Put On A Happy Face: Batman Panel at SDCC 2012

Editor’s Note: I acknowledge that these pictures suck. We’ll upgrade our cameras once we receive your subscription check. Oh, you don’t pay for this? Then fuck you and enjoy the pictures you got.

Last year we kind of wandered into the panel for Scott Snyder’s American Vampire, mostly to make sure we’d have a seat for the DC New 52 panel that followed directly afterwards. Don’t get me wrong, we were following American Vampire in kind of a general way, but I had fallen away; the initial hype around one of the early stories being written by Stephen King hadn’t been enough to keep me in the book except in a “flip through when I happened to see it on the shelf” way. The point is that last year, we were able to walk right into Snyder’s panel without having to wait around in a line.

That was 2011. This year, Snyder’s writing Batman, which has consistently been one of the best books of DC’s New 52 and the source of the first post-reboot DC crossover event. So this time around, for the Batman panel yesterday? Yeah, we waited in line.

The Batman panel covered all the Batman family books, from Batman to Red Hood And The Outlaws… meaning walking in Amanda and I steeled ourselves for exciting news running the gamut from Batman’s post-Owls Joker encounter to Starfire’s post-Red Hood stranger’s penis encounter. However, weird former Teen Titan sex revelations or no, Snyder started the panel off with a laugh: “Avengers Vs. X-Men, who wins? Batman.” I hate it when my comic writers are funnier than I am. But I digress.

The panel kicked off with the most obvious holdover from the aftermath of the Night of The Owls event: new title Talon, by Snyder and his former student and current Batman backup writer James Tynion IV (Oh, an aristocrat!). Talon’s gonna be about a Talon (duh) named Calvin Rose who escaped the thrall of the Court of Owls and is now being hunted. The story was originally pitched to Snyder by editorial, but he turned it down because, “[he] didn’t want to milk it.” Snyder said that Tynion “came up with the beef,” where Rose was a former circus escape artist before being recruited by the Owls (probably in that old, 1780s pass out in a bar and wake up in the British Navy kinda way). And Tynion, well, he seems to be enjoying working on the book: “Last year, I’m sitting out there [in the panel crowd],” Tynion said, “[I’m] thrilled and terrified simultaneously.” He must’ve just read an issue of Red Hood and The Outlaws. But I digress again.

Then the panel came to a screeching fucking halt. DC Vice President of Marketing John Cunningham interrupted the panel to hand out free Owl masks to the entire panel (Watch our eBay auction room!) and the crowd and the panel went silent, like they were handing out government cheese after the factory moved to Guadalupe.

But still and all, when the handout was done, they got this picture of us from the panel, so what started awkward and boring at least wound up completely terrifying.

Snyder described his plans for the upcoming Batman #0; he said that he would be filling in some of the early days of Batman. There will be no Batcave, a different set of tools, and Batman will be at “a different point emotionally, [and] a different point physically.” Which I’m sure will be well-written and compelling, and not the “Fat Batman with a pipe wrench operating out of a van down by the river” that I couldn’t help but picturing.

Then we got to the meat of things: this fall’s return of The Joker across pretty much all the Batman titles. Which looks really fucking awesome.

According to Snyder, The Joker considers himself to be Batman’s court jester, who operates and speaks truth to power (apparently using poisoned fish, if history is any guide) to make Batman better. And Snyder says that Joker is returning to test Batman, feeling he has lost some edge following the Court of Owls event.

“I think [The Joker’s] the greatest villain of all time,” Snyder said. “It really is our Killing Joke… this is an explanation of what makes The Joker special as a villain.” And apparently what makes him special is homicidal violence against children.

Because Snyder says that The Joker’s returning to attack the entire Batman family, which he considers a new concept for the character. Snyder pointed out that The Joker crippled Batgirl, but only while he was going after Commissioner Gordon to break Batman. Yes, he killed Jason Todd, but only to hurt Batman. And this time, he’ll be going after the Batman Family directly.

“He will rape and kill… and do everything to break you,” Snyder said. “[We wrote The Joker] the most fucking twisted we possibly could.” Well, hell.

Kyle Higgins chimed in to talk about what’s coming up in Nightwing – apparently in issues 13 and 14, Tom DeFalco is temporarily taking over writing duties and overseeing the return of Lady Shiva –  but the other big news came from Gail Simone about Batgirl. According to Simone, the 0 issue features the post-New 52 reboot version of Batgirl’s origin, and in the upcoming Batgirl annual, Batgirl teams up with Catwoman. “It’s the dark side of the mirror to the Birds of Prey,” Simone said.

But more importantly, as of Batgirl 13, pencilling duties will be taken over by Ed Benes, current artist on Red Lanterns. Meaning that soon we will see a sharp 726% increase in the number of ass shots featured in Batgirl. “If I ask [Benes] to show me three emotions in one panel? Done,” Simone said. Yup, he can do happy ass, morose hindquarters, and giddy bottom.

Also coming up in the Batman books:

• In Batman: The Dark Knight, a Scarecrow arc examining why both Scarecrow and Bruce Wayne are, in their own ways, obsessed with fear. In addition, Issue 0 will be about Joe Chill.
• Batwoman will be reexamining Batwoman’s origin, as well as the past of Kate’s father and why he supports Batwoman’s war on crime. The arc starting in issue 13 will feature Wonder Woman.
• Detective Comics, being written by Chew writer John Layman starting with issue #13, said he will be doing stories that amount to one case per issue. “Very fast-paced, very fun,” Layman said, before announcing his first story arc will be named Emperor Penguin. In the meantime, the 0 issue will “examine how Bruce approaches intimacy.” My guess? Vaseline.
• For Catwoman, my notes initially read, “Jesus, how many fucking Batman books are there? DC only HAS 52 books! However, after that, they confirm that Green Arrow writer Ann Nocenti is taking over the book from Judd Winick as of the 0 issue, and starting in the thirteenth issue, the story will include “someone who wants to bring joy into everyone’s life.” My money? Daniel Tosh.

And finally, there’s Red Hood and The Outlaws, which will continue to be written by Scott Lobdell. Lobdell announced that his 0 issue will be based around Jason Todd’s childhood leading up to his becoming Robin. “Red Hood #0 may be the saddest thing I’ve ever written in my life,” Lobdell said. Apparently he’s not a Starfire fan.

Speaking of which, Lobdell announced that he’ll be reintroducing Blackfire – Starfire’s evil sister – in the book’s second year. “When I introduced K’oriander to the New 52, some people were, ‘Huh… that’s different,'” Lobdell said. And he said that his intention is to do a similar overhaul of Blackfire. And on one hand, I really do have to applaud Lobdell having the stones to take bold directions in rethinking existing characters, and while I think his reboot of Starfire was a misfire, this new move might work out. On the other hand, I think we’re three issues away from seeing Blackfire working a glory hole at a bus station’s men’s room.

So all in all, we’re looking at a bunch of exciting stuff coming up in the Batman titles. The return of The Joker to the New 52, combined with the anticipation of the resolution of the “Where’s Joker’s fucking face?” mystery introduced in Detective Comics #1, mean some cool events in Batman this fall.

What am I looking forward to the most, you ask? That’s easy: giddy bottom.