Ricky Church chats with Scott Snyder & John Romita Jr about All-Star Batman…
One of the most anticipated titles among DC Rebirth is All-Star Batman, written by Scott Snyder with art by John Romita Jr. The opening arc, ‘My Own Worst Enemy’, will see Batman and Two-Face going on a ‘road trip’ as Batman attempts to rehabilitate and heal Harvey Dent’s fractured mind and body. This doesn’t sit well with Two-Face, though, and he puts out a bounty to get himself rescued which just about every villain from Gotham and beyond set out to collect. Danny Miki and Dean White are on inks and colours respectively while the series will also have a back-up story done by Declan Shalvey on pencils and inks and Jordie Bellaire on colours.
Snyder has been writing Batman since late 2010, first starting with Detective Comics with Dick Grayson under the cowl and then moving onto The New 52’s Batman in 2011. He was one of the few writers to have remained on one title from the beginning to end of The New 52 and his run with artist Greg Capullo proved to be a fan-favourite and one of DC’s best titles.
John Romita Jr. has had a prolific career in comics, working prominently with Marvel for the majority of his career, but has recently worked for DC. His first DC work was with Geoff Johns’ on his brief Superman run in 2014 and he recently contributed to the legacy of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns by illustrating the short prequel comic, The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade. With All-Star Batman set for release this Wednesday, Flickering Myth got the chance to chat with Scott Snyder and John Romita Jr. about the upcoming title.
Ricky Church: Scott, you’ve written previously for Batman for close to 6 years so how do you plan on making All-Star Batman different from your runs on Detective and Batman?
Scott Snyder: Part of it is every arc I’ve done between Detective and now, I’ve always tried to zig-zag and try something I’ve never done before with tone or lengths or the tools I was using. It was just going for a different story about something personal. Usually what its about dictates what tools you can use so from here I was really inspired by the cast of villains that I hadn’t used and also by the particular moment in time right now, not just in terms of the political climate or the election or those things, but beyond that. I mean, I feel like in this moment so many people are worried about these huge problems that seem insurmountable and in that way we’re more aware of them in this 24-hour news cycle constantly and react in ways that are good and bad.
I wanted to do a series of stories that really felt modern and each villain would be approached in a way where we’d look at him or her through a personal lens that would reimagine them or at least reposition them to be in scary in a new way. With Two-Face it really became about prompting that idea that he’s arguing we’re a nation of villains and I realized that while on the road. So all these ideas came together to demand that it would be a completely different type of story.
Also working with John, Danny and Dean and then Declan and Jordie in the back-ups, but especially getting to work with John upfront, I knew I wanted to bring my A game. He’s one of my favourite artists of all time and I felt like if we got the chance to work together, and he lives down the road so we met up at a bar down the street and I said “If we do this together I just want you to hold my feet to the fire and make sure everything I do is 100%”. I wanted to make it as good as anything I’d ever done so that’s kind of how it all came together, at least on my end, where I always certainly try to approach Batman where every arc is something new and personal, but with this one in particular I feel it’s the perfect recipe for trying something extremely different both in structure, pacing, colour and tone and all that. I’m really, really proud of it.
RC: Cool! So going off that, John, since you began working at DC you’ve done art for Superman and now Batman. How does it feel to have worked on two of the most popular superheroes not just at DC, but in comics in general?
John Romita Jr.: Before I started on Superman, without knowing I’d do Batman, I had this absolute intimidation. I was completely intimidated and a little bit nervous because I was in a different ballpark, so to speak. And here’s a character whose been around for a million years, done by a lot of different artists at various times, so there’s no attempt in my brain or false notion that I would set the world on fire with something distinct, different or better. However, to stay afloat Geoff Johns would wave his magic and make the book presentable and it turned out we did a really nice job and I was comfortable with the pages. I was honestly so nervous before I started.
The same thing happened when I knew I was going to work on All-Star Batman and then there was The Dark Knight Returns prequel and so on. Working with Frank (Miller), he’s a different kind of animal and allowed me to work on the plot and I felt much more comfortable. I was actually more nervous getting on this Batman series than I was the two previous jobs I had with DC because this is full on blown, you’re standing there in the middle of nowhere with your pants down and people will start pointing and laughing at you if you stink! I was a little bit nervous.
Fortunately, I get to work with Scott and there’s a comfort zone with him there and he’s bringing his regular A game. Then I get to work with Danny and Dean so you look around you and suddenly you don’t feel like you’re going to sink by yourself, there’s someone there to help you float. For all these lousy metaphors and lousy clichés, I actually felt more comfortable getting on it after I realized what Scott had in mind for a character I had never fully understood before. Sitting down with Scott at that bar was a revelation to me because he mentioned a couple things that brought to mind and coalesced my brain about criminals and what he had in mind for them. It certainly had an air of familiarity and made me think I can do this.
Then suddenly the script comes in and he says “you play with this, do what you want, talk to me about what you have in mind” and all of a sudden it was comfortable and we got this first issue, I’m on the third issue now and well into it and I’m smiling while I’m doing this. The brilliance of the dialogue and the brilliance of the story, there’s no weak point in the story. Some writers will come up with a great story that’s 80% fleshed out. This is 100% fleshed out and maybe beyond that because there’s so much more that can be done with the premise. I’m having an absolute blast, I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying this!
RC: Awesome!
JRJR: The only drawback is Scott lives a quarter mile away from my house so he can come up anytime, bang on my front door and say “Where are the pages?”
