Letters to BATMAN: THE FINAL KNIGHT #1

I hope to read this issue tomorrow, but in the meantime--- WOW! Great cover Doc! I love the background, but the "shadow" of the bat rising over the Dark Knight is a classic image. Very well done!

While I really enjoyed the Nolanverse approach to Bruce and his somewhat limited time at the Dark Knight, it never sat well with me that he was only active for, pretty much, the two films that were released. I like a larger myth to be part of my Bat-legend, and so Bruce continuing to go, continuing to fight the good fight, felt important to me. You're not going to take this role away from him without a fight, without a good reason, and maybe today, and the events we're about to experience with him, will be that final fight for the Caped Crusader. Things are going to get bad for Bruce, and we have an issue left to really show how bad they can get. And then another two-part miniseries!


I really was going for a mythic approach to the character when he entered the Lazarus Pyramid. Funny story, and I think only a few people are aware of the source material, but during my initial Batman run back in the day, I was mainlining a lot of aspects of Batman Begins. That was the version of the character in the zeitgiest at that moment in time, and I'm fond of doffing toward the most 'popular' continuity of any time in my work (for example, introducing aspects of the CW's The Flash in Justice League last issue). The Lazarus Pyramid was going to be established as the training ground of the League of Shadows, where Bruce learned a lot of his ninja-skills, but unfortunately that run fell through (probably through the best, I wasn't the most appropriate version of myself as a writer at that time to do the story I had planned justice). I've mentioned it to Fantomas in the past and now I get to use the concept here! A great serendipitous moment for me, even if it's not based in anything the site has seen.

Anyway, names are very important in this story-- be it the mantle of Ra's Al Ghul, the names Damien and Ibn al Xu'ffasch, etc-- and when you throw all these names into the mix, isn't 'The Batman' the most important? It will be in this story, and it will be as we continue forward across Ten Years Later.

I had an idea, a few weeks ago, of launching a new Bat-book when I've reached a comfortable buffer of issues across my other responsibilities, called The Batman, and use it to tell the definitive first adventures of Gotham's best and worst, inspired partly by the rumoured title of the upcoming Ben Affleck Batman film. I think it's brilliant. Definitive to the max. Even if that falls through, I might write a few stories under that new banner, quarterly or intermittently, but writing Batman is something I love doing. I went full-tilt in this issue, leaned into a lot of my DC2-originated writing tics, and I'm really pleased with the result-- I'd love to revisit that writing style and approach again in the future. Expect some Bat-heavy Justice League issues!


A fun fact-- if you look back at the League of Assassins across the history of the DC2, they were never the League of Shadows. That's Damien's work, that's his effort, to change the perception of the organisation. It's also alluded in this issue that Batman Incorporated-- renamed Bat Incorporated-- is under his watchful eye, and we might just see that reflected in Ten Years Later moving forward. Lots of ideas need to see the light of day and I don't want to splurge out on them, but transforming both organisations into very different but effective beasts is something I'd be interested in exploring, maybe with Fantomas himself.

Anyway, next issue will feature a number of flashbacks, and we'll see the fateful day that Ra's and his grandson faced off, and we'll see the act that drove Ra's to madness and this position he's currently in. 


Batman Beyond is a really cool part of the DCAU canon that I think deserves to be paid homage to in the DC2. We were raised on a very certain diet of the DCU, and Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited were a massive part of that. I played with the idea of there being different 'strains' of the Jokerz in Gotham City right now... we were privvy to the work of the Arkham Jokerz, and I assure you... Gotham Knights: The Last Laugh is going to feature them in a massive way. Like the poseur Joker said at the start... 'he's coming back'.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next issue!

I wanted to start the story off in a way that sets up the criminal scene of Gotham and also mainline some of the narrative choices I made back in the day with my writing on Batman and Detective Comics. I did a bit of it in Justice League #8 (a TEN YEARS LATER tie-in) with, I guess, a very grandiose and operatic view of the city. Metropolis never clicked with me on a 'character'-level, but I think Gotham is always going to be the constant 'non-speaking' member of the supporting cast in this mythos, so I'm glad everything worked for you there. It's not just this gothic throwback, but a very ancient, creaking haunted house of a place, and I hope to address that elsewhere on the site moving forward (see my previous post about a potential new book-- The Batman). The only thing from Batman Beyond was the Jokerz as a concept. There's also something I picked up from Snyder's Batman run, but that's for the eagle-eyed (if, of course, I was as subtle as I intended to be).


