Scott Snyder is a busy guy. Not only is he in the midst of an acclaimed run on Batman currently in the middle of the epic Death of the Family storyline, but he’s taking hold of the Man of Steel in 2013 alongside Jim Lee while launching a new Vertigo maxi-series called The Wake. Contrary to popular belief, Snyder is, in fact, merely human, so that means these new big things have a downside; his time on Swamp Thing is coming to an end and his other Vertigo series, American Vampire, is taking a brief hiatus.
We talked with the writer about all of these things and a whole lot more, including his thoughts on the new Man of Steel trailer. Oh, and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Because why not?
Page 1 is all about Swamp Thing, so if you want to skip ahead to another portion of the discussion:
Snyder on Batman and Death of the Family
Snyder on What to Expect from His Superman
Snyder on American Vampire and The Wake
IGN Comics: Let’s start with Swamp Thing. So you’ve announced that #18 will be your last issue. I know you said that you’ve had an end point in sight, but was it the opportunities like Superman and The Wake that ultimately led to the decision?
Scott Snyder: The strange thing is that I had originally planned, and Yanick [Paquette] had planned, to probably leave the book before now. So what happened was Rotworld started to develop with Jeff Lemire and Yanick was an integral part to that development process, so we decided to stay on until we could get to the final beats that we had originally planned to do in our story – but in a bigger and more explosive way at the end of Rotworld. So the end of Rotworld in #18 is the same ending, just on a bigger scale. But emotionally it’s the same ending that we were looking for when we began the entire story with issue #1.
The irony is that even though we’re getting off earlier than I think people expected because of other projects coming down the pike, we really planned on leaving earlier than this because of those projects. It’s just that we really fell in love with the story we were doing and were able to go a little farther than we thought just out of the fun we were having with the character and out of gratitude to the fans out there who made this a viable series, which I don’t think a lot of people thought was possible, us included. [laughs]
IGN: In that post that you made about leaving the book, you talked about how you’ve always seen it as a place for creators to do crazy things and take risks. What would you say was the biggest risk you guys took in your run?
Snyder: Well, not having Swamp Thing in the book for six issues was the biggest risk. [laughs] Honestly, I think that was the biggest risk in DC’s eyes, too. We’re very grateful that they allowed us to do it, even though they definitely had some reservations and we had to push for that one, I’ll be honest. But fans were willing to follow us for so long when the biggest thing in the book wasn’t in it, so we could build this character of Alec Holland and really have his emotional conflict be the driving engine of the book so that when Swamp Thing came it would mean something. It would be a decision and a sacrifice that he had made. It means the world to us that fans stayed with us through those issues where we were doing our best to give you good story but Swamp Thing wasn’t in it.
IGN: Is there any moment in particular that you’re most proud of?
Snyder: Honestly, I’m really proud of this ending in issue #18. To me, it brings everything full circle and has all of the ideas that we began in issue #1 coming to bloom in some ways. There’s a lot in this issue that ties up things that we haven’t seen in a long time emotionally, psychologically, and also plot-wise. It’s probably the issue I’m most proud of; the way we were able to finish the story is a way that I think does the whole arc proud.
IGN: In terms of Rotworld itself, the stakes are pretty high, though obviously things like Superman and Batman being Rot creatures isn’t going to be a lasting effect in the DCU. I’m just curious as to what your approach to building that tension and upping the stakes is when you know there’s always going to be a degree of putting the toys back how you found them?
Snyder: Wait, you didn’t see that Batman becomes a Rot monster in Batman #15 forever?
IGN: [laughs] I must have missed it.
Snyder: I’m still working on DC for that one; it’s an uphill battle, admittedly. [laughs] But with this story, I think the key to that is remembering the stakes aren’t always worldly, but rather about Alec and Buddy. Obviously things can’t stay as Rotworld in the DCU and that world might vanish, but regardless the stakes are really the status quo of the series. There are really big, lasting consequences on both sides for both Animal Man and Swamp Thing; emotionally, psychologically, and also just in terms of the literal status quo. The big shocking things that are going to change the status quo really do happen at the end of Rotworld, so there’ll be lasting consequences on every level.
IGN: I know you’re a big Swamp Thing fan in general – now that you’ll be reading the book more as a fan rather than a creator, what are you hoping the next team will bring to the book?
Snyder: I guess more than anything I hope that they’ll bring a sense of fearlessness to it. Nothing would be more disappointing if they came on the book and played it safe. I don’t mind everything that I’ve done being torn down or thrown out or changed in some way, especially on this book, because that’s what the book is for, you know? In a lot of ways, it does feel like that everyone that’s taken it on has really pushed themselves to do something wildly different than the team before them. So that would be my biggest hope: to see something that I couldn’t possibly expect on the character next.
Head to Page 2 for our conversation about Batman and Death of the Family!
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