James Tynion's Plans for Batman in 2021

[DragonPiece]

James Tynion sent out a newsletter last night with a lot of exciting info about his plans for the Batman and Joker titles.

There is a lot to take in, but here are some exciting bits I found interesting..

Urban Legends will spin out other gotham titles and mini series: "Urban Legends is going to be a real gift. A lot of storylines will be seeded in that title before they break out into their own titles… There are also more books to come in the Gotham line as the year goes on. Big moments in the core Gotham titles will set new runs in motion in other titles. Backups and shorts might turn into one-shots and miniseries and series, and we’re working to make sure it all matters."

On Batman's current wealth: "I'm bring him back to being a less problematic kind of Wealthy. Bruce Wayne, Millionaire, rather than Bruce Wayne, Billionaire. He’s not so rich that he could effectively buy Gotham City and fix it overnight. There are a bunch of much wealthier people than him in the city trying to maintain their power and influence and Batman is from their world and fighting against them, he doesn’t have the ability to just buy and sell them and walk away."

Planning the bat/cat dynamic: " I had a long chat with Ram V just the other day about how we can weave together a series of story threads between the Batman and Catwoman titles that are going to pay off incredibly when they all come together."


On the reaction to the Joker book: "I know there are a lot of folks who are going to have a knee-jerk reaction to there being a Joker book. If I weren’t writing it, I’d probably be one of them. Hell, back when it was first pitched to me, I said flat out that I wasn’t really sure how to make that work… And then I sat with it for a few weeks and said “okay, I know how to make it work, but it’s only going to work if we come at it from an unexpected angle.” And thankfully everyone in the Bat-Offices, and the DC offices bought into my angle. It is the scariest book I have written for DC Comics so far. And maybe the most human. I love writing Jim Gordon so fucking much. He’s been one of my favorite characters in all of comics for my entire life."

Backup Stories in Batman: "The Batman title is going have an unannounced backup features starting in April (After a two part ROBIN backup by my good pal Joshua Williamson and one of my favorite new artists, Gleb Melnikov, running between the March issues of both Batman and Detective) – I’ve been working with the artist on the next round of Back-ups since late this summer, and I could not be more excited to tell you about it. It is high octane manga-influenced action insanity, with an artist I love, and can’t wait to bring to into the Gotham fold."


Other small things:
-Next Batman arc is described as a cyberpunk horror story, introduces a new group caleld the unsanity collective
-Batman annual 5, that came out this week, sets up what's next for clownhunter's evolution
-He considers the current Batman era as roughly the midpoint between batman the animated series and batman beyond
-He has a 3 year plan for both the Batman and Joker titles, as always, it depends on how much people continue to support him on the titles

[MajorHoy]

Doesn't look like I'll be buying much in the Batman-line in 2021.

[Darkcrusade25]

Hoping to see backup stories involving Red Robin or Red Hood. Otherwise I don’t really see a reason to buy all this hype. Feels like adding more new characters like back in the Synder days.

[Astralabius]

I'm not going to buy anything that has batcat in it.

[Westbats]

Urban Legends will spin out other gotham titles and mini series: "Urban Legends is going to be a real gift. A lot of storylines will be seeded in that title before they break out into their own titles…

Backup Stories in Batman: "– I’ve been working with the artist on the next round of Back-ups since late this summer, and I could not be more excited to tell you about it. It is high octane manga-influenced action insanity, with an artist I love, and canÂ’t wait to bring to into the Gotham fold."

I noticed this as well when I read the newsletter, it sounds as if every back-up story will break out into their own title. In that case, Zdarsky's Red Hood will definitely looked at with anticipation. Hearing that it's manga influenced brings back his description of Ghost-Hunter, I wonder if that means that he's the focal point of the April back-ups and that he'll be getting a spin-off of his own?

As well, if back-ups lead to titles, does that mean an Punchline on-going starring Leslie Thompkins and Harper Row is in development? It strikes me as odd that after getting a special issue to start the story that Tynion is doing it as a backup in Joker and not just making it a limited-series on it's own. If Tynion's three-year plan is to end up with another Batman vs. Joker story at the end, then is his plan to stretch Punchline's trial three real-life years?

