Bruce Wayne to hand the cowl to a black man?

[Frontier]

The writer for 5G Batman is expected to be John Ridley IV.

[bob.schoonover]

The whole 5G thing has sounded really ad hoc, but this is a very interesting development. Hopefully he's given enough leeway to do what he wants.

[adrikito]

LUKE FOX as Batman..

OK. Perfect. I prefer Batwing than Duke.

[lilyrose]

The only upside I see to this is that perhaps it could allow Bruce and Selina to marry before he retires or something.

And they can have Helena! And since it's a new timeline in some vague future (although I don't know how far in the future it's going to be, since it sounds like Bruce will still be running things from the Batcave?), when they eventually go back to younger Bruce, Helena can miraculously be the right age to become a girl Robin!

That's just me speculating of course. Who knows, maybe this future isn't really that far away and Bruce is running things from the shadows because he has a wife and baby to be with.

[skyvolt2000]

The writer for 5G Batman is expected to be John Ridley IV.

Oh DC ain't playing now.

If that is not DC challenging Coates & Marvel-I don't know what is.

[AmiMizuno]

Since this is Dan's idea and also the fact replacements never last I can't see this being permanent.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Since this is Dan's idea and also the fact replacements never last I can't see this being permanent.

This being permanent or not shouldn't matter.

Just enjoy the comic on its own, while it lasts.

[Godlike13]

Ya, i don't think its suppose to be permanent. They do things like this with eventual character returns in mind, cause character returns sell too. 5G in general will probably end with another relaunch. John Ridley IV is an interesting choice though. More interesting then Bendis or what have you (nothing against Bendis). This project is a big ask though for a first major foray into comic, especially with all the noise that is gonna surround this.

[AmiMizuno]

With how Dc does with new events and does with new books I can't see how this will be good.

[Frostbite883]

Oh DC ain't playing now.

If that is not DC challenging Coates & Marvel-I don't know what is.

Just hope you acknowledge that the article topic might be a rumor.

[Inversed]

This seems like it would be DC's apology for screwing Ridley over on The Other History Of The DC Universe, which was supposed to come out earlier this year.

I guess Black Batman is a good substitute.

[kurenai24]

I mean this is great for Luke but how many black writers have gotten a chance to have a run on the main batman book.

I would hope there has been at least one black comic writer who has gotten a stab on writing the main book, but I can confidently say there's probably has been less than five and you're telling me, the one time DC comics hires a black person in recent memory to write for Batman it's not to write for Bruce/Batman, but for Luke/Batman ...it's just not the same, this is some watered-down type of ****.

And, I would also add that writers who have taken a stab at Batman can at least say (for the most part) that the things they did with the character happened, that it stuck around and is a part of Bruce's history; but I think everyone, even the people not dreading 5G don't see it as being a long term thing and so all the work John Ridley IV will do for the character of Luke will disappear when or if 5G disappears ...that's not appealing.

The only plus side for a writer in this sense is that their voice, their writing, and what's being put forth is gonna be one of the defining things about 5G, but yeah, this is one of those 'read the fine print' type of situations.

I'll hold back on further discussions about how this is like scraps for a writer (especially a black writer) who has never written Batman since BC themselves have named this as gossip and not something confirmed (by their standards) and just be happy for Luke.

[Frontier]

This seems like it would be DC's apology for screwing Ridley over on The Other History Of The DC Universe, which was supposed to come out earlier this year.

I guess Black Batman is a good substitute.

I don't think we ever figured out why that got canned.

Maybe because they were re-structuring their own continuity in time for 5G.

[Inversed]

I don't think we ever figured out why that got canned.

Maybe because they were re-structuring their own continuity in time for 5G.

I think it had to do with the whole Black Label debacle, after the Damned issue came about, resulting in the higher higher ups coming in and taking a closer look at all the other BL projects, they probably decided they didn't like how it looked anymore, and trashed it.

And I assume because those people don't care as much who John Ridley is, but like DiDio, Lee, etc. definitively do, so wanna keep him around in some way. So just as they won Bendis over giving him full control of Superman, maybe that's what they did with him and Batman?

[Frontier]

I think it had to do with the whole Black Label debacle, after the Damned issue came about, resulting in the higher higher ups coming in and taking a closer look at all the other BL projects, they probably decided they didn't like how it looked anymore, and trashed it.

It just seems weird that it's the only Black Label book that happened to, although there have been several that were announced that haven't come out yet (or seemingly will) but that seems more because of the writers being busy then anything else.