Post by JotaEse on Apr 1, 2005 13:17:06 GMT -5
There is an interview with Judd about the return of JT @ www.newsarama.com/DC/Countdown_more/Batman_Hello.htm
Here are a couple of highlights.
From Newsarama:
“Personally, I felt that the pain that motivates Batman had to move beyond his parent’s death,” Loeb said. “I would start every story with ‘I made a promise on my parents graves that I would rid the city of the evil that took their lives’ but having done this now for ten years - in DCU terms- is that still his motivating factor? As a parent, I can't think of anything more horrific than the death of a child. It's a chord I played in Supergirl as well in terms of how protective Superman would be of her. Bruce was a child when his parents were murdered. That would be maybe 20 years ago. Jason's death is still relatively fresh.”
“It was one of the things that myself, Bob Schreck, and Dan Didio talked about from the start,” Winick told Newsarama. “When I was taking over Batman, and after the initial arc, I said I wanted to do something big, and this is what I wanted to do. We fought about it, discussed it – both the reasons for and against it, and in one conversation we settled it all. What it finally came down to – beyond the argument, which will be a reader argument about should any character return from the dead, and should this character come back from the dead? – was that I was less interested in the how and the why and the what of Jason Todd returning from the dead than I am about what Jason’s return will do to Batman. Now.”
Winick knows Lincoln’s adage well, and isn’t even pretending that he thinks everyone will love the idea of Jason returning for real. “There are readers who are upset about this – I know it,” the writer said. “A lot of readers fall into the category of wanting a story, but hating conflict. They love the characters, but hate when things happen to them. But that’s what these stories are about – we create these obstacles and put them through these terrible things, and they’re supposed to survive. It’s never about ‘Batman would never allow this to happen.’ Things happen, and that’s what this is about. Jason’s return is one of the best impediments that we could come up with. It’s one of Batman’s living nightmares.”
“And that’s part of it – he’s not a kid. What does that mean to Batman, too? That’s what I was interested in – this is what Jason Todd is going to do to Batman, and this is what Jason Todd is about.”
Though “what Jason Todd is about” is probably not what readers think it is. “The first thing I put to readers here, the first time I’m commenting on this publicly – the first question I have to ask to anyone is that, in anything we’ve done with him so far – is Jason Todd truly a bad guy in the darkest sense? Look at what’s going on, and look at this man. Is he truly a villain, or is he something else? If you look at it this way, you might guess or see where we’re going?
“What would be the worst thing for Batman? For me, it would be for Jason Todd, who will remain the Red Hood as well, is that he will become Batman in a sense. In his eyes, he’ll be better than Batman. That line that Batman has drawn in the sand – that very distinct line between what he will do and what he will never do – Jason doesn’t see it. Jason Todd will kill people – bad people, or people who help bad people. Or, occasionally even innocent people who might get in his way while he’s hunting the bad.
“Everything we’ve done has not been about him being a villain, per se. He’s bad, but there’s something about him. What Jason can do and will do in the course of the time we’re dealing with it is that he wants to become what Batman will never be able to become. He will be better than Batman. He will do what Batman has never been able to accomplish. If Batman had killed the Joker years ago, Jason wouldn’t have died. Now, this ghost of all his past failures has literally come back to haunt him.”
But going back to Winick’s point that Jason is a man – and the point that Robin made in “Hush,” that corpses don’t age from teenagers to men while they’re in the ground – how did Jason get to be who he is today?
Winick is mum.
“Nope – nothing out of me on that. This is so not about the why right now, and I apologize to people who are looking for that immediately. The why is not going to be important for a really long time. The only hint I’ll give is that it’s no accident that DC Countdown and the return of Jason Todd happened on the same day. There’s a much larger story here – a story that Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka and I have been planning, and Jason Todd plays a part in it. So yeah, in one day, I’m partly responsible for killing off a hero, and bringing back another one…”
“We decided a long time ago that Jason would be a very important part of the puzzle – this was brewing while Countdown and Infinite Crisis was being created. Jason plays into all of what’s coming. It’s going to be a while before the why and how is explained, and for me, it’s the least important part of things right now. Right now, it’s all about the who and what when Batman and Jason finally meet – we’re getting there, we’re three of four issues away from the point where the arc started and they were beating the living hell out of each other.”
