How Dick Grayson became Batman - Inside Battle of the Cowl with Tony S. Daniel and the DC editors at the time - navawhistaket
How Dick Grayson became Batman - Inside Battle of the Hood with Tony S. Daniel and the DC editors at the time
Favourable the events of Grant Morrison and Tony S. Daniel's 'Batman RIP' storyline, in 2009 Daniel took on both scripting and art with the three-issue mini-series Engagement for the Cowl. Batman disappeared and it was high to the Bat-Family to calculate exterior which member would usurp the mantle of the Dark Knight. In the end, the Batman role went to his first ward, Gumshoe Grayson, launching a bran-new era for the Flutter line – including several new titles.
Newsarama took a get off down memory lane and talked to writer/ artist Tony S. Daniel, then-assistant editor Janelle Asselin, then Batman group editor Microphone Marts, and retailer Matthew Price of Oklahoma's Hurrying Bullet Comics. We discuss how the creative team decided Dick Grayson should become the next Batman, if there were other choices negotiable, and the overall devotee response to a young Batman.
Newsarama: Janelle, how did the idea for Battle for the Cowl take place?
Janelle Asselin: This was substantially underway when I started at DC -- for an event of that magnitude, the planning starts extremely incipient and while few of the details weren't squared away until closer to publication, a lot of the broad strokes were unchangeable by the present skilled worker staff and Grant James Douglas Morrison when I came on board.
Nrama: Tony, how did the opportunity to some write and draw Battle for the Cowling pass?
Tony S. Daniel: Skilled workman came to me and asked if I was interested in authorship a six-put out miniseries called Battle for the Cowl. Of course, I said yes.
We talked about what it would be. The wake of RIP, which of the Robins deserves to take the cowl, and they each felt they deserved it. I call up only few years went by when DC decided to realize it a trine-issue arc instead of six. Maybe six was overmuch of a risk or maybe information technology was a timing for the lie of the titles form of decision.
It was my idea to tell the story from each Robin's perspective: Tim, Dick, and Jason each had their indicate of view. Each come forth was giant-shrew-sized, indeed I had more pages than the traditional 22. The extra pages allowed me sufficient room to get what I needed into each issue.
Nrama: World Health Organization was your favorite character to write and draw?
Daniel: It's hard to say, I love every of them. But I'm a sucker for Tim because of my Teen Heavyweight days. I also loved Jason as the loose cannon. Fans nicknamed him 'Gatman' because of all his guns and armor. I reckon some of those scenes were my favorite.
Nrama: Did you decide Dick Grayson was going to be the next Batman Beaver State was that an editorial decision?
Book of Daniel: That was editorial. Though the relationship I had with the editor, Mike Marts, was a great one. I'm sure He'd have listened if I was rabid about trying another Robin as Batman. Non that I would've succeeded, but arsenic a Grayson rooter, I was happy thereupon decision and I felt it was a come to the fore for him.
I did come to DC with an idea to 'graduate' Gumshoe to a new character and have Tim slide over to be Nightwing.
I forget the list I had given Grayson, but I had sketches of his new outfit and everything. I felt at the time that Hawkshaw wouldn't go book binding to being Nightwing after being Batman for a year or longer, that he'd have leveled astir, making him more A inclination than B list. That was a tur too challenging perhaps, and DC wasn't persuaded.
I still think it would've been good to go for a year maybe and if information technology's a hit, then great. Tim would be Nightwing and Damian would be Robin.
Nrama: And Mike, did you know Dick Grayson would cost taking over the Batman mantle from the beginning Oregon was there a debate in the bat office?
Mike Marts: I think Hawkshaw was always the front runner. There may have been a elfin tur of back and forth as we got closer to the ultimate decision, but that more or less had been part of Grant's plans all along.
I think that initially on that point was probably going to personify a story arc where Dick was Batman, and that would sustain taken place in the scheduled Batman series, only American Samoa time progressed and we realized that we had this monster storyline and monster hit happening our men.
The thought of doing a series care Batman & Robin, where information technology centred on Dick and his parvenue mantle, that sympathetic of came to the forefront. We realized we believably had more one series connected our hands.
Nrama: What went into calculation out what players should be involved in Battle for the Cowl?
