to Earth 2 Annual with Earth 2's new Batman that the whole 11 issues of this zero year.

All DC needs to do to fix all these continuity errors is to make the New 52 ten years in length instead of five. Never really understood the constraint on time. Eleven issues seems way too long for my taste but, I've liked all of Snyder's stories so far so, I'm going into this story spoiler free and do my best to enjoy the ride classic style.

@bladewolf said:

Snyder's last response is dangling...what was the question that goes with it? As for this actual arc, I think I'll wait to see reviews before I pick it up.

Sorry about that! It somehow got deleted:

CV: My daughter had a question. I think she's getting this from TINY TITANS. She wanted to know if you could address the rumor of penguins being in the Batcave.

I'm reading this in trade, so I won't actually get this into my hands for another year and a half or so, but I've got kind of a cautious optimism about the whole thing. I've quite enjoyed all of Snyder's stuff that I've read so far, and Tony's glowing reviews have kept me entirely on board. Then again, this isn't a story I particularly want. Continuity in comics is dumb anyway, so having a story that seems designed to make the current continuity make sense isn't very appealing to me.

I liked all of Snyders stories so far,hopefully Zero year will be as good as his other stories. Plus this could be a good opportunity to fix the Batman continuity.

@kagato said:

Out of all the new 52 books, Batman has definetly been the best in my opinion and that is in no small part due to the fantastic writing and cleaver planning of Scott Snyder. I have absolute confidence in him to deliver me a great story and keep me hooked for those 11 issues. If there is one person out there who i trust not to mess up Batman its Snyder, im still waiting for him to write his first bad book.

I always loved the episodes of the animated series where Batman was barely in it and Bruce was the main character, so I'm looking forward to this!

@Sammo21: It was not horrible. Everyone just was hoping someone would get killed off.

The biggest thing I took from this interview is Snyder will at least partially examine and work out some of the kinks of DCN52 continuity. Something we've all bickered about for well over a year. Too bad it'll be over another year until its wrapped up. Also, let's not forget that DC screwed up with this 5 year plan, not Snyder. He's keeping pretty much all the back log of stories canon. In my best guess, he's doing his best to maintain the integrity of a character we all love so deeply, through evolutionary means, to make everything somehow fit. So while the context may be familiar, the method will be something we haven't "seen" before.

@Jacobin_Wisdom:

That's your opinion. I was disappointed and thought the story was incredibly weak. I didn't need a death nor did I want a death, but the story was pointless and went nowhere. The "broken relationship" crap also didn't go anywhere either so there is absolutely no fallout. Not to mention all the tie-ins made it feel more ludicrous than it would have if it were constrained to just the Batman title. I'm glad you liked it.

court of the owls went for 12 issues 1-11 and annual 1

I don't really know how I feel about this, even after this interview.

@Sammo21: Honestly I liked Death of the family but I feel Batman Inc. killed any heat it gave into the Batman titles. I just think the two stories shouldn't have been done in time with each other.

We wouldn't want to retread anything that has been done before, that's been done much better than we could ever do

Yet so far a lot of what he has done could be argued to be a retread.

No one loves YEAR ONE more than me. I brought back James Jr, you know what I'm saying? YEAR ONE is sacred to me. There's no touching the hem of that book.

Yet he made it no longer canon...

I'm interested to see the new Origin for Batman. I just really really hope it isn't change for the sake of change, and that it is at least believable...i.e., not training for just 4 years, not having 4 robins in 5 years....

I'm totally getting on board with this

@davidcraig123: I feel the same way, Black Mirror was only story of his that I really really enjoyed.

@Sammo21 said:

@Jacobin_Wisdom:

That's your opinion. I was disappointed and thought the story was incredibly weak. I didn't need a death nor did I want a death, but the story was pointless and went nowhere. The "broken relationship" crap also didn't go anywhere either so there is absolutely no fallout. Not to mention all the tie-ins made it feel more ludicrous than it would have if it were constrained to just the Batman title. I'm glad you liked it.

I'm assuming we are talking about Death of the Family here.

I thought it was pretty good though probably short of greatness. I also disliked that they tried to pretend as if there was a broken relationship at the end when nothing really happened in any of the other books. I suppose Snyder probably cannot nor should he be able to mandate that other books follow a certain plan, but in the end, Snyder told his story which ended with a little emotional fallout, and it is not his fault if the writers of other series did not decide to go that way.

