Since the relaunch in 2011, one of the highest selling and most critically acclaimed New 52 titles is Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman, and this month, the title features the final chapter of the duo's modern take on the Caped Crusader's origin, Zero Year. Ahead of the release of Batman #33, Snyder sat down for a lengthy interview with Comic Book Resources.
On his pride for his fourth Dark Knight tale:
For me, Zero Year is unequivocally my favorite thing that we've done. I'm really, really proud of Black Mirror and Court Of Owls and Death Of The Family, but to get to do Batman in a way that sort of reconfigures his origin for you -- as a writer, that's personal, both about [Gotham] City and the way you see it now, trying to modernize it, there's just no greater thrill or honor. I feel really, really grateful to the fans, to DC for letting me do it, and I think this issue of Zero Year, #33, coming out is our best one in the whole story arc. I think people will see with #33, without giving too much away, really articulates why we did the whole story, what it's about. It has my favorite ending of any issue we've done in Batman so far. For me, this issue is sort of a thesis and a thank you and a big conclusion, an over the top, bombastic, nutty action conclusion all in one. So I'm really happy.
On what goes down in Batman #33 between Batman and the Riddler:
This issue is all about leaving space for these riddles. Basically, this is the issue where half of it is Batman locked in a battle of wits with Edward. He's on a big game board, essentially, and he can't move because each one of those laser lights is connected to a chemical weapon around the city, of weather balloons filled with gas, and to get through each one of them he has to answer a riddle correctly. The riddles took me a long time to make up! I asked all my friends for help, from Marguerite [Bennette] to Ray Fawkes to Jeff Lemire. But I'm really happy with them at the end of the day! I think they're tricky enough, they're fun enough... [Riddler] sees riddles as the simplest and purest raw form of war, so he sees himself engaged in that over this board that represents to him, the fate of Gotham. It's really, really fun for me.
On the personal nature of the story and meeting Batman: Year One writer Frank Miller:
The project has been to make it something very personal. I was lucky enough a few weeks ago to meet Frank Miller for the first time, and it was a huge thrill for me. I mean, that was one of the things I was hoping and asking DC about since I started there! When we spoke, he was incredibly gracious and sweet to me and generous to us on the book. When we spoke and I told him how much Year One meant to me, he told me that he had read Zero Year so far, which blew my mind! He said he felt it had the right spirit, and he could tell it was about things that mattered to us personally -- and he said we gave him [Batman] a "good goddamn haircut!" If I could use that as a quote, I'd die happy!
On what comes after Zero Year:
There's worse things in store for the entire city of Gotham coming! I'll never get tired of torturing this poor city. The story we're doing after Zero Year, which will be solicited for October, is meant to be our most muscular and bombastic, our biggest thing that we'll take on, with the biggest cast and the craziest story moves. I want to keep it very close to the chest, I think. We want to surprise people and have them enjoy it for what it is, but we definitely have some very, very over the top stuff left! We wouldn't go into Batman's seventy-fifth without something really big planned. Part of the idea was to [show] why Batman is the greatest superhero of all time and why he's endured for seventy-five years. It's our tribute to Batman.
There is heaps more from Snyder in the full interview, including talk of his struggles with anxiety and depression, scrapped Riddler backstory and comparisons to 1980s New York (which was the basis for Miller's Gotham in Year One). Batman #33 hits shelves on July 23rd.