Scott Snyder: 'Why Would You Ever Live in Gotham?'

Super-popular Batman scribe Scott Snyder recently sat down to talk about The Joker and his climactic story arc Endgame. He hinted at the Clown Prince of Crime’s current motivations and what it takes to live in a city like Gotham.

"He wants him to see how insignificant he is. He wants to show him, “I could have always done this to you, but I played along with you for a long time, hoping you would see what you’re supposed to be. Because you rejected that and rejected me, I’m going to crush you in a way that shows you how incredibly meaningless your whole mission has been.He [Joker] worked on things while he was at Arkham. He was planning. He’s been setting this up for a long time. It really began the moment Death of the Family ended. After that last encounter, it was like, “Alright. You want to play that way? That’s it.”"

When asked about the authenticity Joker’s detached face he presented Batman with in issue #36:

No, that’s his real face. He got it back.

Creepy. He goes on to promise to address how he recovered the face from Joker’s Daughter.

When asked about why people would live in such a dangerous, volatile place like Gotham, he had a surprising answer.

"I always ask myself that. Why would you ever live in Gotham? It seems awful, right? It’s always that you’re under attack or gloomy. It’s awful. I think the reason people stay in Gotham is because they know if they stay and can fight through the challenges and all the things the city throws at them, they’ll come out better for it. That’s part of the lesson from Batman, I think. Because he’s in Gotham, what he says is tragedy, adversity, any obstacle thrown at you in life by the city, if you overcome it, you’ll be a better hero for it."

It sounds like Snyder is serious when he called the arc Endgame.

"Nothing is going to be ambiguous. This is really meant to be if I had a chance with Greg and the team to do the last Batman/Joker story for our continuity from our own imagination, what would it be? It’s really the highest stakes possible, the highest level of drama. We’re really not leaving anything on the table with them."

Stay tuned, Bat-fans. This is just heating up.

Scott Snyder: ‘Why Would You Ever Live in Gotham?’

By Skip Harvey | Dec 17, 2014