Grant Morrison is possibly the miracle man who is currently shaping Batman into his next evolution in the comic universe... Frank Miller did it in the 80's and coming into a new decade Mr. Morrison is the new creative genius running the show.

CBR have recently sat down with Grant to talk about his upcoming Blackest Night run on Batman and Robin, and the titles run which will be in parallel with Batman: Bruce Wayne's Return. The good news from this interview, is Grant was looking at moving away from Batman after issue #12 but has recently come up with additional idea's which will keep him on the title.

CBR: You mentioned "The Return," so let me ask you - will "The Return of Bruce Wayne" mean the end of "Batman and Robin," or will Bruce Wayne's return play out in the other Bat-books, as well?

GM: The stories in "Return" and "Batman and Robin" run parallel to one another for six months, and there are a few subtle connections between them, but they don't really link up until the crescendo in "Batman and Robin" #16 which comes out in September 2010, I think. You could easily read both books on their own, but it's more involving to read them together.

CBR: So will Bruce Wayne eventually be returning to "Batman" and "Detective Comics" or "Batman and Robin," or another new title?

GM: There is a plan, but I can't talk about it yet. I was always going to move on after 12 issues of "Batman and Robin," then it went to 16 and I figured that was it, I'd told my story. I figured once Bruce came back, it would go back to the traditional Batman status quo, which is kind of where I came in. But then I had an idea that seemed to me a really exciting way to continue the story in a new direction, so I'm going to stay on for that. It's a different take on Batman and Robin, but I don't want to say too much until nearer the time. We still have all kinds of twists and turns and shocks to get through before any of that.

CBR: I know you don't want to look too far ahead, but can you talk a little bit about the art we've seen for "The Return of Bruce Wayne?" So far we've seen Bruce the Barbarian and Captain Bruce the Pirate.

GM: Those amazing visuals were all Andy Kubert's work. They'd make great toys, wouldn't they? Somebody should get started on that. The League of Historic Batmen. Andy just went to town with the idea of what Batman might look like if he'd developed in these different time periods. How would the bat-equipment work? How would you get the mask effect? Or the effect of a cape? If you look behind the six covers Andy's done – they all join up into one big image – Bruce is mostly wearing sort of conventional period clothes, dictated by the in-story logic. In the first story, Bruce is actually stripped to the waist, as we saw him on the last page of "Final Crisis." All he has is his utility belt. So we don't necessarily get to see him as Bat- Pirate with the flowing beard of dreadlocks and the mask, which genuinely breaks my heart [laughs].

For the full interview click here...

(Source - CBR)