The DC3 decided to take on the Herculean task of covering DC’s weekly books! Our coverage will rotate between creator interviews, issue reviews and annotations, and long-form pieces on featured characters. This, friends, is the DC3kly!
This week, we are chatting with Tim Seeley, writer of the upcoming “Grayson” and one of the scribes behind “Batman: Eternal,” as well as a bevy of work outside of the confines of DC. We chat with Tim about his featured character in “Eternal,” (Batgirl) as well as how the “dead” Dick Grayson plays into his solo series, “Eternal,” and the Bat-verse as a whole.
When I think Tim Seeley, I think horror & humor. How have you been able to apply these aspects of your writing to your work on “Batman Eternal”, if at all?
Tim Seeley: Well, at various times Batman has been both a humor and a horror comic, so I think he’s perfect for me! I think Gotham presents me with a lot of chances to play with the dichotomy of darkness and fun, and I’m trying to utilize every one of those oppurtinities.
With such a large cast or characters, and such high stakes events going on, how do you find room for your typically strong character work?
TS: What works great is that I know the other writers and our editors Katie and Mark are taking really good care of the other members of the cast. That allows me to focus on the beats that I want to tell, and relax when it comes to the one’s my teammates are covering. It’s pretty liberating actually!
The writing process for “Eternal” seems more akin to something like a television show’s writer’s room. What has been the hardest part about adjusting to the bullpen style?
TS: I think the toughest part has just been having the confidence to voice opinions to writers I really look up to. I started this, willing to go along with the experts. It took me a bit to get up the balls to disagree if necessary, and to realize that that my co-writers WANTED me to do that.
“Batman Eternal” seems to be exploring every avenue of Gotham City, whether it’s the supernatural, gangland-type stuff, or government corruption – apart from Batgirl, are there any specific aspects of Gothams’ character that you will be tackling?
TS: For sure! I’m doing a lot of the Catwoman/organized crime aspects of Gotham coming up, and I’m really happy with that storyline, and that characters. She’s one of my absolute favorites. I’ll also be dealing a little with the relationship between the various “sidekicks” specifically Red Hood (Jason) and Barb.
What is your history with the character of Batgirl? What makes her a natural fit for your writing sensibilities? (something something Hack/Slash?)
TS: Ha, well, maybe unfortunately for me the first Batgirl/Barbara Gordon story I ever read was “Killing Joke.” Yeah. Woof.
But, I really came to love her in the role of Oracle which was the identity she had in my formative DC reading years. And, I guess, as you ay “something something Hack/Slash”…I think I display a certain amount of joy and hopefully skill in writing women, especially those of the “take no shit/kick ass” variety, so Babs in definitely in my wheelhouse.
Your “Killer Croc” story with Francis Portella last September was one the DC3 enjoyed quite a bit. Solicits for August indicate a Croc’s return, care to shed some light on your plans for the scaly fiend?
TS: I love Croc. Like…a lot. And I always hated in when he was portrayed as a mindless monster. Mindless Monsters should make short-lived Batman villains. If you aren’t smart or motivated by more than “EEAAAT!” Batman should be able to take you down in six seconds flat. So, I want to continue to flesh out his motivations, and what he wants from Gotham, as well as develop what I think beings “animal-like” actually means, And to me it’s not blindly savage and dumb.
You’re writing the upcoming “Grayson” series. Dick Grayson is a Bat-family character, obviously. Can we expect any overlap, even coincidentally, between his exploits and “Batman Eternal”?
TS: We’re working on that!
The cover of “Grayson” #1 features Dick holding a gun – this goes against the long-standing tradition of Dick and Bruce not using firearms. Is this something that will be addressed, or is this simply his new status quo?
TS: It’s not only addressed, I think it’s a major theme in the series. Look, we KNOW Batman hates guns. We know Dick was trained ot mistrust them. Trust me, we didn’t skip over that aspect of 75 years of history. I myself, in real life, am not a big fan of gun ownership for anything other than hunting, so I’m not going to approach this lightly.
The concept for “Grayson,” more super-spy than costumed vigilante, is a pretty large departure for the character. Was the idea for the move something you pushed for, or was DC ready for a big move from the get go?
TS: The spy genre was pitched to me. All I had to do was figure out a way to make it work. Initially, I actually didn’t have many ideas for it, but when I hit upon SPYRAL from Grant’s BATMAN INC series, I couldn’t stop coming up with ideas!
The Spyral organization, introduced in Morrison’s “Batman Inc.,” is set to play a role in “Grayson.” The end of that series revealed a major femme fatale from Batman’s past to be an agent of Spyral. With her tenuous place in Batman history, can we expect to see Kathy Kane once more?
TS: You’ll have to read the series for that one…I don;t ant to give away too much on whom leads Spyral!
The August solicitation for “Grayson” features Helena Bertinelli in a co-starring role – since Dick is “dead” to the world, will there be many guest stars, or is this more of an isolated incident?
TS: Oh yeah, there’ll be guests galore. This is a series firmly set in the NEW 52 universe, and Tom and I are absolutley going to use all the best toys that work with our story! In fact, issue 1 has a pretty great guest star right off the bat….
