Ever since Gotham City was wracked by the events of "Joker War," the Bat-Family has been in a state of upheaval. The Wayne family fortune was stolen before being placed in the hands of Lucius Fox, Damian Wayne had an epic falling out with his father and quit being Robin, and Nightwing regained his memory after breaking free of the Joker's control over him at tremendous personal cost. Further complicating matters is the addition of Batman's longtime rival Ghost-Maker and Harley Quinn into the family, and the question of what to do about the teenage vigilante Clownhunter, who has started a violent war against crime on the streets of Gotham.
Before all of those stories take Gotham City into Future State and beyond, Batman group editor Ben Abernathy spoke exclusively with CBR about the Bat-Family's role in the upcoming "Future State" event and the all-new incarnation of Batman, as well as an announcement regarding new projects and creative teams spinning out of the event, and teasers as to what's coming up in the lives of everyone's favorite family of Caped Crusaders.
CBR: There has been pretty exciting news regarding the creative teams involved with the Bat-Family of titles next year. John Ridley and Mariko Tamaki have been confirmed and there's talk of projects involving Tom Taylor and Chip Zdarsky. Can you give us an idea of which creators we can expect to see?
Ben Abernathy: We have Future State debuting in a few weeks, and I am so proud of the line of titles my team has put together. To address your exact question, I am very excited that Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo will be on Nightwing! I am overjoyed with what they have planned, and anyone who read their work on Suicide Squad and Injustice know what to expect! I think people are going to be really excited, Lord knows I am.
We're really proud to have Chip Zdarsky working on his second Bat-group story with the debut of Batman: Urban Legends in March, which is a 64-page monthly Bat-Family anthology. This series will have a killer row of creators and characters throughout the year, and man, it is cool! In that first issue, we have Chip Zdarsky and Eddy Barrows picking up the story of Jason Todd in Gotham on the heels of Red Hood: Outlaw. Out of Batman #101 we have a Grifter story from "Future State" writer Michael Rosenberg and Wildstorm alum Ryan Benjamin. There will also be backup features every month, and we're pretty excited about the creators involved in that as well. James Tynion and Jorge Jimenez are back with a vengeance in Batman #106!
Some of this has been announced here and there, and it will become pretty obvious in March, but "Future State" is not a throwaway event. It's not time wasted in any way. It's all part of a plan we've been working on for a while. "Future State" is essential reading in many ways. This is not What If..., it's all connected. We've been planning this since Detective #1027.
We have two more books debuting that month in addition to Batman: Urban Legends. There is a terrific new Harley Quinn series by the writer of Harley Quinn: Future State, Stephanie Phillips. Stephanie and Riley Rossmo are bringing Harley back to Gotham in a story we've been laying the groundwork for as far back as Batman #91 when Harley meets Catwoman in the graveyard. I wasn't familiar with Stephanie Phillips' work before Future State, and an associate editor in my group introduced me to her work and I was blown away. I'm so impressed that she's a part of our group.
We also have a new Joker series, which is something we've been working on for a while. I think James Tynion and I started talking about it a year ago, and it's something we were building out of "Joker War" and Joker War Zone, which was a guidebook for things to come. That book was key to a lot of things we were building toward in "Future State" and beyond. In Joker, James and Guillem March are delivering their best! It's spooky, action, horror, it's crazy, and you'll just have to read it. I don't have the adjectives to describe how cool that book's going to be.
There's one component I want to mention because it ties into one of the things we're experimenting with. There's a four-pronged approach we're using as we're launching into March. The first one I mentioned was Batman: Urban Legends, a monthly 64-page book. Batman, Detective Comics, and Joker are going to be oversized monthlies as well. They're going to be 30-page stories and each month will feature a backup story, which will sometimes connect. With the Joker we have the Punchline team back together and we're going to continue the story with James Tynion, Sam Johns, and Mirka Andolfo from the Punchline special last month.
What we have for Batman #106 and Detective #1034 in March is a Damian/Robin backup story. One of the questions we've been asked over the past year is "Where's Damian?" so people should really keep an eye out for that one.
Catwoman is rolling into the new year with Ram V and Fernando Blanco. We had the defining Batman #101 which set the tone of the relationship between Selena Kyle and Bruce Wayne and we're seeing now where that has gone and her new sense of focus.
With Batman/Superman #16 in March, we have an all-star team in Gene Yang and Ivan Reis. I've read a lot of iterations of Batman and Superman over the years and I've never read a story like this before. One of the things I can't stress is how engaging the creative teams have been with the ideas, and it's hard to keep up with all the cool stuff going on!
