There's certainly no shortage of Batman books on the market these days. However, Batman: The Dark Knight has consistently remained one of the top-sellers of the New 52 line from the beginning. The series began as a solo vehicle for writer/artist David Finch before morphing into a collaboration between Finch and Gregg Hurwitz. Now that Finch is preparing to launch Justice League of America with Geoff Johns, the time has come for a new artist to join Hurwitz on the popular series.
That artist is none other than Ethan Van Sciver. Van Sciver transitions from the world of Firestorm and Green Lantern to the seedy streets of Gotham. For their first storyline, Hurwitz and Van Sciver are revamping the Mad Hatter and giving the villain his New 52 debut. We recently had the chance to talk with both creators about this story and the challenges of following up Finch and overhauling one of the more whimsical members of Batman's rogues gallery.
At the end, you'll find your first look at Finch's final issue, #15, on sale this week.
IGN Comics: Ethan, your Ne 52 work up until this point was more on the science fiction side of things with books like Firestorm and the Green Lantern Annual. Were you looking for a change of scenery with Batman?
Ethan van Sciver: Yeah, I just wanted more urban decay. Desperately. And crazy mental illness. I've been after Batman for the longest time, and they keep putting me on these outer space books. I'm thrilled. This is where I want to be.
Batman: The Dark Knight #16 interior art
IGN Comics: And Gregg, how would you compare writing for Ethan to writing for David Finch? Has it caused you to change your approach at all?
Gregg Hurwitz: It's like switching from a Rolls Royce to a Bentley. It's all good. It's all great. The biggest concern and pressure that we had that The Dark Knight was Finch's book, quite literally when it started. Then I came in and took over. Finch was an absolute delight to work with. We had a great time. But one of the big concerns was – how do you follow up David Finch? Not just because he's an incredibly gifted artist and it was his title. We had to give a lot of thought to finding an artist that's in that league and of that caliber, but also who's very distinct and has his own voice and his own tone. We didn't want this to turn into “move from David Finch to someone else who's like David Finch but not quite as good or original.”
And I think with Ethan, it's been such a delight to find someone who's that same incredible level of skill but also with a distinctive voice. Finch has done things like logos and I can look at it and immediately know that it's Finch. It's very distinctive. And the same thing is true of Ethan. I can look at a panel or a part of a panel and know that it's him. So we have a very clearly defined voice for this next, giant Batman adventure that's going to be this six-issue arc that redefines the Hatter and redefines Gotham and is going to have its own unique tone and angle. I just feel like I went from the best to the best.
Van Sciver: Well, thank you. That's so nice.
IGN Comics: You mentioned the tone, and so far in the Scarecrow arc it's been very psychological and horror-based. Is that tone sticking around or are you shaking things up with this story?
Hurwitz: There are a lot of things that are going to be really different. Obviously thematically in terms of the story we're doing. But The Dark Knight does flirt with horror. There's an aspect of that, as you know, and it's one of the reasons I love detail-oriented, really gifted artists. It's one of the reasons Ethan was our target #1 when we knew that Finch was leaving, and by that I mean pretty much the whole Bat group. Ethan handles horror really well. There's almost a darkly humorous element to the story too, and a tone that puts it off-kilter. Ethan mentioned earlier that he's a big fan of the early Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson movies, where it's horror combined with a little bit of self-awareness. And that's something we do here.
But the main thing and main aspect is that this is the exploration and prying open of one of Batman's villains and seeing all the cogs and wheels and seeing how they tick and function. And also seeing the ways they fit with Batman. This rogues gallery I think is the finest one in comics. Each one of these villains has something to say about Batman and a particular and unique way to challenge Batman. And the Hatter is going to do that as well, and he's going to do it on a very, very large scale.
Batman: The Dark Knight #16 interior art
IGN Comics: So far with the New 52 we've seen new versions of the old origin stories for some of the heroes and villains. Some have changed a lot and some only a little. How much are you changing Mad Hatter's story with this arc?
Hurwitz: Enormously. It's a brand new, New 52, reinvented Mad Hatter, with a new orientation, with a new M.O., and a new background.
