Note - art not from the series.
Early days, early days.
Thats the focus of two new series form DC, recounting the early days of both Superman and Batman -
Superman Confidential and
Batman Confidential. Both series launch in November, and aim at showing key moments of the heroes earliest days as heroes first meetings, critical decisions, the forging of alliances, and laying the roots of friendships.
As the series will tell individual arcs, both will see rolling creative teams pass through, with Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale launching
Superman Confidential and Andy Diggle and Whilce Portacio handling the opening arc of
Batman Confidential.
We spoke with Diggle about how he landed the gig, and what hes bringing to the table with his story.
I think the moment it all started was probably when Jock and I bounded up to Bob Schreck at the bar at the Bristol comic con a couple of years ago and babbled at him about how much wed love to do a Batman story, Diggle replied when asked how he landed on the new titles first arc. Bob was like, Cool! And that was that - until later that year at the San Diego Comic Con where, right out of the blue, Bob offered me
Detective Comics. I couldnt believe it!
But, given that this isnt a story about Diggle writing
Detective Comics, and given that Diggle had a
lot gong on when the offer was made, by the time he got around to making his pitch thered been an editorial shuffle at DC, Schreck was no longer the Bat-editor, and a new
Detective team was already in place.
But, Diggle continued, Dan Didio came over to London later that year, and we chatted about what I had in mind - a Batman versus Lex Luthor story. Well, I say chatted - what I actually did was engage in an enthusiastic beer-fueled rant, most of which detailed the choreography of an elaborate action sequence featuring a Mach-3 face-off between the Bat-Plane and a 200-foot tall war robot outside Area 51. As you do.
I recall Dans eyes narrowed and he made this sort of non-committal Hmm, and I thought, Thats it, Ive just blown it. He thinks it sucks! Turns out what he was thinking was that my take on Batman didnt sound like the traditionally low-key
Detective style of story, and that it might actually make a great launch arc for
Batman Confidential.
It was my feeling that DC had tried so hard to ground Batman in a gritty urban reality in the post-Dark Knight era, maybe theyd lost sight of that fact that at its heart its still supposed to be a
superhero comic. And I passionately believe that superhero comics should be about speed and energy and movement, thrilling adventures and spectacular action. Not just, yknow, whining and soap. So my story begins as a mystery, develops into a conspiracy, and then explodes into all-out, balls-to-the-wall chunky robot action.
As mentioned earlier, the idea behind the two new
Confidential titles is to illustrate key moments in the characters lives. As you probably guessed from Digggles comments, his story focuses on Batmans first encounter with Lex Luthor.
I know Luthors traditionally been Supermans arch-nemesis, but it intrigued me how similar he and Bruce Wayne actually are on the surface, Diggle explained. Theyre both brilliant, driven, super-rich billionaire industrialists, each seeking to change the world for what they see as the betterment of mankind. So on the surface, theres not much to differentiate between them, and neither knows about the others shadowy double life... yet. But once you scratch away the veneer, you see they have very different ideas as to what constitutes the public good - although both are using extreme, secretive measures to pursue their agendas. I think that leads to some interesting contrasts, interesting dramatic friction.
Given the storyline, the meeting, and thus the arc take place somewhere during Batmans second year in business. He hasnt yet made peace with his inner demons - theres still a lot of anger in him, which he channels into violence. Hes not yet the calm forward-planner he will later become. Hes still a little green, still a little rough around the edges, and he doesnt yet have the huge arsenal of high-tech gadgets. That said, he does pick up a few cool toys during the course of the story - not least the Bat-Plane, which is a prototype VTOL stealth fighter being developed by Wayne Aerospace.
In short, WayneTech and LexCorp are each competing for a multi-billion dollar government defense contract. Needless to say, Lex Luthor has bigger plans than merely
selling weapons. He plans to use them for himself - and in a big way. So when bodies start dropping in Gotham City, Batman takes a personal interest. And then the giant robots turn up...
Oh, and as for Whilce - what can I say? A picture tells a thousand words, and Whilces artwork speaks for itself!