Either way, it'll be interesting to be reading a set of Gotham books that cannot rely on Joker being around for three years.

[DragonPiece]

I noticed this as well when I read the newsletter, it sounds as if every back-up story will break out into their own title. In that case, Zdarsky's Red Hood will definitely looked at with anticipation. Hearing that it's manga influenced brings back his description of Ghost-Hunter, I wonder if that means that he's the focal point of the April back-ups and that he'll be getting a spin-off of his own?

As well, if back-ups lead to titles, does that mean an Punchline on-going starring Leslie Thompkins and Harper Row is in development? It strikes me as odd that after getting a special issue to start the story that Tynion is doing it as a backup in Joker and not just making it a limited-series on it's own. If Tynion's three-year plan is to end up with another Batman vs. Joker story at the end, then is his plan to stretch Punchline's trial three real-life years?

Either way, it'll be interesting to be reading a set of Gotham books that cannot rely on Joker being around for three years.

Yeah, he hasn't been coy about ghost-hunter getting his own type of solo story on twitter, so it wouldn't surprise me if the backups are centered around him. Very curious to see who the artist will be. I'm also curious about if Harper can get a ongoing after the punchline story, the fact that she's even getting any shine is good. Wish she could have been part off the 2021 batman variant Jorge did though.

[Stars & Stripes]

Yeah, he hasn't been coy about ghost-hunter getting his own type of solo story on twitter, so it wouldn't surprise me if the backups are centered around him. Very curious to see who the artist will be. I'm also curious about if Harper can get a ongoing after the punchline story, the fact that she's even getting any shine is good. Wish she could have been part off the 2021 batman variant Jorge did though.

Is there even a high demand for a Bluebird solo aside from us few? Just curious.

[Frontier]

So my takeaway:

- Urban Legends will lead into a lot of things...new Red Hood book? Harley's solo is a given. Maybe more stuff with Grifter and the Foxes.

- "Big moments in the core Gotham titles will set new runs in motion in other titles. Backups and shorts might turn into one-shots and miniseries and series, and we’re working to make sure it all matters." So maybe a Bluebird one-shot or Batgirls series?

- To be honest, Bruce's wealth doesn't sound all that different because I don't think anyone felt like Bruce could just buy the city, but maybe that's just me. I guess now that he's not the richest man in Gotham Bruce might seem more normal and less problematic? I dunno.

- People disappointed about how things ended with Selina in Joker War should be happy to see the upcoming interplay between the Batman and Catwoman books.

- I'm guessing Tynion latched onto the Joker series as a stealth Jim Gordon ongoing.

- Tynion really bringing his love of manga to the forefront. I wonder if the Unsanity Collective is that group of people Batman is chasing after in the Batmobile in the Jorge Jimenez preview art.

- B:TAS to Beyond, huh? I guess Beyond is a better future than Future State.

[DragonPiece]

Is there even a high demand for a Bluebird solo aside from us few? Just curious.

No, but it's not like Harper has had a lot of apperances to even build up that kind of demand.

[km_sus]

So I assume Urban Legends and the backups are where characters like Tim, Cass and Steph will live? That's cool, I like the sound of interconnectedness ala the Dixon era of Batbooks (and I know Tynion grew up during that era). Surprisingly, I'm actually interested and planning to pick up more than half of the bat line.

I wonder how strong the Bat/Cat relationship will be in the future? I get the impression that both Tynion and Ram V aren't that interested in the relationship and are only doing it because DC's new kick is actually paying adherence to their recent continuity.

[Frontier]

So I assume Urban Legends and the backups are where characters like Tim, Cass and Steph will live? That's cool, I like the sound of interconnectedness ala the Dixon era of Batbooks (and I know Tynion grew up during that era). Surprisingly, I'm actually interested and planning to pick up more than half of the bat line.

I wonder how strong the Bat/Cat relationship will be in the future? I get the impression that both Tynion and Ram V aren't that interested in the relationship and are only doing it because DC's new kick is actually paying adherence to their recent continuity.

