Wondercon Batman Panel!

Wondercon may just have started, but DC knows what people wanna hear. The Batman panel was pretty much right off the bat (no pun intended) and it was stacked with the new heroes in the Bat-family creative teams. Brenden Fletcher (Batgirl, Black Canary), Tom King (Grayson), Greg Pak (Batman/Superman), and Babs Tarr (Batgirl) tackled what’s up for the big changes in the Batman universe, both recently and upcoming.

Fletcher on the direction of Batgirl and what they call the ‘culmination’ of this run on the character:

"She made this decision to make a change. In pushing to do that, maybe she made a few mistakes along the way. Issue #40 sees her pretty much literally facing herself, and facing her old problems and telling herself it’s time to be comfortable with a new day, a fresh start.We’re setting up the supporting cast to play a much larger role in Batgirl’s life, not just Barbara Gordon’s life."

On Black Canary’s odd Joan Jett-type makeover:

"She’s a fighter. Maybe she’s not perfectly elegant on stage. That’s something we’re going to be exploring in the series."

On working with Becky Cloonan and Mark Doyle on Gotham Academy, Fletcher said he enjoyed writing the child characters and hesitated even including Batman. The influences he cited works like Nancy Drew, Goosebumps, Harry Potter, and House of Anubis. He said he loves the freedom of creativity he gets working with this group:

"It was nice to get to the end of this first arc, and see our initial conversations on the page."

Turning to Grayson, King couldn’t hold back on how he approaches the character and how intentional his sexuality is portrayed:

"Dick Grayson is a sexy man! That’s part of who he is. He carries that with him. We love that about the character. He’s the guy who doesn’t give up. He doesn’t have superpowers. He doesn’t have the darkness Batman does. Because of that, he might be even more interesting. It’s Bruce’s legacy, what a great person Dick Grayson is."

In a surprising statement, King addressed the infamous discord that exists between writers and DC’s editorial staff.

"I’m pretty new to this. There were some rumors that DC was very censorship-heavy — I haven’t found that to be true at all. They’ve been pushing me."

He cited his concept of Omega Men being an answer to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, insisting the DC brass encouraged him to do more.

My favorite moment came from an audience question to the panel. The fan said they felt betrayed by the concept of the New 52 and asked why they should invest in the post-Convergence universe.

"(Fletcher) We’re just writers, we’re just doing what we can. New fresh stuff, trying to give back super fun stories. Continuity is what it is.(King) Right there with you when it first happened. The essence of those characters is still there, and the love of those characters is what we’re trying to give back to the fans. We read those comics, loved them, want to bring it back to the readers."