Forbes Interviews Jim Lee About Batman

This last weekend’s Wondercon was Batman-centric for DC Comics. The Caped Cursader’s 75th anniversary is being pushed hard by the company and this was one of the first big cons where they  could show off a bit. As you may know, DC premiered Darwyn Cooke’s Batman Beyond short last weekend, and that comes on the heels of Bruce Timm’s Strange Days animated piece for the occasion.

In conjunction with the Batman panel at Wondercon, Forbes scored an interview with DC co-publisher Jim Lee about The Bat and the year-long celebration.

From Forbes:

"I think if the crowds at Comic-Con for everything we do Batman or Superman related is enough [evidence], I think getting to these milestones really shows how powerful these characters are. Seventy-five years is a huge amount of time for a pop culture character. You look at characters like Dick Tracy or the Phantom have kind of fallen by the wayside over the years. So many of the DC characters have remained powerful ever since the time they were first published in the ‘30s. I mean, it was before my time. So, just the idea of kind of passing on this creative baton to the next generation is something that’s paramount in our minds as we publish the stories every single month. It’s an honor to be part of that history and tradition.I think in general he’s represented justice. Obviously he’s this character who doesn’t want other people to endure the tragedies that essentially created him. I think that makes him very compassionate, even though he’s very dark. Ultimately, I think his costume was probably the first… most modern-looking costume of that era, in that he didn’t have a big “B” on his chest, right? He didn’t need it. [Laughs] He was just a powerful symbol. Everyone else, it was all about either letters on their chest or belts. He had the horns, which honestly kind of evoke other kinds of symbolism and imagery. And he knew that, he used that to his effect. He knew that criminals were a cowardly lot, and he would scare the bejesus out of them. I think that mentality is something that resonates with people today."

For the full interview and more on the Wondercon panel, you can see the story right here.