GKO: MADHOUSE
Here you will find our rambalings on all area's of Batman, interviews and speical features!
CBR News: Mike, Welcome to The Bat Signal! To get this whole thing rolling, I wanted to start with your own personal history on the Bat books. I know that you came over to DC just around the time Pete Tomasi was looking to transition out of editorial and into writing full time. For you, what was the impetus for getting into the Batman world then? Did you have a fondness for the character or a real interest in the line?
Mike Marts: Actually, it was Dan [Didio's] idea to bring me into the Batman books. When I first came over from Marvel, I was doing a few other projects – "Countdown" and "Legion of Super-Heroes" – and I know that Pete had been wanting to go freelance for a while, and that opportunity finally came up for him. I hadn't even been thinking about who was going to take over the Batman books, but Dan came to me and asked if I would be interested. He had cited the work I'd done on the X-Men books at Marvel and my ability to handle a franchise of titles or a group of titles and wanted to see if I could apply those same talents to the Batman group. I guess he wanted me to refocus the Batman group into more of a cohesive group of titles, and I was more than happy to take it on. Batman was the first comic character I'd read as a kid, and it was too exciting to turn down.
And as you came on, it can't be overstated that Pete had put some big talent in place with Grant Morrison and Paul Dini already working on the core titles. Remind me, did you come on just before "The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul"?
"The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul" was the first big storyline I began working on. Not too much on that was done prior to my coming on besides knowing that we wanted to do a story that resurrected Ra's Al Ghul. So it was fun to get in on the ground floor with that story line and to shape it and get the rest of the creative team like Fabian Nicieza and Peter Milligan involved. I think doing a crossover story with all the different Bat titles as my first big venture into the Batbooks was a great first thing to do, because it immediately thrust us into a story line which involved the extended family and was an opportunity to see all the characters interact together.
And Pete had left the Batbooks in amazing shape for me. You definitely can't complain when you get to inherit books that involve Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert and Paul Dini. It was a good time to step into the books.
You were a Batman fan when you were young, and anyone who's spent any time in comics has read their share of Batman stories. Once you got into the nitty gritty of preparing those stories from the editor's chair, how did your view of the character change? Were there things you didn't expect to be grappling with?
Well, at Marvel I'd worked on so many different team books with the X-Men and the various X-Titles, that it was extremely refreshing to step into a title that had one single character. It was great to focus on one man and his life and his stories. I think what you're able to do with a character like Batman is explore all the great relationships he has with his extended cast, whether they're members of his own team like Nightwing and Robin or if it's the relationship he has with his great rogue's gallery from Ra's Al Ghul to Joker to Two Face. Each of those relationships that he has is different, so the story combinations are always different, and you're always going to get something new or exciting out of the mixing and mashing of those characters and Batman.
Check out the entire interview here.
|
LISTEN TO THIS WEEKS PODCAST ONLINE COVERING NEWS, REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS WITH GUESTS FROM ALL BATMAN INDUSTRIES!
GKO: PODCAST #43
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. 4th to 17th Oct, including Batman: Knightfall Pt11.
GKO: PODCAST #42
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. 20th Sept to 3rd Oct, including Batman: Knightfall Pt10.
GKO: PODCAST #41
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. 13th to Sept 20th, including Batman: Knightfall Pt9.
GKO: PODCAST #40
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. Aug 30th to Sept 12th, including Batman: Knightfall Pt8.
GKO: PODCAST #39
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. Aug 23rd to Aug 29th, including Batman: Knightfall Pt7.
GKO: PODCAST #38
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. Aug 9th to Aug 22nd, including Batman: Knightfall Pt6.
GKO: PODCAST #37
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. Aug 2nd to Aug 8th, including Batman: Knightfall Pt5.
GKO: PODCAST #36
This week we have a new host and review Batman: Under the Red Hood along with all the news from the week.
GKO: PODCAST #35
This is our SDCC '10 coverage special covering all the news from July 19th to July 25th.
GKO: PODCAST #34
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. July 12th to July 18th, including Batman: Knightfall Pt2.
GKO: PODCAST #33
This week we cover the usual news in the Batman Universe. July 5th to July 11th, including Batman: Knightfall Pt1.
GKO: PODCAST #24
This week we interview with artist Lee Garbett to talk about his current run on Batgirl
NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH iTUNES. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE
