Recently James Tynion IV ( writer of Talon, Red Hood and the Outlaws, and the upcoming Batman: Eternal) has been answering a lot of fan questions on his blog.
When asked about his interest in bringing Stephanie Brown into the New-52 DCU, Tynion gave a few glimpses into what readers can expect from the upcoming series:
“Half of the core cast of characters is female, and several of our main Point-of-View characters are POC. Including one new character who is going to be monumentally important for the Bat-Family, and the status quo of the Bat-Books in the next few years.”
He also addressed fans concerns about diversity:
“Stephanie (Brown) is another character who represents a large portion of the readership, and those readers have been craving to see her again since the end of the old universe. We didn’t decide to bring her back while cackling over the corpse of Cassandra Cain. And if you want to see a character like Cass back in the DCU, supporting a massive Bat-Project that can explore the supporting characters like the main books can’t is your best way to make that happen.”
Other questions ranged from “what’s your favorite DCAU movie?” to more personal events. When asked about DC’s New 52 handling of Mr. Freeze’s origin, Tynion has these insightful comments:
“The core idea of this, and I believe Scott and I discussed this a lot back when the issue was released, was that Victor Fries’ story had been told perfectly in the Animated Series. To set the whole cycle up again would just be repetitive, and never live up to the original story. We saw that in the comics over and over, where we’ve seen so many alternating and retconned endings of that story – Nora being shattered by Mr. Freeze. Nora coming back to life and turning away from him. Nora coming back, and him not being able to cope with her, and turning back to exactly what he really was on the inside. The paths of that original starting point had been explored.
We spent a long time talking about his core obsession, the mistake he makes over and over between love and warmth and the cold. We made the decision, the two of us, to do something new that could set Mr. Freeze up for a whole new generation of stories.
So we explored a new route to that same core tragedy at the heart of the character… The idea that love and warmth have always meant the cold, so when he turned, the only people who he ever loved were frozen in time, perfect… They can’t grow old, or sick like his mother. Nora became a delusion he could never shake. This perfect woman he’d tied all of that deep longing to, because she was eternally frozen. And every time he’s confronted with the fact that she isn’t his wife, he can’t take that”
To read more from James Tynion IV, check out his blog here.
