Scott Snyder on Changes for Batman

A few things have changed since writer Scott Snyder took over on the main Batman title, to say the least. Bruce Wayne isn’t The Caped Crusader and doesn’t remember being him at all. Joker is (supposedly) dead. Jim Gordon is Batman under the guidance of the Powers Corporation.

Now things are shaking up behind the scenes for the book. Artist Greg Capullo has announced his departure from Batman and people are starting to wonder in what direction things are going to go.

Snyder recently sat down to talk about just that, plus his take on some of the interesting questions his run on the book brought up.

"What I wanted was this: My favorite stories translate sort of social problems into potent, resonant comic book language. I’m trying to do that in “Zero Year” where the Red Hood Gang represents gun violence and the Riddler inspires these super storms with his weather machinery, but really, it’s about the earth and climate change. It’s the translation of the real world into cartoonishness, but I’m still trying to keep it scary.Now, this arc is more bombastic than any we’ve done. It’s energy monsters, robots, and all sorts of crazy stuff. But at it’s heart, it’s about a man who’s believed in the things we’ve put in place to protect ourselves his whole life. The police, local government, even business – Gordon is someone who believes that the mechanisms that exist in a city like Gotham…and New York, Baltimore, or Chicago are to protect the people of that city and to make life vibrant and good.Scott, we’ve heard rumors about the creative team post–Batman #50 …Now, I don’t know if this is entirely okay to say, but one of the things I’d say is Greg is going to be stepping off the series with Batman #51 for a little while. Not very long, but for a short period. I’m going to hold down Batman while he’s going, and I have some very big plans for that time, which I’m pretty excited about.One of the reasons I’m excited is similar to how Greg is excited about the possibility of working with another writer. I love Mark Millar, and he’s been extremely kind to me over my career. I’m very excited for that book, and I’ve known about it for a long time."

"To work with different artists, likewise, is a good thing creatively. When I got to work with Mateo Scalera in #34, Jock in #44, or Becky Cloonan in #12, those stories only get to exist with those artists. Again, it really becomes about how do I do the same material with a different artist. It’s going to be good for Greg that way to work with a different voice for a bit, and it will be good for me in that way."

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