Rob Leving moderated the DC Comics: DC’s Gotham City panel at New York Comic Con today. The panel featured guests Alex Segura (The Question: All Along the Watchtower), Christian Ward (Two-Face, Batman: City of Madness), Dan Watters (Nightwing, Batman: Dark Patterns), Hayden Sherman (Batman: Dark Patterns), and Tate Brombal (Batgirl).
The panel started with an introduction to DC GO!, the new vertical scrolling comics. There are special previews of two issues, each of Harley Quinn in Paradise and Nothing Butt Nightwing, available now on DC Universe Infinite. More on DC GO! here.
Rob asked the panelists where they were from and what was the Batman issue or other Batman media that first got them into Batman. For Tate Brombal, it was the Tim Burton film Batman: Returns. He was obsessed with Michelle Pfeiffer at the time. For Hayden Sherman, it was the third trade paperback of Knightfall Knight’s End, that got them into Batman, so they had to go backward to figure out how the story started. Dan Watters said Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth blew their mind when they first read it.
The panel moved on to talking about Christian’s ward’s Batman: City of Madness which now has a beautiful new hardcover edition available. Christian gave the elevator pitch for City Of Madness, mentioning the Gotham Above and the existence of the Gotham Below as a mirror version of Gotham that is much worse. The Batman from the Gotham Below has come to Gotham Above to find a Robin. It’s a fantastic series and looks beautiful in the hardcover treatment.
Next, Christian was asked what made Two-Face the right Batman villain to star in his own solo series. This being the First Two-Face solo series ever published. For Christian, Two-Face is the best Batman villain and the one he missed writing the most when he finished City of Madness. He fell in love with him while writing it and wanted to shine a new light on Harvey, the good as well as the bad. He finds it fascinating that Harvey has these two sides to him. The Two-Face book will be like the classic Perry Mason show. Harvey is a lawyer-for-hire for the Gotham underground, and there’s going to be some weird tales to tell in Gotham’s seedy underbelly.
Next, the panel focused on Dan Watters and whether he had any trepidation stepping into the shoes of the highly acclaimed Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo run on the character. He said, of course, there was, but there was no point in trying to do a pale imitation of that great run, and he would be doing something new and different. His new run is going to be all about the power vacuum left in Bludhaven and the four rival gangs vying for power. Nightwing will need to find a way to keep these gangs from destroying each other and the city, so they might have to cozy up to some bad people to achieve those goals. There will be a new, as yet unnamed villain in the run, one that harkens back to Dick’s circus roots. Dan thinks of Nightwing as the Big Brother of the entire DC universe. Having written a lot of dark characters, Dan is surprised at how Nightwing behaves as a good character.
Tate Brombal was asked why it was the right time for a Cassandra Cain solo book since it’s been almost 20 years since her last solo book. Brombal sees a lot of untapped potential in her, especially her relationship with her mother, Lady Shiva. In fact, the first story arc is titled “Mother.” Lady Shiva returns to Gotham City to warn her daughter that a group of ninjas is trying to kill her, and of course, Cass doesn’t believe her. The series is all about Cass and Shiva having their backs against the wall…and fighting a ton of ninjas. It will be very martial arts-driven and will introduce new martial arts-focused heroes and villains. We also learned that Batgirl will be out of Gotham City after the first issue. Brombal wants to bring her back eventually to see how Gotham reacts to her and how she reacts to Gotham. Though it’s become kind of a cliche at this point, Gotham City is its own character.
Alex Segura talked about how Renee Montoya’s life is in shambles in his new series “All along the Watchtower”. She’s lost her job, her personal life is in shambles, and she’s flailing a bit. Renee finds a place of belonging in the watchtower and needs to solve this mystery that the likes of Batman and Superman can’t seem to solve. It’s a noir story, told in a setting that is anything but the traditional noir setting. The series is a character study of Renee, and we’ll be watching her go through a journey. According to Alex, people will be surprised at who the villain is, and there will be a bunch of fun cameos. Some of the fun for Segura is fleshing out the setting of the watchtower and bringing it to life. Where do people eat, how do they spend their time? These are all questions that will be answered.
Dan Watters talked about the genesis of Batman: Dark Patterns and it turns out the Robert Pattinson Batman film was a big inspiration. He wanted to tell nasty crime stories with a man dressed as a bat solving them – really going back to the roots of Batman. Originally the book was going to be drawn by three different artists, one for each arc, but Hayden Sherman wanted to draw them all, which was a welcome surprise for Dan and editorial.
When asked if it provided more or less freedom writing stories about Batman’s early days, Waters thought it offered more freedom and enjoyed it. Batman is more mortal and you can show him screwing up, he hasn’t become that infallible man who always makes the right decision. The series is pulling inspiration from all versions of Batman, and even the yellow Bat symbol harkens back to earlier, classic versions of Batman.
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