Donny Cates was offered Batman..........and he turned it down!!

[Nick Miller]

In the recent Word Ballon podcast, Cates told the story of his meeting with Didio and Lee.

His main reason was that he wasn’t finished with Marvel.

He mentions he has a 5 year plan in his pocket.

But the most important news is that he doesn’t think Bats should have a Robin!

Mr Cates, you are dead to me! (Hehe) but seriously, dude what?

[Ansa]

In the recent Word Ballon podcast, Cates told the story of his meeting with Didio and Lee.

His main reason was that he wasn’t finished with Marvel.

He mentions he has a 5 year plan in his pocket.

But the most important news is that he doesn’t think Bats should have a Robin!

Mr Cates, you are dead to me! (Hehe) but seriously, dude what?

I don't get writers who want to get rid of Robin. The persona is only one year younger than Batman, you can't just ignore it.

[Frontier]

This feels like the second or third time in the past few months (or years) that we've found out DC's offered a major writer a chance at Batman and they turned them down. Do they have someone in place to replace King yet?

Cates feels like a Jim Starlin kind of guy (and Starlin wanted to get rid of Robin, which is how we got Jason's death). Granted, Robin has been so inconsistently a part of the Batman books lately. that it would probably wouldn't be too difficult to not do anything with him for a single run.

[Vordan]

I don't get writers who want to get rid of Robin. The persona is only one year younger than Batman, you can't just ignore it.

Because they want to write grimdark Batman staring into the rain thinking about his dead parents as part of their Super Serious Story. Robin takes away from that because he’s a young kid in a bright costume who brings lightheartedness to Batman. Hell even Damian does that!

This feels like the second or third time in the past few months (or years) that we've found out DC's offered a major writer a chance at Batman and they turned them down. Do they have someone in place to replace King yet?

Cates feels like a Jim Starlin kind of guy (and Starlin wanted to get rid of Robin, which is how we got Jason's death). Granted, Robin has been so inconsistently a part of the Batman books lately. that it would probably wouldn't be too difficult to not do anything with him for a single run.

Wilson might be taking over. Someone will be on the book, DC isn’t going to not have Batman on there. And in the WB, Cates and Starlin actually talked and Cates mentions talking to him about Thanos and Batman.

[ZeroBG82]

Because they want to write grimdark Batman staring into the rain thinking about his dead parents as part of their Super Serious Story. Robin takes away from that because he’s a young kid in a bright costume who brings lightheartedness to Batman. Hell even Damian does that!

Wilson might be taking over. Someone will be on the book, DC isn’t going to not have Batman on there. And in the WB, Cates and Starlin actually talked and Cates mentions talking to him about Thanos and Batman.

Considering what Cates has done with Eddie Brock in Venom, I'm not sure your first point necessarily holds water.

[BatmanJones]

He was also asked what his favorite Batman run was and he said it was Tom King's. We have that in common.

[Coal Tiger]

I'm not really familiar with this guy's work and now I'm in no rush to be.

[TravelerInTheDark]

After reading his Inhumans book, I can't say I am all that keen to see him write more characters I care about.

If he plans on sticking to whatever he's doing right now, that is perfectly fine by me.

[TheNewFiftyForum]

Would it have been as King's successor, or was this earlier?

[Denirac]

After reading his Inhumans book, I can't say I am all that keen to see him write more characters I care about.

If he plans on sticking to whatever he's doing right now, that is perfectly fine by me.

Cates was asked to kill the Inhumans due to the Push Failing and plans to bump the X-Men’s Prominence back up, if he didnt do it, someone else would.

[Frontier]

He was also asked what his favorite Batman run was and he said it was Tom King's. We have that in common.

Cates seems to like a lot of modern stuff (I know he's said he's a huge fan of Jason Aaron's Thor).

[Vordan]

Would it have been as King's successor, or was this earlier?

Successor to King. I wonder if they had already decided King would be off by #85 at this point?

[Celgress]

He was also asked what his favorite Batman run was and he said it was Tom King's. We have that in common.

As Nick Miller posted at the start of this thread - Cates is dead to me now.

[Korath]

It was a smart move from Cates.

It would be a smart move for anyone to NOT be the next writer after King. Too much terrible **** to deal with, honestly.

I really can't see anyone wanting to be beholden by King's run and the immediate follower would be basically forced to do so if At&T really gave King a green light for massive changes to the status quo.

In his case, it may be because he likes the run and don't think he could do as well, but loved or hated, King's run is too polarizing for any writer to really step in just after he left the main book, especially as he'll still be stirring **** up with his Bat/Cat many (which will, hopefully, be entirely self-contained and not impact the rest of the Bat-books so I won't have to read it).

[Digifiend]

Wilson might be taking over. Someone will be on the book, DC isn’t going to not have Batman on there. And in the WB, Cates and Starlin actually talked and Cates mentions talking to him about Thanos and Batman.

You think this could be why she left Wonder Woman? Batman is certainly one of the only DC books that's higher profile than WW (Superman and Justice League being the others).

Whoever takes over, it's going to be tough for them, knowing that they weren't even first choice to take over the book.