CBR returns with it's Bat-Signal feature to interview writer Peter Milligan:


CBR News: Peter, when you look across your career, you've written quite a number of Batman comics for all different sorts of artists, events, series and eras. To start, I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about what the attraction to Batman is that brings you back to his world every few years to spin a new tale?


Peter Milligan: Quite simply, he’s one of the best and most interesting comic book characters that have been created. Or at least, he can be. I think it’s his brooding, damaged nature played against the backdrop of what is an extension of his own psyche – Gotham City – that makes him so rewarding to write or read. He can be a vehicle to write fun dark stories about urban craziness or you can really dig deep into troubled psychological territory. It seems that though he was created some years ago he can really stand as an everyman for our own new age of anxiety.


Your very first Batman story – "Dark Knight, Dark City" – is a really creepy look at Gotham and the Riddler which seems to gain more fans every year through internet word of mouth. At the time, did you have one specific kind of Batman story you'd wanted to tell, or did you know that three-parter was the start of more work with the character?


This was the story I wanted to tell, and I’ve alluded to it above. I was interested – and still am – in the relationship between Gotham City and Batman. Interested in how Gotham is a character in itself, as important and Batman, The Joker or, indeed, The Riddler. Because of the varied nature of Gotham City I suppose it’s a story than can be told in a number of different ways.


These days, "Dark Knight, Dark City" is getting some more attention because its plot point about the Demon Barbathos being trapped under Gotham is something Grant Morrison has picked up on in his broader "Batman & Robin"/"Return of Bruce Wayne" story cycle. Is that something Grant has brought up with you as he was writing?


Grant didn’t mention anything to me about it, no. No reason why he should, of course. I think, perhaps, Grant is more interested in the demon as a distinct character. I was really using the demon as a way of personalizing or giving a sentient quality to Gotham City.


Check out the entire interview here.