Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: Batman, black batman, dc comics, dc fandome, jim lee, john ridley, luke fox

Jim Lee Confirms a Black Batman For 2021 at DC Fandome

Published Sat, 22 Aug 2020 18:55:08 -0500

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Sat, 22 Aug 2020 19:04:14 -0500

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DC Comics Publisher and CCO Jim Lee spoke to Bing Chen of Goldhouse at DC Fandome, hoping through a lot of the stories going down today at DC's online show, and talking about increased diversity of characters at DC Comics, as the company gains global appeal.

Jim Lee Confirms a Black Batman For 2021 at DC Fandome — DC Fandome screencap.

During which he confirmed what John Ridley teased earlier. Ridley said there was "a slightly greater than 47% chance that he will be a person of colour" and that with Nick Derington would be the series artist. But Jim Lee confirmed that Ridley will be writing a series with a Black Batman. He confirmed it is a mini-series (rather than the ongoing series we know was originally planned) and he says that Ridley will address his own relationship with his two sons in the comic book. Which, given Ridley's comments regarding how it will explore the Lucius Fox character, adds greater weight to our original reports from last year that Luke Fox, son of Lucious Fox, will be the new Batman.

Now, this looks like it will no longer be the line-wide change to Batman that was originally planned under former DC publisher Dan DiDio. But Jim Lee says that it is part of the idea that anyone can be Batman, and that the role of DC Comics, 85 years in, is to look beyond what has been established by the characters, and try and keep things interesting and fresh. And we got a cover from Jose Ladronn…

In September 2019, Bleeding Cool first reported that DC Comics was to give us a new black Batman to replace Bruce Wayne in the comic books., and then learnt it would be Luke Fox, son of Lucius Fox. We then learnt it would be would be written by John Ridley, screenwriter of 12 Years A Slave and part of 5G, or Generation Five, a publishing event led by publisher Dan DiDio to replace all the lead characters in the DC Universe and have them aged up, introducing a new generation to DC Comics. however, earlier this year, Dan DiDio was fired as publisher and 5G was pushed back. The shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic underlined this as 5G was shrunk from the mainstream DC Universe to, as we learnt, an imprint.

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