For a story called "Superheavy," the current arc in "Batman" is, ironically, so far the lightest one that writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo have cooked up for the Caped Crusader. Following "Endgame," an appropriately titled, emotionally-wrenching tale that left both Batman and Joker for dead in the caverns beneath Gotham City, "Superheavy" finds Jim Gordon donning an all-new, heavily-armored Batsuit to become the GCPD's own Dark Knight.

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The latest chapter in Snyder and Capullo's run, which stretches back to the launch of the New 52 in 2011, is only two issues in, and it's already packed with more new Batsuits, Bat-jokes, new Bat-villains and -- yes -- even Bat-Trucks than any other story in their tenure. While at Comic-Con International in San Diego, Snyder and Capullo talked to CBR about "Superheavy's" levity, the lessons they've learned and the wringer that was "Zero Year."

CBR News: The previous "Batman" arc, "Endgame," felt like the conclusion to your long run -- and now we're on chapter two of "Superheavy." What made you both decide that "Endgame" would not be the end?

Greg Capullo: For me, it was never the finale. I think people saw the name "Endgame," but my contract didn't say it was "Endgame." It says, "We got you until at least issue #50 or more." So I never intended for it to be my exit. I think Scott maybe had a different idea, just in case things happened a certain way, but no -- Scott and I are on it for a while going forward. To me, it's not a surprise. We were meant to do this.

Scott Snyder: Yeah, for me, I thought ["Endgame"] was the story we would do when I thought [Capullo] was going to be done earlier or maybe, I thought, I'd push it later and finish at #50 with it and it would be the end. But what happened was, I had the idea for "Superheavy" and the way that "Superheavy" could sort of, without going way too far into the future, spin the mythology around at the end of it and give us a new classic in some way. Like, a new classic if we decided to keep going. It became about, all right, let's do "Endgame" here, before DC moves [offices to Los Angeles], because they were taking the two months off. Let's see if we can get it in and if we can get it in we'll land over here with this new lease on the book and we'll see how it goes.

Everything is almost like the afterlife, Heaven -- we've already done so much on the book. I didn't think that we'd get to be on it this long, and the fact that we have and fans are still so supportive, really, it's a joy. "Superheavy" is a story in and of itself. It's a deep investigation of Batman as a symbol of justice, whether it's within the law or outside of the law, and it's also a deep Bruce story. If fans out there want us to stay, then we'll spin it into a new way afterwards.

I think it's safe to say they want you to stay.

Snyder: I always get worried that the pitchforks will come out or whatever! But they've been good to us. They definitely get angry at times, but they've been good to us.

With "Superheavy," it does seem like you're working Greg pretty hard. New suits, new vehicle, new villians -- how has it been creating a whole new mythology from the ground up?

Capullo: Listen, this has been cake compared to "Zero Year." That's when Scott Snyder kicked my ass. Scott Snyder almost put me in my grave -- the whole art team, we were going to get the pitchforks! He always talks about pitchforks. Me, [inker] Danny Miki and [colorist] FCO [Plascencia], we were sharpening them!

But you know, no, that was the hardest one. This has actually been a lot of fun. Some of the villains that I've gotten to create in these first two issues, just nothing but a good time. If you've seen #42, with the guy who can pull apart the city, I mean, come on, that's the kind of stuff that makes you want to draw comics when you're a little kid. I don't consider this stuff hard work, it's just been great fun.

And the Bat-Truck -- ! It was such a joke to me when Scott goes, "A Bat-Truck!" I'm going, "Like my Tundra or something?" "No, like a rig." I'm going, "But just the rig." "No, no -- with a trailer. Maybe even a double trailer!" I'm going, "How's this thing supposed to take a turn?" Then he goes, "Well, it's not going to take any turns. It's just a straight, vertical plunge."

So it's been nothing but fun. This has been like being a little kid again, really.

Snyder: To be fair, one of the things that was my bad with "Zero Year," that story was so personal in the way that it was what I want Batman to mean to my kids. "Endgame" is sort of what he means to me. For me, with "Zero Year," I got invested in it because it was a personal story, but at the same time, I wasn't aware that as I was adding pages to issues, their deadlines weren't being pushed back. So it was a shock when you guys, by the end, were hurting that bad and I found out -- I vowed, I swore to him and the art team that if I had known, I wouldn't have done it. On top of that, I'll never do it again, and the goal is to make it easier on you.

