Summary
The last several weeks has been filled with exciting announcements forBatmanfans. Between getting a new origininBatman and Robin: Year Oneand a complete overhaul in the Absolute Universe, there’s lot to look forward to. But one upcoming story is about to put the Dark Knight through the wringer.
Killadelphiawriter Rodney Barnes is writing the new book for DC Comics’ Black Label line,Batman: Full Moon. This intense miniseries will see Bruce Wayne grapple with darkness when awerewolf comes to Batman’s town. Screen Rant sat down with Barnes to dive into what fans can expect from this chilling story.
Screen Rant: What drew you to the idea of creating not just a Batman book, but one under the DC Black Label imprint?
Rodney Barnes: One of the first comics I ever read had the Neil Adams cover, Batman was chained to the street and a werewolf was jumping at him. I wanted to write comics that go back to my childhood, to reconnect to the kid inside because television has a way of making me cynical after a while. I wanted to do a book that was faithful and an homage to that period of time and that’s scary to me.
Comics really do have a tether to our past. And as a writer, you get the opportunity to manifest that connection, which has got to be such a transcendental experience compared to just reading.
Rodney Barnes: Big time. It’s idealism in its purest form to take a character like Batman and be able to play with him. And I love horror anyway. Take one of the Universal Monsters and place them in a world with Batman. I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Batman really isn’t a stranger to the supernatural. You’ve mentioned this connection to this Neil Adams cover. Is there any other reason for why you made a werewolf story?
Rodney Barnes: It feels like werewolves are driven by anger. There’s a pain that they’re wrestling with. And Batman/Bruce Wayne has a similar thing as well. The theme of the book is anger at heart manifests the monster within. So we have a Batman who’s slightly arrogant, doesn’t really have faith in anything. And he doesn’t believe in werewolves per se. But when he’s faced with the reality, it’s sorta is like looking in a mirror.
That’s really cool because Batman’s rogues' gallery do mostly reflect him in one way or another. But instead of classic villain, it’s a classic movie monster.
Rodney Barnes: Theoretically, how does Batman, a human being, even with all the gadgets and silver bullets, how do you fight a werewolf? I know there’s that debate of whether Batman can fight Superman. I saw this meme the other day where Batman was fighting Godzilla.
Sure you’re not thinkingJustice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong?
Rodney Barnes: Well, there’s that too, but at least you got the whole Justice League. I wanted to pit a very grounded Batman against something that was supernatural, that he had to use more than just his wits, more than just gadgets, more than Gotham City, more than the Batcave and really get down to the heart and essence of who he is.
What is it about Batman that lends himself so well to the horror genre? Because you probablycoulddo a similar story with Superman, but it just wouldn’t feel the same.
Rodney Barnes: I think you’re absolutely right. Even though magic is one of the weaknesses of Superman. I go back to the Len Wein/Bernie Wrightson Swamp Thing/Batman team-ups, where it put him in a monster world and created this idea of a different, darker Batman. And the beauty of Batman is he can be the classic superhero with the Justice League. He can be the guy that’s grounded on the streets. And he can go off into realms like this and feel completely natural. And I think that idea of fear and Batman almost a metaphor for vampires in the way that you know there’s a darkness to him. I think that the darkness is in Bruce Wayne/Batman. He fits well into the darkness and the supernatural.
When you look at Batman’s villains like Man-Bat or Killer Croc, you could consider him a monster hunter already. But this isn’t Batman fighting a monster of the week. This is a grander story.
Rodney Barnes: The idea is he’s not just battling an antagonist. The person that’s in the werewolf is a victim himself. He’s cursed. Once you become aware of that, do you handle it in the same way that you would the Joker or any of the villains that you just named? There should be an empathetic way that sort of factors in how you deal with this obstacle. There’s a human being and suffering. When our main antagonist isn’t in werewolf form, you get to know him and hopefully empathize with him as a person. And he’s ripping off arms and killing people, so there’s this juxtaposition of where empathy and sympathy fall within the dynamics of battling someone who isn’t just out to steal money, or hurt people purposely, but still at the end of the day is doing bad things.
Some of the best Batman villains are the ones that have this real human nature to them, like Mister Freeze. And its that humanity that Batman struggles with when dealing with his villains.
Rodney Barnes: I think that emotional struggle adds a layer to the story. It would be easy just to do the cool thing have Batman fighting a werewolf. But adding those extra layers into the story adds to the emotional complexity within the story.
The solicitation for the first issue describes your story as “a tale of pain and redemption”, which is a great way of summing Batman up. Did you want to elaborate on that line?
Rodney Barnes: When you think about the pantheon of Batman stories from zero to now, virtually everything has been touched. I wanted to get into the human stuff a little bit more. What happens to your ego when you’ve been Batman for a really long time? You look at Gotham City as yours. A force comes in that isn’t your usual entity. And you’re able to’t just beat him off of your wits. There’s a religious component as well. What Batman believe in? Does he believe in anything? Does he just believe in his own ability? If he’s humbled, what happens to that mindset? There are a lot of different layers and subplots within that deal directly with Batman/Bruce Wayne as to who he is.
This solicitation also mentions Bruce’s magic allies and I think Zatanna was mentioned.
Rodney Barnes: And John Constantine.
Definitely the default magic users. When this story was shaping up, were these the ones that you just had to use?
Rodney Barnes: Big time. DC was high on Zatanna and Bruce having a love story. And I felt like because she had a relationship with Constantine, who deals in that magic dark world, it’d be great to add him in as well. Man-Bat is in it as well. Not to give too much away, but there’s a reason why this werewolf is in Gotham City. I just always wanted to play with these characters. If I could have found a way to get Swamp Thing in there, I would have stuck him in there. I think it’s a great co-starring cast.
You’re working with Stevan Subic on this. Talk a bit about what he brings to the table and what makes him a good fit.
Rodney Barnes: Darkness. When they first floated the idea about who would be illustrating this book, they showed me his work. I was like “Obviously he does a darker thing. He has a darker tone.”, There’s an ominous sense even scenes and panels that aren’t meant to be ominous, that’s something he brings to it. His work with the Riddler book was also a very dark as well. So it just seemed like it would fit and he’d done a lot of a lot of Swamp Thing stuff I’d seen on his page. Even though Swamp Thing isn’t there’s a book, that just felt like the darkness that fit with what I was trying to do.
This book is not due until October, which is the best time if you’re gonna do a Batman and werewolf book.
Rodney Barnes: Yeah. Halloween!
What do you want to tell fans to get them into this book?
Rodney Barnes: Well, there’s a lot of action, obviously. But I think you see Batman in a different light to where he’s still Batman. He’s still as badass. But he is humbled in a lot of ways and he’s forced to use aspects of himself that you don’t typically see. The emotional components. I think if you care about Bruce Wayne as much as you do Batman that this is a book for you.
Batman: Full Moon #1is available on October 9th from DC Comics.
