Newsarama goes another round with Executive Editor of the DC Universe Dan DiDio with some more Q&A. This time round a heavy focus on Batman R.I.P. and how the story isn't finished yet and it's lead up into Final Crisis.

This is a very strong ittirated message Dan puts's across and what will be happen after these events in 2009, and some of the titles; the order they will be coming up and how this Batman Universe will possibly look.

Really good read this week and I'm as always after reading these

10. Let’s talk about Batman. Something that came up in a lot of the commentary and criticism of “Batman R.I.P.” is that the storyline was built and built and built – Grant himself made pronouncements about it at the New York Comic Con as being one of the most definition stories for Batman. And then at the end of R.I.P., we get a “death” scene that we have seen before – no body, and a question mark as to what even happened. To me, this seems like it was a case where the hype, or people’s expectations overtook the story’s ability to deliver...

DD: Here’s the conundrum on this one. And this is reflective of the world that we live in now – the world of collected editions. The R.I.P. story was always meant to play through to the end of Final Crisis - always. The thing is, we had to come up with a very complete story in “Batman R.I.P.” as it existed in its title. The reality is that the “Batman R.I.P.” story does not conclude until Final Crisis #6. There are also issues #682 and #683 of Batman that feed directly into Final Crisis #6, and we’ll have a big finale to the Batman storyline. That’s how it plays out.

But as I said, because we live in the world of collected editions, we needed a conclusion in the Batman series, so that we could collect it properly within Batman, without having to bring in segments of Final Crisis to complete the story.

NRAMA: So – fundamentally, “Batman R.I.P” did not end in Batman #681?

DD: Correct. We have the two parts that we’re in the middle of now, and they lead us into Final Crisis #6 which gives us a definite conclusion to the Batman story. That’s how Grant designed the story from the start, and that’s how the story plays out. So, the people who are looking for the big finale, the stuff that Grant was talking about – he knows how big an ending he has, because he wrote it in Final Crisis #6. That story has been so planned out that it reflects events from the pages of Final Crisis #1 in order to pull it all together.

So the Batman story has been hinted at in Final Crisis #1 - we couldn’t allude to it, because we didn’t want to play our hand too early with that. The fascinating thing about what Grant has done is that he’s telling a major story in the life of Batman while he’s telling a major event across the DC Universe with Final Crisis. And the two are linked.

NRAMA: So Final Crisis #6 is like when you’re driving on, say, I-40 and it merges with another for a while, and you get the road signs telling you that you’re on two highways at the same time...and you follow another highway out other than the one you went in on.

DD: Exactly. And Batman #682 and #683 are reflective of things that took place earlier in Final Crisis as well.

11: That said, it took you a few minutes there to explain where the story “really” went and ended, and yet, there’s the clear perception, at least until this word gets out, that R.I.P ended with Batman #681. What can you do, or can you do anything when you see fans reading along, and coming to a point where collectively, they say, “What the hell?” In the meantime, you know where the story goes from where they think it ended, and you know that the story has a more satisfying conclusion than the one they are looking for, but it’s somewhere else. Do just bite the bullet and wait for the tide to turn in regards to fan sentiment?

DD: Honestly, I enjoyed the ending of R.I.P. in Batman, so I felt satisfied at the conclusion. I look at everyone following along, and have the same reaction that anyone in my position has when the readers get a controversial issue – that they don’t say, “Oh, yeah - #681. Didn’t like it, so I’m going to drop Batman and never read another issue.” I’m hoping that’s not the case because, as those who stuck around realized, issue #682 really gets you back into what the story is really about, and that comes across even stronger in #683. Again, we’re trying to create long-term fiction with Batman. In doing so, we want to make sure these things are as compelling as they can be from stage to stage, point to point, and that people ride along all the way with us.

One other thing – one of the things we did, going in to Final Crisis is that we wanted to feel that if people just wanted to read ,b>Final Crisis, they were fine just reading that one storyline, and wouldn’t feel that they were being “forced” to purchase other storylines and material. That should be the same case with “Batman R.I.P.” We wanted to give what felt like two distinct conclusions, even though they are very much intertwined. Again, we’re trying to work the story to fulfill the needs and expectations of everyone. The reason it took so long to explain, as you pointed out, is because I’d give away the ending to the entire storyline. Trust me – the full story, once people will see it and know it, and aren’t worried about spoilers, it a lot easier to follow than my explanation [laughs].

