GKO: MADHOUSE
Here you will find our rambalings on all area's of Batman, interviews and speical features!
CBR News: Paul, I think when the Bat books relaunched after "Battle For The Cowl," some people thought that the books would be operated on a limited basis or some kind of time clock while Bruce Wayne was still out of the picture, but both "Streets" and "Sirens" have grown a bit to be the kind of franchise that can exist no matter who's wearing the cowl. How have things changed for each title over their first year?
Paul Dini: Well, I'm happy that the books have gotten a good response. I never really thought of them existing on a clock where we were passing time until the Bruce Wayne story wrapped up, but you do kind of look at them with an eye where you go, "Let's treat these as an ongoing venue." In "Streets" we take a look at the bottom of the barrel criminal element like we're doing now with the carpenter. I try to make them funny or interesting or compelling or just try and broaden Batman's world a bit. We tell stories about the victims of crime or people whose lives have been affected by Batman. I think Batman's world is so big that it spills out over all of Gotham City. I'm happy to see we've pulled that off and will hopefully continue to do that for a while.
And with "Sirens," they're three interesting characters. What drives them? What bonds them together? Where do they have their breaking points with each other and why do they like and appreciate each other? I think they're three fun, compelling characters, and it's nice to see what their lives are like when they're not running around causing trouble or they have to band together to solve a problem.
Reinventing Batvillains is something that you've been doing as far back as "Batman: TAS" and on through your "Detective" run. What is it about digging into those characters and finding what make them tick that's so interesting for you?
I guess that these characters can go a lot of different directions. That's not just an area limited to Batman. We always go back to Batman and see what makes his character tick, but what is it about the character in his world that keeps them there? What keeps them connected to Gotham? What keeps them connected to their heroic or villainous identities? Why don't they just move on? That's what these books explore. Once you have an identity in the Batman Universe, it transforms you. You've got this ongoing persona, and it's fun to get into that and work with it – to shine the solo spotlight on it.
That's what's happened in "Sirens." Taking the recent iteration of Catwoman from her own book and other versions of the character that have been told, she's a very rich character. You can tell a story about any time in her history or any of her family connections and get a good story out of that. Ivy's a little lesser known, so you're dealing more with her as a villain who doesn't care about other things. She doesn't care much about other people, so the trick is to put her in a situation where she does care about somebody else or where other people have to stand against her and deal with her. She's a very powerful character and a very motivated character, but at the same time she doesn't care who she hurts around her, and that could even extend to her temporary friends and allies. She's always the wildcard, much more than Harley. Harley is the innocent of the group. She likes hanging out with the others for the thrill of it and has kind of moved off from hanging around and swooning over the Joker. She's trying to find herself, and it's a good balance between the three of them. You've got the brains with Catwoman, the power with Ivy and the heart with Harley.
Speaking of hearts, both of these books seemed to spin out of "Heart of Hush" where you reinvented Tommy Elliot to a certain extent. He was always a mystery character who was out for revenge in a very basic way, but you've twisted those motivations some. Did you feel there was more to be mined there?
I was trying to build on the clues and hints that Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee had left in the original "Hush" book and go off in a new direction. Hush is a guy who's very fixated on Bruce Wayne. Where does that come from? Why would you gravitate towards somebody so much? Why would there be so much admiration and hatred for somebody unless it came from deep within the character? By building on what I perceived to be those hints left behind, what I came upon was a guy who had always had an intense jealousy of Bruce Wayne. Maybe he'd been compared negatively to Bruce by his parents so much that it became an obsession. He was never allowed to be who he was, so he became a darker, mirror version of Bruce and finally decided to just become Bruce and destroy everything he'd created. That's a good basis for a story.
Check out the entire interview here.
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