And we thought DC wouldn’t have any big announcements this time. Grant Morrison’s back-to-back panels Friday afternoon–his own spotlight followed by the Batman panel–saw the announcement of Morrison’s new Batman series, Batman, Inc.
It will debut after the Grant Morrison/David Finch one-shot, Batman: The Return, which will debut Batman’s new Finch-designed costume. On the subject of the new series, Morrison said, “All I’m going to tell you is that this is a kind of a team book–I was looking at the Brave and the Bold cartoon, which I love, and I kind of wanted to do that kind of thing, Batman with other people. We came up with a structure that allows us to do something like a team book. And that’s what we’ll be seeing what Bruce is up to. Everything about his operation is about to change. In RIP, you got to see what happens when you take Bruce out of the equation. This is what happens when Bruce is more in the equation–he turns it into a franchise.”
(More on Techland: The Comic Book Club: “Batman: Odyssey” and “Scarlet”)
A few other highlights of the Morrison panel (beyond the interpretive dance with which he began it, and we aren’t kidding):
*On how old Bruce, Tim and Dick are: “It doesn’t matter–these people aren’t real! Batman’s a mythical figure! Basically, Batman is 75 years old.”
*His favorite comic in the world right now: Michael Kupperman’s “Tales Designed to Thrizzle.”
*On when we’ll see Morrison’s much-rumored Wonder Woman project: “Soon.”
*On when his long-in-the-works Multiversity project will be coming out: “We can’t get a concrete date, because Frank Quitely’s doing one of them, but I think maybe next summer.” One issue whose script is finished is a Marvel Family book called Thunderworld, to be drawn by Cameron Stewart.
(More on Techland: Exclusive Interview: Grant Morrison on Batman Times Three)
*On the forthcoming third Seaguy miniseries with Cameron Stewart, Seaguy Eternal: “I’ve written the first two–I think it’s the best of them all. The idea of the series came from the world we were living in, being part of the Big Brother society. In Britain, you’ve got five surveillance cameras for every person… I wanted to mythologize that.”
*On a possible new edition of his long-lost Flex Mentallo miniseries: “It will happen.” (Ian Sattler added: “If anybody asks, we didn’t say anything.”
*On his Frank Quitely collaboration We3, which is now in development as a movie: “There’s going to be Absolute We3 coming out next year, and we’re doing ten new pages drawn by Frank Quitely which fill in scenes I really love but had to take out because of space. It’s going to be the definitive director’s cut edition.”
*On the Joel Schumacher Batman movies: “The covers are great. All that UV stuff… I also love the fruity old Alfred. Rubber tailoring is quite a specific art.”
*On the density of Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3-D: “That’s my favorite thing I’ve done. Comics are very expensive–people who buy them and read them deserve a lot of material. I think comics should be packed full of stuff–they’re not movies, they shouldn’t be following that structure.”
More on Techland:
The Techland Guide to Having a Good Time at Comic-Con
Comic-Con International: What to Get in Line For Early