I think Tynion and Ram V feel Bruce and Selina are each other's "the one" but they're not tethered to each other.

[lilyrose]

I wonder how strong the Bat/Cat relationship will be in the future? I get the impression that both Tynion and Ram V aren't that interested in the relationship and are only doing it because DC's new kick is actually paying adherence to their recent continuity.

I don't quite understand what either of their view on it is, since they both seem uninterested based on what they've written, but also haven't split them up either. Now they're going to tie some stuff in their books together? Maybe this is a new DC mandate not to officially break them up or something. Maybe DC's just waiting to see what the impact of Bat/Cat is before deciding whether they want them to be tied together for good.

I do know that someone else would write them together really well in their own way (like TOM TAYLOR) and that's why I wish he could have had Batman next. King's take on them followed by Taylor's take on them (both love them together but write them together differently) could have really had a major impact on their long term status, imo.

[Bad Witch]

I thought James was just going to be a temporary writer after king. I have mixed feelings. I mean his run has been better than kings, not as good as snyders. None of which come close to Morrison obviously. I have been willing to give it a chance because king just **** all over batman. It's been decent so far but I've been hoping that it was going to end soon. First came joker war, ok after this, March solicitations and tynion is still on batman. Ok maybe he will get 2021.. Three years?

I'm excited for zdarsky on urban legends. Can you imagine zdarsky on batman and Taylor on nigjtwing? Drool. I don't want to see someone fail but I really don't want to do three years. That's like six years of bad/mediocre batman. Hopefully zdarsky on urban leads to a zdarsky on red hood. He's doing daredevil so I don't know if he can go back and forth. I hope tynion pulls off a good run and as I said I have mixed feelings...

[Stars & Stripes]

No, but it's not like Harper has had a lot of apperances to even build up that kind of demand.

True that. There was a four year (2016-2020) gap between appearances for the character, who was largely forgotten once other writers got their hands on Gotham.

[Westbats]

Yeah, he hasn't been coy about ghost-hunter getting his own type of solo story on twitter, so it wouldn't surprise me if the backups are centered around him. Very curious to see who the artist will be. I'm also curious about if Harper can get a ongoing after the punchline story, the fact that she's even getting any shine is good. Wish she could have been part off the 2021 batman variant Jorge did though.

For a Ghost-Maker series (limited or otherwise), I'd like Joe Quinones to be the artist. I reread parts of Dial H for Hero and his art-style is very malleable and I think he could pull off a mix between manga and the mood of a Bat-tangent comic.

I wish Harper was the focal point of the Jorge Jimenez variant to the Punchline Special. It's a comics-related hope that Harper gets a couple variants this year.

So my takeaway:

- Urban Legends will lead into a lot of things...new Red Hood book? Harley's solo is a given. Maybe more stuff with Grifter and the Foxes.

- "Big moments in the core Gotham titles will set new runs in motion in other titles. Backups and shorts might turn into one-shots and miniseries and series, and we’re working to make sure it all matters." So maybe a Bluebird one-shot or Batgirls series?

Well the new Harley Quinn on-going was already announced, maybe it's a Harley & Ivy series? As for the big moments bit, I'm wondering if having Barbara in Nightwing will set up a Batgirls on-going or if it'll be what starts a new volume of Birds of Prey? Considering that Stephanie and Cassandra are investigating Poison Ivy, my guess is that the Harley & Ivy will set up Batgirls and Nightwing will set up Birds of Prey. I'd like more with the Fox family. Harper getting a one-shot or mini would be great. I noticed after reading Batman Annual 5 last night that Tynion, along other writers, have slowly been gathering a memorable cast of characters in the Narrows. It'd make a lot of sense that a mini focused on that part of Gotham is in the works.

True that. There was a four year (2016-2020) gap between appearances for the character, who was largely forgotten once other writers got their hands on Gotham.

Yep, 1154 days. She was absent from comics longer than Stephanie was between pre-Flashpoint and the Batman Eternal preview in Batman 28.