SS: It’s the reverse for me. If I don’t write it, he’ll bang on my bathroom window or whatever.
JRJR: What, were you drunk when you wrote this?
RC: That’s great! That’s awesome you guys have such good chemistry with each other. A question for both of you then, with this chemistry you guys have you seem to really click with the story and imagery and one image in particular that really struck me was Batman holding a chainsaw as he preps to takedown an enemy! It’s not just the image of the chainsaw, but the scene also takes place in daylight, which is something we rarely see Batman ever in. How did you both approach a scene like that?
SS: John, you want to take this one?
JRJR: Yea, let me try to do this distinctly. The whole idea of him being out in the middle of nowhere, out of Gotham, plays to the story itself. I think that’s the brilliance of the story and for Scott, this is not a superfluous addition, putting him out in the middle of nowhere. It’s important and intrinsic. It’s there for a very good reason. Now the fact that Scott wanted to take him out of his comfort zone and try something different from the way it looks, it plays to the story, but what it does is it challenges the artist. I forget who coined the phrase ‘grindhouse’, but the idea of the grindhouse visual with the chainsaw and so on was just a thrill because it really is different than normal and anytime I work with somebody and they challenge me that means there’s something different going on and you can’t get more different with this character and Scott found a way to do that.
I think that is a testament to him and, without even reading it, the premise alone just does it. So it made me a better artist and Danny and Dean follow along and I’ve got to tell you, the first issue isn’t as good as the rest of the run. It’s going to look better and I cannot tell you again how much I’m enjoying this.
RC: Scott, what made you want to, in this arc, pair Batman and Two-Face up on a road trip? How did you come up with that idea?
SS: Again, I really felt like at this particular moment right now I wanted to do a story that was wildly different than the ones with Greg or Jock. I was thinking of working with John in terms of what we both like and the kinds of things we both respond to and, for me, I think we’re both people that, having kids, we worry about the world and what it’s going to be. I wanted to do a story with Two-Face where he’s saying our worst fears out loud. He’s saying we’re ugly people and regardless of your political beliefs, whether you’re right wing or left wing, its not about one side or the other at all. He’s saying deep down your selfish and we will go at each other in ways that are self-destructive and do anything for ourselves and that’s what motivates us. We will not be free and we will all fail. We should just admit it and become villains right now.
Batman is saying the opposite and, for me, it became about putting them on the road to make it a starker and more powerful way of showing that. And of course it would be huge fun. You know, Penguin and other crime bosses following them in a limo and stopping at a gas station getting heckled before killing everyone there. Just the zaniness and dark humour of all these Gotham characters out of Gotham and on the road felt so fun. At the same time, I think it speaks to this idea to hide from the things you don’t want to face about yourself or the world because when these heroes or villains pop up in your town or on the road next to you in their car, it makes you realize you’re not insulated from them. Its humorous, but also just seeing them in these new settings makes them scarier, and more inspiring in terms of Batman and the heroes, because it shows you that the things that you’re afraid of will eventually make its way to you town or your door and so will the things that hopefully will prop you up.
RC: Now I’ve heard you say before that you want to tackle some smaller, lesser-known rogues for All-Star Batman. Can you tease any upcoming villains for the future once you and John are done the Two-Face arc?
SS: There’s actually a ton in there with John. That’s one of the beautiful things about it. He just sent in this work that I love almost more than anything which is Batman spinning this wheel of villains in a casino, like a slot machine, and the things in the machine have all different villains on them. Looking at it you’ll see everyone from the Royal Flush to KGBeast to Croc, it’s all over the place. Again, its kind of one of those things that, on the surface, is crazy but hopefully speaks to the idea of what this story is about. Two-Face saying we’re a city or a nation of villains. It’s huge fun.
JRJR: Its not about which villains are we going to use, its which villains aren’t we going to use. I have too many of them we are going to use.
RC: What’s it like then for you to draw so many iconic Batman villains, either the more well-known ones to lesser-known ones?
JRJR: Its so – Its hard to describe. I can’t even say it’s so cool because that’s not enough. It’s a different kind of story for me because I had never imagined I would draw Penguin – ever – and here I am drawing him with his umbrella firing out of his limousine. Here’s a little anecdote: I always laugh when I see a movie and the mafia guys are in Florida with their colourful shirts and shorts. They look so dopey, but then they pull out a shotgun and do the exact same thing they do when they’re in New York. Well that’s what we’re doing here. The Penguin is in the middle of nowhere, but he still does his job. There’s this coldness about being outside of their world and still being able to be disgustingly murderous animals.
For me, to draw characters like KGBeast, who I had actually never heard of before I got on the series, Penguin, Two-Face and any other character that I had never heard of or imagined I’d be doing, is the best thing about doing this title. Its something I’ve never done before and always strive to do, to make if look different than my previous stuff. That’s getting harder and harder as I get older.
SS: When you see the next issue the designs for Penguin and KGBeast look amazing. Every villain, I think John makes the world look so immersive and it is entirely sort of reimagined, yet the characters look like modern/classic versions where they’re tweaked, but are still who they are entirely. It’s a real magical thing and I can’t wait for everyone to see it.
Thanks again to Scott Snyder and John Romita Jr. for taking the time to speak with us.
SEE ALSO: Check out a preview of All-Star Batman #1 here ahead of its release tomorrow
Ricky Church