The tie ins definitely made the story feel convoluted, and at least half of them could have easily been axed. Perhaps the best strategy would have been to make the crossover very brief portions of one comic as opposed to giant inserted two or three part events.

As far as the story being weak, it depends on how you look at it. The central premise, Joker comes into town and tries to kill the Bat Family, is extremely common, but many of the themes explored were creative. The set pieces were extremely imaginative. The characters were very well written. I think there is much more to praise than to scorn.

My biggest problems with the series was the occasionally supernatural abilities of Batman and Joker.

For more news, reviews, and commentary for the entire Bat Family, check out BatWatch.net.

@G-Man: Oh, I understand that he must feel he needs 11 issues, but I'm afraid that the story is going to be too decompressed and drag on. That's essentially been one of the main complaints about Snyder's run so far. And I mean, the whole Court of Owls saga took a full year to tell. So, I understand that complaint. So, I just feel that this might feed the flames of those doing the complaining. I would be super excited though if Snyder was using 11 issues to tell multiple story arcs that just happened to be set in the past.

I for one am looking forward to this.

The court of owls was aso good, and how it lead into Night of Owls was just so good, that'll I'll forget at how much Death of a Family failed. I was not a fan of that story. It was a good concept, but it really just fell into what I expected it to be in the end. It didn't really do much for me but just give me a "Joker is back" story and that was it. Oh WOW! Joker had his face cut off and is wairing it now. ooooh. His Black Mirror storyline was epic to tho. I was really getting into seeing Dick Grayson coming into his own as Batman. At first when the story started I kept having a feeling of "No one can cover for Batman when he's gone." I just had that feeling. Then as the story went on I kept saying to myself, "Dick can be Batman. Dick can be just a good Batman as Bruce Wayne as Batman." Then he became Nightwing again. I hated that. Having 2 Batmans worked and it should be tried again. For one, Nightwing seems lame now that Dick was actually Batman. Why would he want to do that. That would have been like Wally saying "I guess I'll go be Kid Flash again since Barry is back."

@MuyJingo said:

We wouldn't want to retread anything that has been done before, that's been done much better than we could ever do

Yet so far a lot of what he has done could be argued to be a retread.

No one loves YEAR ONE more than me. I brought back James Jr, you know what I'm saying? YEAR ONE is sacred to me. There's no touching the hem of that book.

Yet he made it no longer canon...

I'm interested to see the new Origin for Batman. I just really really hope it isn't change for the sake of change, and that it is at least believable...i.e., not training for just 4 years, not having 4 robins in 5 years....

how did snyder make year one not canon DC made it not canon by putting the five year timeline into play bc that would make James JR around 6 and Barbara around 3 so Snyder did not make Year one uncannon.

@havoc1201 said:

how did snyder make year one not canon DC made it not canon by putting the five year timeline into play bc that would make James JR around 6 and Barbara around 3 so Snyder did not make Year one uncannon.

Jesus dude. We've had this discussion several times now. Go and read one of the many other threads where I answered your questions.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Batman 0 that didn't have a conclusion. I guess this 'reboot the history; thing is easier on me becasue I'm a Marvel guy. If they took Batman and made it so he was a resurrected magical Bat-god with magic powers I think fans would be upset. I guess I would be, too. Fortunantly, they won't be doing that.

@MuyJingo said:

@havoc1201 said:

how did snyder make year one not canon DC made it not canon by putting the five year timeline into play bc that would make James JR around 6 and Barbara around 3 so Snyder did not make Year one uncannon.

Jesus dude. We've had this discussion several times now. Go and read one of the many other threads where I answered your questions.

well then stop saying the same dumb Sh!t with nothing backing it up, and just like all the other times you do not state facts you just avoid the questions

@havoc1201 said:

@MuyJingo said:

@havoc1201 said:

how did snyder make year one not canon DC made it not canon by putting the five year timeline into play bc that would make James JR around 6 and Barbara around 3 so Snyder did not make Year one uncannon.

Jesus dude. We've had this discussion several times now. Go and read one of the many other threads where I answered your questions.

well then stop saying the same dumb Sh!t with nothing backing it up

Sigh. You're certainly a special one. I've answered you're objections more than adequately in the past. We agree to disagree, that's fine. It's fine if you make a comment to that affect. But why ask the same question that I've answered now several times? Are you really that special? Congratulations on being the first CV user I ignore from now on.

