Part of the appeal for me is that I
don’t think we’d get a traditional take on either Batman or Superman from him, and I want to see what that looks like. I’d put Priest on Detective or Action, and basically let the “main” books offer a more traditional take. I mean what’s the point of having two books if they’re both going for the same tone? Obviously he could totally botch it, but Batman fans have plenty of other options to get their fix, and we Superman fans are used to eating up punishment
But you don’t really get a legendary run unless you’re willing to break away from what people think a character “must” be. Batman in particular is an example of this, his reinvention in the 70s after the Adam West show, Frank Miller’s DKR arguing that no Batman COULD grow old and still kick ass, Morrison’s Bat-Epic which was a firm rejection of the popular belief that Batman is insane, and on and on. Ewing’s Immortal Hulk is another great example, casting Hulk as a horror character, playing around with the Devil Hulk incarnation which wa a originally a straight up evil Hulk but is now more nebulous, etc. Or Hickman transforming the X-Men from gluttons for punishment who keep getting genocide into their current incarnation that addresses topics like the singularity.
I want stuff like that for Supes (and DC as a whole), and I’m not going to get it from the typical good ol’ farmboy Clark take. Priest I think would push the envelope, and I’d like to encourage that in comics. Sometimes it crashes and burns like (imo) Zack Snyder’s take on the characters, but sometimes it succeeds and helps a character find new fans.
Plus I’ll be honest: I’m curious what a black writer would bring to the table with two of the biggest heroes in comics. I wanna see if he s got an angle I have not seen before.