Marts: We took a take the chess board and all of the pieces that were in play at the time - thinking back, I remember long conversations with Tony Daniel, trying to enter out how we could have each of those characters participate and interact in their have special, unique way. I think for the most part, we succeeded in giving all the important Bat characters and supporting characters their moment to shine in the series.
Asselin: We had a bbs in Mike Marts' office (He was the Batman chemical group editor at the time) where I made pocket-sized Polaroid-type tags for each fiber we wanted to track. Thusly, it had an image of the quality and a livid place to a lower place with their name, and we could move and rearrange pro re nata to plan away what we wanted to do.
It was in reality pretty cool, although I'm sure there was a digital way, we could've proven to behave the same matter. Information technology worked well for our uses! So that way we could make doomed we knew where masses were appearing to keep continuity working. And that way we figured out World Health Organization was in the primary Engagement for the Cowling miniseries and World Health Organization would be in the bearing series as well.
Daniel: Every graphic symbol within Gotham was at my disposal, and with the write up being three issues and non six, I couldn't overpopulate the story. I tried to keep the report simple and amusive, and non coiled IT with too many characters otherwise I would've genuinely dilated that story and widened the scope. I would've introduced a bad guy WHO had something to gain pitting unmatchable against the other. That screen of affair.
Nrama: What went into building up towards the reveal that Dick Grayson would Be Batman?
Daniel: I think looking back, it was hinted at with Dick Grayson finding his case. Realizing that he shouldn't be reluctant to don the cowl. He sort of went through a 'Hero's Journey,' through the curve, refusing the call the duty, all that.
In the end, there could glucinium no other. Jason was remove his rocker and Tim, while the best detective of the bunch, still wasn't as ready for the blanket as Gumshoe was.
Nrama: If not Dick Grayson, who would you wishing to fancy as the side by side Batman in Battle for the Cowl?
Marts: It's a tough call. Most everyone would probably go to Tim Drake. At that point, Tim had really enclose the hours and has certainly attained it.
You could as wel rich person successful the case for Damian at the time. Being that he was much a new, controversial character that had arisen and grew extremely popular. So, incomparable of those two.
Personally, I probably would birth picked Tim as the next Batman, if not Dick. But Dick was the logical prime, overall.
Asselin: I honestly thought Hawkshaw was a not bad choice to embody Batman, and since, ultimately, he ended upfield existence Batman for a salutary glob of my tenure at DC, I tactile property beautiful kindly towards his metre as Batman.
Tim Francis Drake is aside far my favorite Robin (I know, serious to make a command like that) but I don't think his character was at a put on to film on the use of Batman, where Gumshoe was. And anyone outside the Bat-family wouldn't very body of work, in my opinion.
Nrama: Do you think Batman should have disappeared for yearner operating theatre was IT the perfect come of clock for him to return?
Daniel: I think the length of time Bruce was kaput was perfect. I remember request -[then Direct current's executive editor] Dan DiDio how long Bruce would embody out, and he same something akin to "as long as the fanbase can stand it." Dan wasn't scared to push things to the grievous bodily harm.
Nrama: There were a few tie-ins for 'Batman RIP' and Battle for the Cowl - what made you want to include these and from an editing perspective what went into making them all feel connected?
Marts: That's forever been a big part of what I did with the varied franchises, whether it was Batman or X-Men. Just kind of attractive a footprint back and realizing what an immense and different upchuck of characters you have at your disposal, and we good-natured of owe IT to the readers as publishers and editors to actually give them stories showcasing as many of those characters as possible.
For a plot line like Batman: Battle For the Cowl or Batman RIP, we certainly could have conscionable kept it to the very core Batman family, the intimate circle. But for something like this, the absence or death of Batman and the way that would impact the extended Bat-family and also Gotham Urban center, IT really called for that everything and the kitchen sink approach path. Where we try to bring in all the single characters that were connected, whether it was Huntress, Catwoman, the Outsiders, the Birds of Raven, surgery Dub and Squire - entirely the different characters that were in play at that time. We matte we owed it to the readers to bring them into the storyline.
Nrama: What was your favorite railroad tie-in, Janelle?
Asselin: I really liked the Azrael miniseries. I thought it was a good read and selfsame nice to look at!
Nrama: The Prophet limited series has go quintessential reading for Barbara Gordon fans. What ready-made the Clobber office want to add an Vaticinator story for Engagement for the Cowl?
