What Tom King Brings To Batman
Tom King Thinks Batman isn’t in a dark place
Batman is set to be very different after DC’s mega event “Rebirth”, with Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s long run coming to an end after issue #51 of the main comic, who would be willing to step in and fill in those humongous boots? Tom King is certainly willing to try, as he is taking over writing duties on the main Batman comic post-Rebirth.
But Tom King doesn’t think of Batman as this super dark, super grim character. Grim things happen to him sure, but that’s not necessarily the core of Batman as he explained in a recent interview with Comic Vine:
"He’s not that dark. He’s not in a bad place. He trusts himself, and he trusts his team. He trusts Alfred, and he trusts Duke Thomas who is in the cave with him now. He trusts his partners who are going to be featured in Detective Comics. He’s stronger than he’s ever been. All that put together, we’re going to ask, if Batman’s at his best, is that enough? He’s still a man. He’s still a human. He can’t stop an asteroid from crashing into the Earth. If a train leaps the tracks and is about to go into a bunch of people, Batman can’t just jump over and lift it into the air. I think that will be the central question. If you have a Batman that’s confident, that’s good. Is that enough to save Gotham City?"
King, who has done some really dark and twisted things with Vision over at Marvel, assures us that this will not be a bright and sunny comic, but that Batman can “experience darkness and come out of it” and that under it all, there is hope inside Batman. “He’s not the Punisher”, said King.
Glad to see King gets that while Batman can be a guy surrounded by darkness, he can survive it and is not that dark himself. Anyone want to send a memo to Zack Snyder about that?