Scott Snyder Talks 'Endgame' and What's Next

Warning: Spoiler Alert! This article deals with Batman #35 and #36 and the unveiling of the Joker’s undercover identity.

Batman scribe Scott Snyder has piloted quite a few epic Batman stories over the last couple of years. Currently he’s about to kick off his final Joker story, Endgame, and sat down in a recent interview to talk about that and what comes next for The Caped Crusader.

When asked about the big reveal of the Joker’s secret identity, he discussed the event’s origins and just how much planning went into it.

"…he was designed to be Joker — that was his whole purpose from the moment go. Marguerite [Bennett] knew that when we did the Annual together, and James Tynion knew that. I told Gerry Duggan as I went further, and in the Bat office, we told the other writers as we got closer. So everyone on “Eternal” knew he was Joker as far as a few months ago, but for [me and Greg], he’s always been Joker. That’s why we chose his name the way we did. I was worried that people would figure it out — I don’t know why I was so paranoid, but I was so worried people would figure it out all the way back in “Batman Annual” #2! At one point, Marguerite had him talking more about the Joker and I actually had her cut it, which I feel badly about — it would have been a nice throwback. Where I compromised is, when someone’s talking about the Joker and he interrupts; it always gets interrupted when the Joker comes up. In “Joker’s Daughter,” he’s in that issue, and I think you can start to see it. There’s little things like that, I think, where you can see by design he’s been lying there the whole time, if you look at his appearances.My only regret, the only thing I do wish is that I had been a little less scared about teasing it more. I really was scared, honestly. I don’t know why. I was scared that people would hear the word “Endgame” and know that it was Joker! I really was sure the story was going to get blown; from “Batman Annual” #2, I started to worry that people would know that Joker was back, and then I started to worry that they’d know about “Endgame” when I said “Endgame.” The fact that we made it all the way here and nobody guessed any of it has really been something of a relief!"

When asked about what comes next for his Batman story arcs, he gave an answer as to the tone of what to expect in the years to come.

"All I can say is that we promise we’ll do our best on this book for as long as you guys will have us, and we’ll always try and do something surprising, we’ll never spin our wheels. After “Endgame” comes a very sharp left turn from the kind of stuff we’ve been doing with the different characters and a different tone and all of that. We’ll stay as long as you guys will have us, and we promise to try our best to do stuff that surprises us and you, and to be a book that feels like the first issue of a run, every arc.After “Endgame” I’m going to move away from some of the big cinematic arcs we’ve been doing and try to do something more textured and that leads to big stuff and has big stuff at the end of it, but is a little bit more mysteries on the ground kind of stuff, so it feels different. It’s burning certain elements of the mythology down to build something else, absolutely."

Scott Snyder Talks ‘Endgame’ and What’s Next

By Skip Harvey | Nov 13, 2014