Den of Geek caught up with James Tynion IV to talk about his groundbreaking run on Detective Comics.
Dont call them the Batvengers.
In fact, these Bat-themed heroes are closer to the X-Men.
What was once a series containing mostly standalone Batman stories is now the Dark Knights vey own team book.
The result is epic, sometimes hilarious, and always fun.
Den of Geek: How did you land the gig onDetective Comics?
Did DC come to you with that concept?
I had the idea for a while that I wanted to handle that as a team.
Not just as series or an ensemble book, but as a literal team.
Originally, they thought it would be a new book.
The way that everything shaped out was that they felt that the perfect title would beDetective Comics.
Other than being the ones that people remember, they are the ones that keep selling in trades.
you should probably do something new and different.
Lets talk about the team.
No one has really explored Batman as a team guy outside of the Justice League.
Youre writing Batman as a leader of his family.
He would make a run at stand in their way and prevent them from becoming heroes.
It occurred to me that at some point Batman needed a way to say, Yes.
Thats where the idea came from to do it as a sort of boot camp.
But theres a character in Gotham who does.
Which obviously brings us to Batwoman.
Tell us about your take on Batwoman.
Where is she now, and what does she want?
Thats the difference between Kate Kane and Bruce Wayne.
But because of her sexuality, society didnt let her.
Exactly, because of her history, Kate hit a wall.
That was the only way to become what she set out to do.
She stumbled, she became lost.
She would be lost in bars.
Thats where she met Renee Montoya for the first time.
But the Batman gives her a symbol for her mission.
Part of theDetectivestory has been Batman letting her in and making her part of the core mission.
You did an amazing job with this character.
You found something in Clayface.
What was it that you found?
It the sense of loss.
Its the fact that he faced something similar to Batman, and something we all face.
Bruce Wayne built himself into Batman to cope with that.
Clayface, because his accident disfigured him, instead of rising to his moment, it darkened him.
Hes worried that on the inside theres a monster, that Batman is wrong.
Seriously, your Clayface is like a Lon Chaney character thrust in the DC Universe.
So lets talk Spoiler.
Spoiler fans can be rough on a creator.
How have fans received your Spoiler?
There are a lot of people really happy that Stephanie is back.
For every fan of every character, there is a definitive run on that character.
Which defines their take on it.
My Stephanie Brown, my Spoiler, comes from the Chuck Dixon Robin run.
Thats the one I grew up with, and thats the one that informed my take on the character.
Thats the stories that matter to them, and I understand that.
But its something I have deep respect for for the love of Batman family characters.
you’re free to see what characters I love, and that I want to bring back.
Im doing what every writer does, Im building my iconic DC Universe.
If you could pick one other DC character to throw on your team, who would it be?
I already did it.
But check out Tynion twice monthly onDetective Comicsto witness some truly groundbreaking superhero storytelling.
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