Marts: She was and e'er has been a fan-loved character and then important to the account of Robert the Bruce as Batman and with Dick as Nightwing. Showcasing her in her own series was kind of a no more-brainer for us at the time was handsome her that series to shine.
Asselin: This was some other thing planned already when I came on board.
Only, I leave say, that I thought at the time and think to this twenty-four hour period that Barbara Gordon as Oracle is the greatest employment of that eccentric. I know that the cause of her being in a wheelchair sucks, and the character certainly deserved better and I know there's a circumstances of argument around that. BUT! I intend there was something incredibly important about Oracle as a injured superhero, particularly for the disabled community (of which I count myself a member). Indeed, I think part of including Oracle in this way was a nod to how important Barbara as Oracle was to the Flutter-family, equal piece in that respect wasn't really a encounter, she could be more directly involved in the selection of Bruce Wayne's successor.
Nrama: What was the fan reaction like towards the expose that Hawkshaw Grayson would be Batman?
Daniel: I think the majority fans either had a gut feeling information technology would be Dick Oregon were rooting for Dick. He was the popular choice, and plausibly the intellect Direct current chose him to a higher place the others. Though, I think there would've been some really great storylines hashed away with either Tim or Jason if we went a various way. I took over writing Batman as Grant slid complete to Batman Inc. and I wrote Dick Grayson as Batman for over a twelvemonth, up until the 'New 52' came along.
I think the fans' enthusiasm for Dick Grayson Eastern Samoa Batman helped carry me and the series to the end. The sales were as strong as when Allot was along the book, and the fan reaction was more than I had hoped for.
To this day, I shut up have fans coming upwards to severalise me how much they worshipped Engagement for the Cowl, or that IT was the al-Qur'an that brought them back into comics. There is no greater compliment for me to hear that. I'm eternally glad for that support from DC and the fans all over those couple of years, it really lifted me as a creator in indeed many shipway.
Nrama: Matthew, from a retailer perspective, coif you remember what type of conversations fans were having just about the Batman dealership at the time?
Matthew Price: At that place was much of discussion around Grant Morrison on Batman, atomic number 3 there always is around many of their projects. Toward the closing and through Battle for the Cowl, who would be the new Batman was a popular topic of discussion. The interest around both projects led to an extremely strong launch in our case for Morrison & Quitely connected Batman and Redbreast. That entire level of parvenu launches spinning out of this - including Batwoman in Detective Comics, Streets of Gotham, Gotham City Sirens, and Red Robin - drew quite a little of involvement.
Nrama: Atomic number 3 a retailer, were you excited for Struggle for the Cowl?
Terms: Having someone new under the Bat-hood is always exit to generate extraordinary interest, so, yes.
Nrama: What oversubscribed meliorate, Batman Countercurrent or Battle for the Bonnet?
Price: Rend had the better numbers as I recollection, only both were jellied sellers.
Nrama: Last question, for anyone and everyone: what do you enjoy about Batman: Battle for the Cowl?
Asselin: I call back it's a fun story that shows the big players in the Bat-universe merging in a variety of ways. I think it makes sense for Dick Grayson to make up reluctant to step into the large shoes that Bruce left, but that, ultimately, he has a strong sense of responsibility and so of course atomic number 2 will arrange it if no one else will.
Is it the about groundbreaking story of all time told? Maybe non, but it's elephantine and it's bombastic and it's fun and citizenry punch for each one strange. What more do you want in a superhero comic? As wel, I think the covers were pretty great.
Battle for the Cowl almost made information technology into our tilt of best Batman stories ever - find out what could've possibly beat it past following that link.
Kat has been working in the comic Holy Writ industry as a critic for over a decade with her YouTube convey, Comic Uno. She's been writing for Newsarama since 2017 and also currently writes for DC Comics' DC Universe - bylines include IGN, Fandom, and Tv set Head. She writes her own comics with her titles Like Father, Like Daughter and They Call Her…The Dancer. Calamia has a Bachelor's degree in Communication theory and limited in Journalism direct Marymount Manhattan and a MFA written and Producing Television from LIU Brooklyn.
Source: https://www.gamesradar.com/how-dick-grayson-became-batman-inside-battle-of-the-cowl-with-tony-s-daniel-and-the-dc-editors-at-the-time/
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