The last several months have been rather chaotic for the Batman franchise, and things are only going to get worse in the months ahead. In November, the Dark Knight was mentally torn apart by an ultimate evil. He then squared off with a god, and won, but not without cost. Bruce Wayne is now stuck in another time; when he'll return is anyone's guess.
Batman's absence from Gotham has plunged the city into chaos. The question on the minds of heroes, villains and the average citizen is: Will there be another Batman? And, more importantly, can there be another Batman? If so, who will take up that responsibility?
Tony Daniel is leading up the mini-series that will answer those very questions. The second issue of the series hit just last week, and the action kicked into high gear as Tim Drake confronted Jason Todd, the man behind the Armored Dark Knight. How will things shake out? We'll find out in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, IGN tracked down Daniel to get his thoughts about working on this pivotal project, and what's in store for the future.
IGN Comics: I guess there's no better place to start our discussion than Jason Todd. In the recent past his characterization has wavered quite a bit. We've seen him played as both a grim-and-gritty antihero and well-meaning yet misguided hothead. Here we see him portrayed as more of a full-blown villain than ever before. Can you talk about your take on Jason in Battle for the Cowl?
Daniel: Jason in his own mind thinks that he's taking the necessary steps to combat the evil in Gotham City. In his mind he's not doing anything wrong, he's fighting fire with fire. The big difference between Jason and Bruce is their approach. Jason was always a little bit more on the reckless, daring side, and he obviously has a screw loose after coming back from the Lazarus Pit. When you do come back from the Lazarus Pit, you're not one hundred percent right in the head, and Jason really wasn't all that right in the head to begin with. What I like about his character is that he really believes in the way he's going about his business, and in his mind he's right. In his mind he's not a bad guy.
IGN Comics: Anytime you work with an anti-hero character I think you always run the chance that some fans will embrace his or her willingness to go the extra mile and actually kill. When I was talking to Judd Winick about his initial run resurrecting Jason, he mentioned he was a bit surprised at fans' willingness to get behind Jason. By pushing him further towards the side of villainy than ever before, were you purposefully trying to make it clear that Jason is not a good guy and is in fact off his rocker?
Daniel: Yes. At this point he is beyond the point of no return in terms of ever being considered even remotely a hero. What I wanted to do here is put him in a place that he can't come back from. The things that he does here in Battle for the Cowl are things that can never really be forgiven. The only outcome would have to be imprisonment or something worse. But from this point on for Jason the gray area between good and bad has disappeared. It's crystal clear now that he is on the dark side.
IGN Comics: I think one of the reasons fans have been unable to accept Jason is because he's never really been given a clear direction and characterization. I think pushing him in this direction will go along way towards allowing fans to accept him.
Daniel: The way I look at it is I find him very intriguing because he's evil in the sense that anyone else might be evil. In his case, childhood events and the way he was brought up led Bruce to try and take him under his wing and steer him in the right direction, but the events that happened early to this guy really shaped him into what he is now.
I think that's true in the case of any evil person – they had to have something happen to them that turned them bad. And Jason has such a history in the Batman lore that there are so many things that I can draw upon, from his jealousy of the other Robins to his animosity towards Bruce. I get to play around with his point of view, and we get to read his captions where he describes some of his feelings that we may not have had the chance to hear until now.
IGN Comics: There's one fantastic line in particular where Jason claims that Bruce took him under his wing to prevent him from becoming another one of his enemies. We all remember that great introductory scene of a young Jason stealing the hubcaps off of the Batmobile, and I think it says a lot about Jason that he'd think of Bruce's motivations as being selfish.
Daniel: Right. That says a lot about Jason's own inflated ego, conceit and self-importance. Obviously his captions may not necessarily really be the truth.
IGN Comics: Yeah, he's not the most reliable narrator.
Daniel: Exactly. So we're reading his captions, and they're the truth as Jason knows it. It might not necessarily be the way Bruce thought or the way things happened to him, but they are coming from somebody who feels wronged and feels people owe him. It's twisted.
IGN Comics: Moving on to Dick Grayson. In this issue we see Dick finally begin to accept his possibly destiny as Bruce's heir, and when he finally takes those bold first steps towards the costume trophy room, he finds Tim's note. There's a lot of emotion in his one-panel reaction. Is that dismay we're seeing? Is it anger? What's Dick's reaction to Tim's decision to step up?
Daniel: His reaction is disbelief that Tim went ahead and went out on his own without telling anyone. He took the mantel without any warnings or discussion. Also, Dick is worried, because from his encounter with Jason on the rooftop of the abandon steel mill he sees that the guy is completely gone. Jason tries to kill Damian just to force Dick to make a choice, and he knew the choice would be to save Damian. In his own twisted way he was proving a point to Dick about how dangerous and unpredictable he is. That has Dick scared, because obviously Tim doesn't know of that experience on the rooftop and might be unprepared for what he's up against.
IGN Comics: It's been fun noticing each character's choice of Batman costumes. Obviously Jason's choice matches his dark, twisted mindset, but I love how Tim chose a costume from the Jim Aparo, Neil Adams-era of Dark Knight Detective stories. I think that definitely says a lot about Tim's unique personality and skills. If Dick does indeed decide to put on a Bat costume next issue, what would it be and what would it say about him as a character?
