Adventures in Poor Taste interviewed Scott Snyder about how he’s writing his alternate-world take on the Masked Manhunter, and telling clues are given to the political structure that’s unfortunately driving this whole project. And not only that, the alternate world take on Bruce Wayne even trains with a villain:
From the beginning, Snyder envisioned Absolute Batman as more than a bold new take on Bruce Wayne — it’s a reconfiguration of the entire mythology. Gone are the familiar trappings of billion-dollar gadgets and isolated genius. In their place is a brutalist Batman forged in trauma, collective action, and uncompromising resolve.
“This Bruce just trained with Killer Croc,” Snyder said with a laugh. “He’s super smart, but he’s not the best at a lot of things… anyone could be this Batman in a lot of ways.”
That sense of accessibility is matched by a rogues’ gallery more monstrous than ever. Snyder notes that each villain is crafted to be “far more powerful than absolute Batman himself,” requiring Bruce to evolve physically, psychologically, and emotionally.
“Bane is a total reflection of Bruce…a nightmarish version,” Snyder said. “And Joker — he’s the pinnacle of everything Bruce is afraid of.”
Oh good grief. That has the effect of making Bruce sound like a villain himself in this rendition. There may be a few heroes who were trained/mentored by crooks in the past history of comicdom, but this is just too much, considering what the whole purpose of this variation on Marvel’s Ultimate line is supposed to be for. On which note:
Though it wears its cape and cowl proudly, Absolute Batman is a politically-charged book — just not in the way you’d expect.
“I don’t ever want it to feel like a direct corollary to reality,” Snyder said. “The Joker in our story is a longtime Davos-attending, multi-company-owning, entrenched evil figure. But I pitched that before we had billionaires openly manipulating democracy. The world caught up.” Rather than mimic headlines, Snyder prefers to inject real-world fears into the DNA of the story.
Despite what’s told about headlines, I think Snyder is mimicking them, though more specifically, as this hints, the Joker’s supposed to be a metaphor for a conservative businessman manipulating the political scene to his favor. And Donald Trump has visited Davos in Switzerland, so it’s not hard to guess what Snyder’s alluding to. Gee, another shameless exploitation of a comics villain to serve as a stand-in for a right-winger, not unlike when Marvel did it with the Red Skull in the past decade. And it’s not like even Superman was ever written as perfect at everything; there were writers in the past who’d depict Batman making mistakes and miscalculations in combat, for example. Snyder continues:
“In the main universe, Arkham isn’t scary anymore. It’s familiar,” Snyder said. “So the question became: how do you make it terrifying again?”
Wow, that’s like putting down his own work, if Snyder ever made use of Arkham as a backdrop in his past stories. Some could argue he’s actually implying DC editorial was imposing certain limits on what writers/artists could or couldn’t depict, even though they long abandoned quite a few restraints they once had. But, if it matters, the following explains perfectly what Snyder’s real goal is:
Inspired by body horror and Jacob’s Ladder, Snyder’s version of Arkham is a place of horror and disorientation, with secrets Bruce will begin to uncover beginning with issue #9.
And isn’t that predictable, where they’d go in terms of themes. In addition, Snyder’s even drawing out the defense of the monthly pamphlet format:
Snyder sees Absolute Batman not just as an important, relevant story, but as a statement about comics themselves.
“It’s reaffirmed everything I love about the medium,” Snyder said. “The joy of making people wait each month, of giving them something to talk about — something that hits hard and sticks.”
Snyder believes Absolute Batman, the Ultimate Universe, and creator-owned hits like Assorted Crises Events are signs of a creative explosion in a turbulent market.
“There’s a reckoning happening in comics,” Snyder said. “If we don’t focus on what makes monthly comics special, we won’t survive in a tough economy. So we’re all taking our biggest swings.”
Rebuilding Monthly Comics, One Cliffhanger at a Time
Building on the idea if monthly comics, Snyder said these titles are more important than ever before. With binge cultural dominating the zeitgeist, comics needed to collectively get back to basics in order to flourish.
“Over the last few years, there’s been this re-embracing of monthly comic book fundamentals,” Snyder said. “You see more series going for daring, big moments that are gonna get people talking… cliffhangers, reminders of what the characters are struggling with. There’s a joy to making them wait every month.”
He contrasts this with the streaming model, where entire seasons are greenlit and consumed in a single binge.
“With monthly comics, you’re asking readers to buy in again every issue,” Snyder said. “There’s a joy to that — a joy to telling your friends, ‘Did you see what happened in Ultimate Spider-Man?’”
This sure sounds like a rejection of a format where a whole story could be written up for a paperback/hardcover, and consumed in a single read, which at this point would make a far better example. I’m sorry, but I’m convinced Snyder’s just serving as an apologist for a format that’s now being shamelessly exploited for company wide crossovers. Besides, all the PC directions forced upon Batman over the past 2 decades have only made clear why it’s time to put such comics to rest, and not act as if superhero fare must last eternally. And towards the end, this is just head-shaking:
“I never got to enjoy my early Batman years—I was so stressed out,” Snyder said. “But this time? I love it. I’m up for it.”
And, of course, he’s taking time to love the work of his many peers. James Tynion’s forthcoming Exquisite Corpses, Dennis Camp’s aforementioned Assorted Crises Events, and Matt Rosenberg’s We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us each earned enthusiastic plugs.
It sounds more like he didn’t enjoy writing the Masked Manhunter in the past decade, and because of the direction taken with this alternate world rendition, suddenly, Snyder found the vision he truly embraces, which is to remove the millionaire component from Batman’s background, and make Bruce Wayne more a pauper, because the wish fulfillment of being a millionaire doesn’t suit the far-left vision anymore, save for select examples who’re leftist themselves.
It’s also laughable he lectures us that monthly comics is the way you convince people to buy into the visions being sold, when it’s entirely possible to sell the public on books that could be illustrated, and most importantly but missing in Snyder’s argument, there needs to be convincing entertainment value if they want anybody to stick around. But nothing in what Snyder says guarantees merit, so what’s his point?
Writers like him are exactly what’ve brought down Batman, and even Daredevil. And then he associates with other overrated scribes who specialize in the horror genre. All that does is further make me feel this is somebody with an awfully narrow vision of what to offer for reading, and therefore not worth buying what he’s selling.
Originally published here
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