@MuyJingo said:

@havoc1201 said:

@MuyJingo said:

@havoc1201 said:

how did snyder make year one not canon DC made it not canon by putting the five year timeline into play bc that would make James JR around 6 and Barbara around 3 so Snyder did not make Year one uncannon.

Jesus dude. We've had this discussion several times now. Go and read one of the many other threads where I answered your questions.

well then stop saying the same dumb Sh!t with nothing backing it up

Sigh. You're certainly a special one. I've answered you're objections more than adequately in the past. We agree to disagree, that's fine. It's fine if you make a comment to that affect. But why ask the same question that I've answered now several times? Are you really that special? Congratulations on being the first CV user I ignore from now on.

there you go avoiding again, thats fine you can think im "special" bc that is a mature way to deal with people. you have never answered that question for me but whatever, Later

This MUST catch up to the present at some point. I can't imagine a story in the past for eleven issues. Especially in the main Batman book.

I kind of wish Snyder would build more on what he has already created. He is writing like he is writing graphic novels instead of one consistent coherent comic. It almost feels like an anthology with really long arcs. Even Morrison would build upon his own work.

I think Snyder's style of writing for a graphic novel is something I don't like. If he is going to do a complete story, he should at least have a few obvious threads that lead into some other stuff. Right now, his threads are less then obvious. Like I was not excited to see more of the Red Hood gang because there was no "pull" from them. Why would I be excited when they were cannon-fodder characters in the zero issue?

I would be much more interested in this story if Snyder's work wasn't so monotonous to read some times. And it isn't monotonous because of the writing. It is monotonous because it is predictable, There are no curve balls to spice it up. It is usually just one threat. Most great comics have the protagonist facing threats from all angles. That doesn't mean there needs to be multiple villains. But there is a domino effect that needs to take place and it needs to be apparent. Like with Death of the Family, there was potential for Bruce's family to fall apart or at least fight with ideologies. There were little nudges, but nothing really happened with that. I would have liked to see Bruce trying to handle his stuff at home as well as the Joker. Those kind of wrenches being thrown draw so much more suspense and create a better experience for us readers.

I really think that Batman and Superman are ones that needed to be active for at least 10 years each before the current timeline Green Arrow is good with 5 years but Batman? That's just not enough, Green Lantern would be good around 5 to 7 years and Flash is good with 5. Wonder Woman doesn't really fit in my point cause she's still feels like TWO different characters in Justice League and Wonder Woman books so I can't really tell about her, there are heroes here like Aquaman that don't need more time since he's spend quite a while under water and Cyborg that really wouldn't need the 5 year thing since he doesn't seem to be involve with the Titans or any other team,Martian Man hunter is good, but how about Batgirl and the ''Robins'' ? in books like Justice League Dark this 5 year period doesn't really affect the plot and the meaning behind the book. And one last thing, I wish books like Animal Man and Swamp Thing didn't feel like ''Vertigo'' books, all alone in a corner of the New 52 (Of course we alredy saw Superman pop up on ST and I don't want the justice League messing with Animal Man) but it just feel completely out of the New 52 to me.

I personally enjoyed Death Of The Family. It was nowhere near as good as Court of Owls, and DOTF's finally kinduv let me down until I heard Grant Morrison say this about it: "Everyone's been looking in the wrong place for the death (of Damian.) They're looking over THERE where the Joker is, and the Joker's playing a JOKE on everyone."

When Batman opened that black book and found out it was empty, it was the punchline to the joke Batman ruined. If the Joker had managed to destroy the Bat-Fam, or have Batman destroy them himself (due to the trap that he set up), it would've all been because Batman and his family believed he knew their identities. Which he didn't. Which meant all the death and chaos would've been because he scared the living sh!t out of the Bat-Fam. I know it seems like I was looking into it a little too much, but I just think that Snyder used the Joker in a way that showed how mischievous and twisted he truly is.

I'm pumped.  I think Snyder will do a good job. He's seems to have the right spirit, and I've really liked what else I've seen from him.

Having the main Batman series disconnected from the rest of the Bat comics for almost a year actually is good news. At least, we don't need to care about whether I tie-in is worse buying and reading or not. However, spending about a year in Batman's past seems to be quite a long time. My guess is, this story will start jumping back and forth between the past and present at some point. I'm looking forward to this and hope they (Snyder and DC) really won't give any further information away before issue #21will be released. Surprise us, Scott!

I want to know more on this mysterious Uncle Philip. I don't trust him.