Daniel: Dick would probably go for the most effective and practical for him. He doesn't rely on as many tricks and toys as Batman did. His first go around would probably be something that's a little more streamlined and black – the most barebones costume that would cloak him in shadows and utilize his own strengths. Not that we'll see that… `
IGN Comics: You seem to have a lot of fun utilizing some C-list villains in this issue, most notably Mr. Zsasz, Jane Doe and Firely. Some writers really thrive on and enjoy working with more obscure villains. Do you like writing some of the lesser-known rogues?
Daniel: Yes. Because basically it's easier for me to put a stamp on them since they might not have been as developed over time as others. I don't have as many boundaries personality-wise, so I can read these guys' old appearances as a reference but also update them at the same time. Whereas with a character that's very well known like Two-Face or Penguin, there are very definite guidelines that they have to stay within to be in character. So it's a little more fun in terms of having more freedom to interpret the characters, but I also enjoy working within a set framework as well. I basically only had a handful of recognizable or semi-recognizable characters in Arkham at the time that I could work with, but I would have loved to have gotten my hands on guys like the Mad Hatter or Mister Freeze. I did my best with the C-listers, though.
IGN Comics: Speaking of Mister Freeze, this issue seemed to work really nicely with the Commissioner Gordon one-shot. I'm always curious about how all the pieces are assembled in a crossover like this. Did you see the script to that issue before you wrote Battle for the Cowl #2, or did you simply know that Commissioner Gordon was going to be coming off of an important run-in with Mr. Freeze?
Daniel: I knew beforehand what was going to be happening to him, so I knew to make a quick reference to his ordeal with Mister Freeze. It's just a quick statement, but it lets you know that something just happened and will hopefully make you want to pick up the book and see what he's talking about. It's important because it greatly affects Gordon's thinking. After his run-in with Mister Freeze there's not much he's afraid of now. He's even deeper in his hard-shell than ever before, if that's even possible with a character like Jim Gordon.
IGN Comics: As quick and throwaway as those sorts of lines might be, I think they are important to giving fans the sense that the whole crossover is organic and worth their attention. I think you did it well in this issue.
Daniel: Thanks. It's word economy, as I like to call it. I can only devout a certain amount of pages to setting up scenes like that, because it is a three-issue miniseries. I have a very limited number of pages I can spend on something like that, so I have to make it clear and to the point quickly without it looking jammed in there. I think if you do it right people will get it, understand it and move on to the next scene. As long as you have enough room to digest it and understand what's being said, I can make small scenes like that work within a story that's so compacted.
IGN Comics: Speaking of space constraints, as much as you're telling a big, action-packed free-for-all to decide Bruce's heir, you also seem to be setting the table for the future state of Gotham City and the Batman line. That being said, how much should fans expect to be wrapped up next issue and how much should they expect to carry over into the Batman books come June?
Daniel: Basically the main thing that is wrapped up, which is what the story is about, is who if anyone will wear the cowl. There are aspects that are going to have to be dealt with in the ongoing series such as the Two Face/Penguin war. That's a subplot that needs to play out in its own storyline. Same with the aftermath of what happens to Tim, Damian and Alfred as well as the state of Gotham City. For instance, the military is going to have a presence in Gotham much like what you'd see with something like Katrina. We're going to see that remain a background element for future storylines for a little while until things are under control. It's going to take a little while for Gotham to be reined in, which would be the first of the new Batman's challenges – get Gotham back under control.
IGN Comics: I definitely want to touch on that final climactic battle scene, because there seems to be a couple of different levels of irony at work there between Tim picking up the crow bar and Jason using a batarang against him. Can you talk about how you arrived at that scene?
Daniel: Well I wanted Tim to lose control. Tim is very much a calculating character, and he's never really snapped before as far as I know. I wanted him to snap. The fact that Jason is wearing the costume of a person Tim considers as a father, the fact that Jason is basically ruining his father's name and legacy has hit Tim harder than anyone else. And even though he doesn't say it, sometimes your actions can say more than your words. When Tim realizes that the only person that could possible be behind this suit is Jason, he gets angrier and angrier, and by the time they come face-to-face Tim just loses all control and reason. And when he picks up that crowbar and tells Jason that he wants to kill him, it could be anger or he could really mean it. What's important is that he's lost all control at that moment, which I think anyone could under those circumstances. And we don't know how far he would have gone if not for what happened to him at the end.
IGN Comics: Can you talk at all about the art in this issue? You seem to have opened-up and stretched your legs in the issue's action sequences more than I've seen from your work in the past, particularly in that final battle. How did you approach the visuals in that final confrontation?
Daniel: I wanted to have a sense of aloneness where it's just these two characters facing each other in kind of an epic, Obi-Wan vs. Darth Vader-type fight. This is a deeply personal battle. I just wanted to create that epic moment that people can hopefully look back on as being memorable. Also, I wanted to show Jason's attempt at being Batman beyond putting on a suit. He's also trying to preplan, and that's where we see the maze he's constructed of those gray tarps that match the color of his costume. He lures Tim down there because that's the best way he knows how to fight – dirty. It almost plays out like a horror movie, where Tim doesn't know which way to turn and doesn't know where the voice is being thrown from. That's kind of what I was going for with that scene – something more scary than a typical superhero fight.
IGN Comics: Can you leave us off on a few teases for Battle for the Cowl #3?
Daniel: Let's see…next issue we get to see some more of Squire. We get to see a character named Batman Jones. And finally, the battle between Dick and Jason will make the fight between Tim and Jason seem small in comparison.
IGN Comics: Thanks so much for taking the time, Tony. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to talking to you about issue #3!
Daniel: Thanks, Dan.
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