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Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics, IDW | Tagged: Heather Antos, jake thomas, jonathan hickman, Steve Dillon
Jonathan Hickman Has Never Written Batman, But He Thinks Like Him…
Jonathan Hickman may have never written Batman, but apparently he thinks like him, according to IDW editor Jake Thomas
Article Summary
- IDW editor Jake Thomas says Jonathan Hickman thinks like Batman, praising his charts, strategy, and emotional precision.
- Jonathan Hickman impressed Jake Thomas long before Marvel, from The Nightly News to working together on S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Jake Thomas calls Jonathan Hickman his dream Batman writer, imagining a layered, ruthless, long-game Dark Knight run.
- His wild-card pitch paired Jonathan Hickman on Batman with Steve Dillon for a weird, gritty, Rogues Gallery overhaul.
In a candid conversation on the CreatorXCreator podcast from IDW Publishing, senior group editor Jake Thomas revealed his deep admiration for Jonathan Hickman and floated a dream comics pairing to Heather Antos, Jonathan Hickman writing Batman, paired with the late Steve Dillon on art.
Jake Thomas, who has edited at Marvel and now IDW, is overseeing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line and more, and didn't hold back in praising Jonathan Hickman. Jake Thomas first crossed paths with Hickman as a fan and theatre major, having read The Nightly News, Jonathan Hickman's breakout first comic book from Image, adapted it into a stage play, and sent the script to Hickman and his agent. They replied that The Nighthly News had been optioned for a film and that nothing else could be done with it. Years later, as a Marvel Editor, Jake Thomas worked on S.H.I.E.L.D. while Jonathan Hickman was writing it, and told Hickman about their earlier encounter, and he said, "Buddy, it's right where it was when you talked to me a year and a half ago." Jake Thomas described himself as "a big Hickman fan" and highlighted what sets the writer apart: his meticulous, almost architectural approach to storytelling and specifically "I think there are very few people in comics who actually think like Batman and Hickman's one of them… His planning documents are so beautiful and so amazing. He's got charts and graphs," Jake Thomas said. "He's really thought through the emotional beats, how things hit, all of the characters' strengths and weaknesses. Like, here's how we can most hurt this person…"
Jake Thomas argued that few creators think on the level required for a definitive Batman story quite like Jonathan Hickman does. While discussing dream projects, he noted that every editor wants a crack at the Dark Knight, "I could fix him if you don't like him. And if you do like him, I'll give him therapy", but singled out Jonathan Hickman as uniquely suited. "He's never done Batman," Jake Thomas pointed out. "To see how Hickman would build a Batman universe … that would be amazing." He envisioned it as strategic, layered, and psychologically ruthless, exactly the kind of long-game storytelling Hickman excels at. For the art, in his impossible dream scenario, Jake Thomas suggested pairing Jonathan Hickman with the late Steve Dillon, with whom he had worked and was one of the last to see alive on that fateful New York night. Jake Thomas wanted Jonathan Hickman's Batman to feel "weird in the way that Steve Dillon's characters were weird," resulting in a "really cool, really weird, really messed up" take on the Rogue's Gallery. Co-host Heather Antos called the pairing "such an interesting" one, though she noted the tonal contrast between Hickman's grand designs and Dillon's gritty style.
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