Capullo: But the other thing I've been trying to teach brother Scott is that there was a lot of labor intensive drawing that took place in "Zero Year" and we go, "We're not a bunch of pussies -- we'll get that done." But you have to understand that, just like a rock song, you don't have the solo throughout; the solo blazes in the center, right? It's the same kind of deal. If you're going to give us ass-kicking guitar solo here, you've gotta give us something that's gonna allow us to regain that lost ground, because this was so labor intensive and time consuming.

So he's just starting now to get the hang of it. You have to throw a few lobs at the same time and that keeps the balance. Not only does that help your art team, but that's a better looking book, just like it's a better song that only has the one solo. I always say it like this: If I take you for a ride in my new hot rod, and I just get you in the car and hit that gas at maximum speed, you'd say it was a real fast car. But if you go ten miles an hour and then punch it and whip my head back, it has more impact. You gotta have that ebb and flow. It's the same thing with the writing and how he feeds the art team so it ends up being a better looking product at the end, and we all survive to the next project.

Snyder: That's what I'm saying, like, I learned how to be a better writer with this guy. He's right. I hope you can see that I've changed the way I write --

Capullo: Oh, yeah, Scott will tell me, "I don't understand what a lob is!" So I would complete the page and I would send him an email and explain to him how long the page took and why, and say why this part was easy and why this part was difficult. Because if the guy doesn't know, then I guess let me demonstrate that for you.

Snyder: I think part of it, also, not to keep harping on this too, is that there are things that you spend so much time on that I think are easier, and then when I realize that of course they're not easier, you're right. Look at the acting, where it's like some of those pages are incredibly labor intensive, but because I think it doesn't have action, it's going to be easier. But sometimes action can be easier than that.

Capullo: That's true, that's true.

Snyder: That stuff, it's really fascinating because I learned -- it's not just that you learn what's easy and what's hard. You learn for your particular artist what they really love, and what is more labor intensive. I should have asked that a lot earlier. I think I assumed certain things were easier than they were. That was an arc, but we made it out.

Capullo: We made it out alive!

Snyder: And then "Endgame" was a lot easier than that.

You guys obviously have such a great, fun, back and forth dynamic. It feels like that's coming through more than ever on "Superheavy." This arc has laugh lines in it -- in "Batman," which has been a pretty dark book. Was that a conscious choice on your part, to lighten things up?

Capullo: It was certainly needed! After what we just came out of, otherwise I think our fans would have committed suicide, you know.

Snyder: We've tried to zig and zag on the book. I'm very proud of what the Bat-line has become under [editor] Mark Doyle, and also the way that DC is trying to take a little more risks now with some of the books. We've tried to be that way on "Batman" from go, where we started with "Court of Owls," which was a detective story but it introduces a possible brother. Now that we're so far away from it, people have accepted those things, but when they were coming out, they were always a bit risky. With "Zero Year," redoing the origin earned a lot of vitriol, and then with "Endgame" saying [Joker] might be immortal -- all this kind of stuff. We've tried to be risky with the book and show that if one arc is dark, then this one is light. If this one is detective, then this one is horror. With "Superheavy," we wanted to be like, "Look, if we're going to stay on the book past this, we want to try something we've never tried before."

Honestly, I feel like a compulsive fucking gambler sometimes. I'm at the casino, and you bet everything on something and you win, and it comes back and you just bet it again on everything and it comes back and you bet it again, instead of just going and playing the penny slots and doing a one-issue Poison Ivy [story], a two-issue Clayface. The character deserves the big bet, and so do the fans. And that is what we thrive on as a team, too, going out there and risking it all and trying to do a story that matters to you.

I thought about it, I swear to God, I thought about it and I said to [DC co-publisher Dan] DiDio and everything, "['Superheavy'] could go bad, but I love it." And they were like, "Do it or don't do it, it's up to you." I remember, I was talking to Doyle and Greg and I was like, if I don't do it, I'll always regret not trying it. The fact that it's gone over so well now that we've started it -- and I can you, it only gets more fun from here. It means the world that fans respond to us trying things that, again, are singular and matter to us and that are personal to us, and are daring and different. They've been so wonderful to us in that way. It's just been a great ride and we owe it to them. I go to work happy every day, because the fans let us do it.