This scene was written in two parts, the first being the one-sided dialogue between Bruce and the past, and then the sound of leather wings that came later. I had to throw that in there as a reference to my favourite episode of Batman: The Animated Series. Kirk Langstrom's amazing transformation and the tail-end of his speech "It's in me...  Batman..." still haunts me to this day.

On a macro-scale, Batman: The Final Knight, is written for you, David, and those of the fandom who view Batman as a lone soldier in a war against crime. I'm consciously trying not to use the extended family, even if it's a concept I have no problem with using. Gotham Knights: The Last Laugh is going to be embracing the concept whole hog-- who made it ten years later? Who's part of the family now? Who's still standing? This is the last Bruce Wayne story. This is about him, and the effects this life had on him. I wholeheartedly agree that Alfred is a paternal-figure to Bruce, and maybe Dick too, but Tim and Damien saw Bruce as a father in my own canon. Jason? I think Jason got a bad go of it in the DC2, 'coming first' as he did. Their relationship was short and ended badly, and we may just see that addressed all these years later... 


Batman: Strange Apparations was the first Batman-related trade I ever picked up and I fell in love with the stories and the character of Silver St Cloud. I'm glad the chemistry clicks, and I realised that as I was moving through the issue I was writing more and more 'human' scenes than Bat-centric, and I really got a kick out of that. I will rectify that next issue, of course as Batman races back to Gotham to save it from the full fury of the Unnamed.

But with regards to 'settling' on his wife, I'd like to think it was more of her accepting that he's not who the man he plays out in the wider world. I never saw Vicki Vale as a player in the game, and Selina never came into it during the decision making process. Talia's ultimate fate will be revealed next issue, and it shapes the events of this story massively.

That's not to say, of course, that Selina and Bruce didn't have a go at it over the decade we 'last saw them'. I know I'm building toward a relationship in Justice League right now (I've discussed the cover of the big reveal issue with Jamie and it's going to be awesome) that won't make it into this era, but that's not going to stop them trying, or for me from writing it. That issue hits in November and it's going to be a corker.


The St Clouds have a long history in the DC2, with Argent in Danger Trail and some other plans that are being ruminated about for the present day. Silver is my favourite of Bruce's potential suitors across eighty odd years, and I wanted to find someone who was apart from 'the world' that Bruce-as-the-Bat exists in, but is understanding and loving. From Strange Apparations to now, I think she's the best bet. 

Oh man, bloody 'Dee-Dee'. It was so ridiculous and I couldn't help myself. That was the only thing I considered cutting and I just had to throw it out there. It's so ridiculous! But I wanted to establish that Silver is very playful-- for example her interactions with Chase-- and has a vibrant and dirty sense of humour. I imagine Bruce cringing when she calls him that, and she likes that she can get under that stoic façade of his. Couples, hey!


The interactions with Dent and Gordon were really important to me. I wanted to show that Bruce Wayne has made a difference, that he's trying in every aspect of his life to make efforts to make his home a better place. It's not just about throwing crooks into jail and madmen into madhouses. It's about healing and building, and the two scenes with him visiting 'old friends' was of the utmost import to me. I also love Two-Face (I was re-reading Batman Annual #14 from 1990 with what I believe is the seminal Two-Face origin story when I was writing this issue) and wanted to show that one of the most tragic characters in the Bat-mythos can be helped, and Bruce isn't just resting during the day and preparing for the night. He's putting money into schemes and programs that will help make Gotham a much better place. That said, Gotham is also a very fickle city and always fills voids where they form, be it when the Batman dies, or if a villain is rehabilitated. Things get worse, always, until they finally get better. 

Plus, where are the stakes for Bruce in this final story if Gotham isn't finally getting better?


Next issue.


Obviously we're revisiting Joker in Gotham Knights: The Last Laugh, but I wanted to approach two sides of the coin with Batman's nemeses with these final stories.

The Joker is a force of nature, you can really only gird yourself and hope for the best. Ra's is scheming and devious in a different way, and if this story is about Batman and how that mantle will always be there, how there'll always be a protector of Gotham City in this new age (of superheroes that started nearly twenty years ago, in-universe), then what better way to do that than to juxtapose this eternal force of good against an immortal league of evil? I've started writing 2,500 words into the second issue and it's... absolutely crazy. Very little present-day scenes at the moment, but a lot of contextualising and building of a foundation that I hope will pay off in a big way.


Thanks, David. Always great to hear from you!

Yep! After I read the issue, I realized who the blind bat had to be... I like the throwback design shout-out to Thomas Wayne's old Halloween outfit!