Fabian Nicieza spoke with CBR the other day on his ongoing monthly series for Azrael with artist Ramon Bachs.

CBR: Was the plan all along to have you write an Azrael series coming out of “Battle of the Cowl,” or did the spin-off come about later in the game?

FABIAN NICIEZA: The spin-off came a little bit later in the game, but not the bottom of the ninth inning. I was finishing up my highly-acclaimed, award-winning run on “Robin” – okay, it was just a little acclaimed and won no awards, but it sounds better whenever you put that in front of a title – anyway, editor Mike Marts had been percolating the Suit of Sorrows concept as a new take on Azrael for a while and thought that the Gotham-in-turmoil-no-Batman aspect to “Battle for the Cowl” would serve as the perfect opportunity to introduce a sword-wielding, possibly religious zealot vigilante.

He ran the idea by me and my first impression was, “Good idea, I’m not an Azrael guy.” Then, like all good editors, he said, “Okay, sure, just think about it,” which led me to ask, “Who is in the armor?” To which, as all good editors do, he said, “Good question. Why don’t you come in and we’ll talk about it.”

So Mike and [editor] Michael Siglain and I had lunch where we bounced off lots of possibilities for the man or woman in the Suit, as well as the overall “ticking-clock” aspect behind armor that drives you crazy over time. We had some very viable candidates and some not-so-viable, though I maintain Sugar & Spike sharing the suit. No one would have seen that coming.

Mike Siglain is the one who brought up the idea of using Lane, the third Batman from Grant Morrison’s recent issues and the second he said it, we all knew it was the right choice. And I knew that even though I didn’t think of myself as an Azrael guy, I wanted to write this character in that suit forced to wrestle with the very difficult concepts of faith and justice. And knowing he had a future that was “written in stone” because of “Batman” #666 made it all the more exciting. Now we all know no future comic book story is ever really “real,” but in this case, it gives a great brooding, nihilistic end-goal we can use as a guidepost.

For the full interview click here...

(Source - CBR)