Yesterday was the beginning of the highly anticipated Batman series
Death of the Family in which the Joker returns. We see the Joker for the first time in the New 52 has he has a hell bend plan against Batman and all of his allies. The series is suppose to be tie-in with other Batman comics. The writer behind this, Scott Snyder, was recently interviewed io9 and talked about the upcoming storyline.
First off, Death of a Family debuted yesterday in Batman. This crossover arc — which runs in books like Catwoman and Nightwing — sees The Joker launching a calculated criminal spree against all members of the Bat-Family. How did you coordinate Death of a Family with all these creative teams?
Scott Snyder: I like doing this the same way I did Night of the Owls. I come up with the story and halfway through I realized that The Joker was going to target the Bat-Family in very intimate and terrifying ways. The two options are A.) I could write those characters into Batman; or B.) knowing that those books' writers can write those characters better than I ever could, let them go crazy and tie in if they like. And luckily, the writers — like Gail Simone, who I admire and grew up reading — were all in.
Joker has been watching these characters for a full year and is going to use that as ammunition against these characters. So if you've been reading Batgirl, you can read it without reading Batman and have it organic to that series. The Joker is just going crazy on the entire city.
When did you and Batman artist Greg Capullo know that The Joker was going to be the antagonist of your second big arc on Batman?
Scott Snyder: I had started thinking about an idea with The Joker way back when I was writing Detective Comics, but I wanted to do Night of the Owls first. I heard that DC wanted to remove The Joker for a year so that writers would have a chance to bring in new villains. So I talked to [Detective Comics author] Tony Daniels and asked him how he was going to take The Joker off the table. The option he liked the best was "The Joker having his face cut off." What I then did was come up with a story about why that exactly happened.
What differentiates Death of a Family from the grand tradition of Joker stories?
Scott Snyder: The Joker has a very particular mission in mind. He's very unpredictable. One of my favorite monologues in the series comes from Batman in issue #15, when he talks about The Joker's eyes and how inscrutable he is. But he does have a purpose and an axe to grind. And that axe has to do with Batman building up a family that he relies on.
In his mind, The Joker is the court jester of Gotham. He could've been Superman's court jester or "The Joker of Star City." Instead, he came here to be Batman's jester, to bring his worst nightmares to life. What he's saying essentially is, "I've served you as your jester and you've forsaken me for some false royal court. That pisses me off, and I'm going to kill them all to show you why they're not worthy of you." There will be massive ramifications of this psychology.
What are your thoughts and feelings on the upcoming arc from Snyder? Comment below. Peace.