You mentioned that Future State should be considered essential reading. How far in the future does it take place after the events now happening in comics?
Abernathy: Future State arises from the ashes of Dark Nights: Death Metal. At the conclusion of that series, we get a look at potential futures. In the case of Gotham, we get a glimpse of the very near future.
We see the rise of Tim Fox as the Next Batman, and the question marks around what happened to Bruce Wayne. What we establish early on is how important Gotham City is as a character. Gotham is as much of a character in this series as Bruce Wayne is. Gotham now has a privatized police force that has declared martial law on the city, and they are hunting heroes and villains alike. Masks have been outlawed in a dark dystopian future, but it's a future not far from our own. There are militarized police, robots, and drones hunting our characters.
Each book has a different flavor and a different adventure and are not all set in the exact same moment. There's not a checklist of books you need to read. Each series has self-contained stories, and Batman and Dark Detective are oversized with backup stories featuring characters that might not be expected, like Gotham City Sirens, Arkham Knights, the Outsiders and Batgirl. There have been hints of what's coming that eagle-eyed fans may have spotted.
Speaking of which, over in Detective, we've already met Nakano, an anti-vigilante police officer who is running for mayor of Gotham. Will he be playing a part in this? It sounds like this is something that would progress naturally from his story.
Abernathy: Oh yeah! Nakano's a big part of all of it, both in what we see in "Future State" and beyond. He's going to be a key character in the Joker series, which will be taking him out of Gotham, and we'll get a new alignment as to how vigilantism will be treated in Gotham City.
Okay, then, let's talk a little bit about the Joker. He's left in pretty bad shape at the conclusion of "Joker War." He's wounded and on the run, and with him getting a new series, it's pretty clear his story isn't over just yet. What can fans expect from this new series?
Abernathy: I think people are going to be taken by surprise. What we're doing has been really thought out. I can't go into many details because there are things happening in March that I can't compromise, but it's an exciting book and not what people are going to expect. There are a lot of twists and turns and is a story of one of the deadliest, craziest humans to ever live who is now probably the most wanted man in the world. Jim Gordon is in pursuit as a sort of aging hero in sort of a "cowboy's last ride" mission, and this is the end cap of what he needs to do. Jim Gordon, almost more than any character in Gotham has suffered a lot at the hands of the Joker, both in terms of himself, his daughter, and his son.
We saw in "Joker War" that Joker is a little upset with Bane.
Abernathy: Hmmm.
It looks like the two of them may be headed toward something of a war. Is there anything you can share about what happens in their relationship in the coming year?
Abernathy: Umm, no, I cannot! (Laughs) You're right! Joker is not really pleased with Bane. Joker lays out exactly what he thinks of Bane in that Joker War Zone story that James and Guillim did, and in a lot of ways telegraphs what his thoughts are regarding the killing of Alfred, the impact it had on Damian and everything along those lines. The teaser I shall leave you with is...let's talk again in March! By then, you'll have some of the answers you seek!
Fair enough! You mentioned that in Batman and Detective there are going to be stories about Robin. Are these stories exclusively about Damian Wayne?
Abernathy: Yep! The backups in March are all about Damian. It connects directly with what's been going on with him. Tim Drake is featured in the Future State: Robin Eternal book, and reminds folks of why Tim Drake is such a great character. Let's just say that Tim is not forgotten! We have active plans for just about any core character you can name.
Harley and Joker have a very interesting relationship, to say the least. Should we expect any significant interaction between them in the coming year?
Abernathy: I think that Harley putting a bullet through Joker's face in Batman #100 put the exclamation point on their relationship! We have a plan for Harley and what her goals are. If you look at the end of "Their Dark Designs," her role in "Joker War," and her role in the current arc, we see a side of Harley that we're going to be developing further next year.
It's good to see her move on. You spoke before about how Gotham is a character in and of itself. In "Future State" will we be seeing more elements of this? Like the inclusion of Arkham or any of the Bat-Villains we're used to seeing?
Abernathy: There will be bad guys! There will be good guys! There's a lot of characters, although some of them might not be what you expect at this point. Let's just say that in "Future State" and beyond, Gotham City is going to get a lot more dangerous!
John Ridley and Nick Derington will introduce the new Batman to the world in Future State: The Next Batman #1, on sale January 5 from DC Comics.