12. It seems that fan reaction to “R.I.P.” is a classic example – it’s always fickle, but it also seems that it can be very powerful in a negative way. If you get a large enough group of people saying they didn’t get the ending, and it is therefore bad...you’ve got a counter marketing force that can be stronger than anything you can put out there...

DD: The thing for me – most of the reactions to R.I.P. that I’ve gotten to date have been positive. I might not travel in the same circles as Newsarama readers...

NRAMA: I think that’s putting it lightly...

DD: But what I’ve seen and what I’ve gotten in retailer response and sales response has been extremely positive for us. We felt that we were on the right track for this story. That said, I don’t think there’s a single person out there who thinks that Batman is dead. We went out there with that message – we wanted it known that we’re not cancelling Batman and Detective at the end of R.I.P., and closing up shop in Gotham. R.I.P. has always been part of a bigger story – the first part of the next “stage” of Batman. It’s weird – we’re getting a lot of comparisons to Knightfall and the Knightquest days, with some people pointing at how those were somehow discrete stories that happened and were over, but in reality, elements from Knightfall fed into Contagion and later Cataclysm and the story just kept rolling. That’s kind of what we’ve got here now – we’re going from story to story, beat to beat, leading to a story that will constantly evolve and change the world of Batman and the people who live in it.

13. Moving on to the future of the Batman titles – Denny O’Neil’s exploring the idea of life without Batman in his storyline this month, and the other Batman titles are clearly post R.I.P...

DD: Right – they’re all starting to realize that Batman has been removed, and this is much, much more than one of his missions where he’s gone for days, weeks at a time. But carrying things through, Paul Dini has “Faces of Evil” in January with both Batman and Detective, and that will wrap up his Detective storyline which will see the final confrontation between Hush and Catwoman.

14. And then Neil and Andy’s story, “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” – when we fished talked about it right after the panel at San Diego, I asked if that, by naming it after Alan Moore’s Superman story, if you were giving readers a hint at what the story will cover. Going back to what you said, the similarity here is that this is the end of a period in the life of “Batman?”

DD: Yes. It closes the chapter on this part of the life of Batman, that is, through Bruce Wayne’s eyes.

And to continue through the plan, Batman and Detective will go on hiatus for three months beginning in March, and in March, April and May, we have Battle for the Cowl, which is a three-parter, and we also have a second three-parter, Oracle, following the adventures of Barbara Gordon which follows events of Birds of Prey and picks up some storylines from Final Crisis, and we also have a three part Azrael miniseries that will roll out during that period of time as well, which will be integral to the events taking place in the Batman books.

We’ll also have a series of five one shots with Battle for the Cowl, and two books called Gotham City Gazette, which are the bookends for everything going on explaining the changes going on in Batman’s world, the effects on Gotham City, and how everybody are dealing with the repercussions of what has happened.

15: But calling Gotham Gazette bookends, that would seem to suggest that after the second one, there will be a new status quo established?

DD: All the Batman related books, with the exception of Batman and the Outsiders have been either cancelled or put on hiatus. During the months of March, April and May, everything that we have mentioned are one-shots or three issues. So my inclination is to believe that the month of June would be very essential to everything that happens to Batman, and will be the month that everyone should be paying attention to in regards to how the Batman books will be continuing through 2009 and beyond.

NRAMA: The five one-shots – does the cover of Battle for the Cowl inform who those one shots are about?

DD: Not actually, no. [laughs] The five one shots are going to be focused on the key characters to events in Batman’s story for the remainder of the year, and into 2010. And we have teams all in place, but we’ll hold off until we’re closer to solicitation to name names.

16: One last Batman question – the very first page of the very first part of Batman R.I.P. in issue #676 – the shot of Batman and Robin on the rooftop, with Batman saying, “You’re WRONG! Batman and Robin will NEVER DIE!” – the sky is red...when is that?

DD: It hasn’t happened yet. It happens somewhere between March and June though. NRAMA: So you need to get that page of art back from Tony Daniel?DD: It could be that we need that piece of art from Tony, or we could need it from another artists.

For the enitire interview click here...

(Source - Newsarama.com)