Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: Batman, dc comics, james tynion iv, joker

James Tynion IV Has A Three Year Plan For Batman And The Joker

Published Wed, 30 Dec 2020 20:50:37 -0600

Tom King had a four-and-a-bit year plan for Batman, but only got three-and-a-bit. James Tynion IV is settling for a little less, telling readers of his Empire Of The Tiny Onion newsletter that;

Our goal here is to build a new and exciting era of Gotham City, with this larger status quo and ethos reflected in each title. I wrote a long-form Gotham Bible over the summer … I think the current line of X-Books have shown the strength of a line of titles working in tandem with each other. We've set up a monthly zoom call between the core Gotham writers to keep everything in line together. I had a long chat with Ram V just the other day about how we can weave together a series of story threads between the Batman and Catwoman titles that are going to pay off incredibly when they all come together.

That wouldn't be possible without a plan, and right now, I have a three-year plan for both the Batman book and the Joker book… Those plans are separate and not dependent on each other, though they might wink at each other from time to time… Now, years two and three of that plan will only happen if you guys show up and support these titles and the direction we have for them, and every year is going to stand alone as its own complete arc, its own beginning, middle and end… But there's a tremendous strength in being able to play the long game with these characters. To be able to confidently lay down some tracks into the future. To be able to say that these new characters we're introducing aren't built to be flash-in-the-pan. They're being built to last.

Of course, at the end of that three year road, if everything works out… The Batman and Joker threads will slam together again, as we draw to a close a bunch of the threads of this era, and I see whether I can finally get the key piece that I pitched to DC last summer, and ride off into the sunset…

James Tynion IV Has A Three Year Plan For Batman And The Joker

And with the current X-Men line as inspiration, Tynion restated the current Batbook line-up.

This is going to be the most unified Bat-Line that you've seen in years, with one of the most exciting creative line-ups that I think we've had in the near-decade I have been working in and around Gotham City.

BATMAN by James Tynion IV and Jorge Jimenez
JOKER by James Tynion IV and Guillem March
DETECTIVE COMICS by Mariko Tamaki and Dan Mora
NIGHTWING by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo
CATWOMAN by Ram V and Fernando Blanco
HARLEY QUINN by Stephanie Phillips and Riley Rossmo
BATMAN/SUPERMAN by Gene Luen Yang and Ivan Reis
ROBIN backups by Joshua Williamson and Gleb Melnikov
PUNCHLINE backups by James Tynion IV, Sam Johns and Mirka Andolfo

And the new Gotham Anthology title, BATMAN: URBAN LEGENDS featuring the following stories in its first issue:

RED HOOD by Chip Zdarsky and Eddy Barrows
GRIFTER by Matt Rosenberg and Ryan Benjamin
HARLEY QUINN/POISON IVY by Stephanie Phillips and Laura Braga
THE OUTSIDERS by Brandon Thomas and Max Dunbar

For the first time in the history of my working in and around Gotham City, I have an answer to pretty much to the "where can I find THIS character" for every fan-favorite. Urban Legends is going to be a real gift. A lot of storylines will be seeded in that title before they break out into their own titles… There are also more books to come in the Gotham line as the year goes on. Big moments in the core Gotham titles will set new runs in motion in other titles. Backups and shorts might turn into one-shots and miniseries and series, and we're working to make sure it all matters.