WU: How have you always thought of the Joker? Did you have a realism-founded view of him, or has your view been as multi-faceted as his various interpretations?

AZZARELLO: Yeah, I suppose it's multi-faceted. It depends on what kind of story I want to tell. These characters to me are more like the vessels. That's the way I tend to approach them. I've done Batman in four different ways. I don't just stick to one particular way of telling a story with these characters. But I don't think we should know much about Joker. That's part of the power of him. With Luthor, it was his viewpoint. I couldn't have told the story from Joker's viewpoint. It would have been weak, because it takes away so much of that character—what makes him crazy. As soon as you start trying to tell a story from a crazy persons viewpoint he's not crazy anymore. Yeah, that's what makes it effective, you never know what's gonna happen. I was always surprised.

WU: What was it like working on a classic character like the Joker? Did you add your own spin to the character?

BERMEJO: We definitely did our own thing with everybody in the hardcover. All the villains in the book are classic in the sense that you know who you're looking at. Starting with the Joker, I think writers these days tend to write him as ridiculous. I've said this before and people tend to slam me for it, but the Joker is a very sexually ambiguous character where he has this feminine quality and it works, I think, when a guy like Grant Morrison writes him. But I definitely wanted to see something different with his characterization and I think Brian found a way in the story to make him definitely be the Joker you know but much more realistic. Yes, he makes jokes. Yes, he kills people, a lot of people in The Joker. He is the character [in The Joker] but you're not laughing at him. He's not comical at all. The fact that he's the Joker is completely ironic because he's just not funny. He's funny really only to himself and I think everybody laughs nervously with him. I think with a guy like the Joker, visually, I tried to match what I knew Brian was going to bring to the table beginning with my own vision of the character, which was the scarred mouth and stuff like that. We started this book a long time ago. Now that scar thing, obviously with the success of Heath Ledger's Joker in "The Dark Knight," has become an iconic version of the character. When we started this thing though, that was more me just trying to find a way to realistically interpret the character. I tried to figure out a way to give him that exaggerated smile without it being too cartoony. Killer Croc is the same guy, the same character, but he's done much more like a thug, or like muscle or a gangbanger. He's got a skin condition instead of being a monster or a crazy lizard guy. The Penguin's the Penguin, a short, little gangster dude and money launderer. I think the character that will surprise people the most will be the Riddler. When Brian and I were first talking about the book, we knew we wanted Two-Face and Killer Croc in there. I did not want to have anything to do with the Riddler. I thought he was the lamest Batman villain and I didn't have a good take on him. I think Brian gave me like a one-sentence description of who he is and that really made me kind of rethink that character. So yeah, visually I think all the characters have their own little flair that's different from what you see in the monthly titles and that definitely goes hand in hand with the story.

For the entire interview with BRIAN AZZARELLO, click here...

For the entire interview with LEE BERMEJO, click here...