IGN Comics: I think some readers have a little bit of trouble taking Mad Hatter seriously. Are you looking to make him into a more dangerous and more deadly character with this story?
Hurwitz: Yeah. I think my answer would be a real bummer if it was the opposite. It's like, “We're gonna make him more banal.”
Van Sciver: [laughs]
Hurwitz: But to be honest with you, that was something Ethan raised when we first talked and we kind of talked it through. For me, my first work with DC was doing a Penguin mini-series. Penguin is one of those characters who falls into that sort of lightweight, viewed-with-humor territory, and I wanted to really turn him into someone more menacing. And I think with Hatter it's the same thing. Rather than having this little guy with a big hat hopping around and bellowing that he wants to find his Alice, how do we turn him into someone who's a real hardcore, intent adversary for Batman, and who's believable? And a lot of that comes down to the art, too. Ethan, do you want to talk about the depiction of how you're drawing him and some of the touchstones for how you're recreating him?
Van Sciver: Yeah, we talked early on about who this guy is. We came to the realization that he takes drugs, and those drugs have made him unpredictable and hostile, and yet he has great leadership qualities where people follow him. It's a really strange dynamic, and I think a familiar one for some people – to work for somebody who can turn on you on a dime for no particular reason. You just upset them, therefore you are punished. So initially we decided that our Mad Hatter is a mix between Timothy Leary and Charles Manson. Those two ideas led to a new way of drawing and looking at this character. He's still a funny little guy, but he's dangerous and scary at the same time. He's not to be trifled with.
IGN Comics: Gregg, one of the things I was struck with in your current Scarecrow arc is that at the same time you're making him more scary and more deadly, you're also delving into his back-story a little more and making him seem more sympathetic. Is that something you're doing with Hatter as well?
Hurwitz: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I never think that there's just one side to the equation. And it's funny, because a lot of people have a tendency to think that the more uniformly vicious they make a character, that's what makes them scary. I think that when there are aspects of a character that we can recognize and relate to, there's something in that that becomes more unsettling, because they're real and relatable and we can see the path through. So I never want these characters, whether it's the Penguin or the Scarecrow or the Mad Hatter to be villains. I want them to be antagonists. I want them to have their own point of view. I want us to be able to understand and relate to them, and also feel like they have some legitimate grievances also. The world didn't treat them fair any more than it treated Batman fair, but they chose different paths out of this. And they justify horrific behavior in ways that are atrocious to us looking from the outside. But from inside, if you pull on their mask and look out their eyeholes, that's how I've got to write them. So I hope that people will understand Jervis and be able to relate to him and feel for him when aspects of his story come to light.
Batman: The Dark Knight #16 interior art
IGN Comics: The solicit for issue #18 mentions Catwoman. Can you talk about what role she plays in the story?
Hurwitz: Well, Catwoman is an essential aspect of Batman's psyche in addition to being her own, fully formed character. She's a magnificent character in her own right, but in the same way that Batman is representative of part of her psyche, the reverse is also true. These characters all mean things to each other. And this story is really focusing and looking at the fixation that Jervis has on his Alice – the source of that obsession. In that way, it has to do with a different person who is fixated and obsessed on a particular ideal, and of course that's Batman. And both ideals revolve around issues of intimacy. Catwoman represents, for Batman, a particular slant on that issue. So she arises in the plot at a certain key point in the story because she's integral to the plot. It's not just another appearance and it's not just because I know how well Ethan draws her – which he draws her great. But it's really because she's a key piece to this psychological puzzle. That's the best way I can say it.
IGN Comics: Dark Knight has been one of the better-selling Batman titles and New 52 books in general since it debuted. I'm curious why you guys think that is and what qualities fans see in this series that they don't find elsewhere?
Van Sciver: This is the horror Batman book. This is the cool, scary, dark Batman book where we take a lot of chances and we show how sick Gotham City really is. And there's definitely an audience for that.
Hurwitz: It gives a tour through the dripping, cavernous underbelly of Gotham and the interior lives of these villains and Batman himself.
Take a look at Batman: The Dark Knight #15 (art by Finch)
Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
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