The only hint Winick will give about how long Jason has been alive, and what he’s been up to – a possibility to consider: “I’ll put it up as a possibility – there’s an excellent chance that the Jason Todd you saw in Hush is the one you’re looking at now. I’m not saying this definitively – it’s only a possibility. But I’d urge people to go back and look at ‘Hush’ and figure out if there’s any point in the fight between Batman and Jason where there could have been a switch – where Batman could have been fighting Jason, and then, a moment or two where he could have been fighting against someone else.
And finally, for those wondering, yes, Winick was reading Batman in 1988, and, when the time came, he called in and voted for Jason to live. 16 years later, he got his wish.
Here are a couple of highlights.
From Newsarama:
“Personally, I felt that the pain that motivates Batman had to move beyond his parent’s death,” Loeb said. “I would start every story with ‘I made a promise on my parents graves that I would rid the city of the evil that took their lives’ but having done this now for ten years - in DCU terms- is that still his motivating factor? As a parent, I can't think of anything more horrific than the death of a child. It's a chord I played in Supergirl as well in terms of how protective Superman would be of her. Bruce was a child when his parents were murdered. That would be maybe 20 years ago. Jason's death is still relatively fresh.”
“It was one of the things that myself, Bob Schreck, and Dan Didio talked about from the start,” Winick told Newsarama. “When I was taking over Batman, and after the initial arc, I said I wanted to do something big, and this is what I wanted to do. We fought about it, discussed it – both the reasons for and against it, and in one conversation we settled it all. What it finally came down to – beyond the argument, which will be a reader argument about should any character return from the dead, and should this character come back from the dead? – was that I was less interested in the how and the why and the what of Jason Todd returning from the dead than I am about what Jason’s return will do to Batman. Now.”
Winick knows Lincoln’s adage well, and isn’t even pretending that he thinks everyone will love the idea of Jason returning for real. “There are readers who are upset about this – I know it,” the writer said. “A lot of readers fall into the category of wanting a story, but hating conflict. They love the characters, but hate when things happen to them. But that’s what these stories are about – we create these obstacles and put them through these terrible things, and they’re supposed to survive. It’s never about ‘Batman would never allow this to happen.’ Things happen, and that’s what this is about. Jason’s return is one of the best impediments that we could come up with. It’s one of Batman’s living nightmares.”
“And that’s part of it – he’s not a kid. What does that mean to Batman, too? That’s what I was interested in – this is what Jason Todd is going to do to Batman, and this is what Jason Todd is about.”
Though “what Jason Todd is about” is probably not what readers think it is. “The first thing I put to readers here, the first time I’m commenting on this publicly – the first question I have to ask to anyone is that, in anything we’ve done with him so far – is Jason Todd truly a bad guy in the darkest sense? Look at what’s going on, and look at this man. Is he truly a villain, or is he something else? If you look at it this way, you might guess or see where we’re going?
“What would be the worst thing for Batman? For me, it would be for Jason Todd, who will remain the Red Hood as well, is that he will become Batman in a sense. In his eyes, he’ll be better than Batman. That line that Batman has drawn in the sand – that very distinct line between what he will do and what he will never do – Jason doesn’t see it. Jason Todd will kill people – bad people, or people who help bad people. Or, occasionally even innocent people who might get in his way while he’s hunting the bad.
“Everything we’ve done has not been about him being a villain, per se. He’s bad, but there’s something about him. What Jason can do and will do in the course of the time we’re dealing with it is that he wants to become what Batman will never be able to become. He will be better than Batman. He will do what Batman has never been able to accomplish. If Batman had killed the Joker years ago, Jason wouldn’t have died. Now, this ghost of all his past failures has literally come back to haunt him.”
But going back to Winick’s point that Jason is a man – and the point that Robin made in “Hush,” that corpses don’t age from teenagers to men while they’re in the ground – how did Jason get to be who he is today?
Winick is mum.
“Nope – nothing out of me on that. This is so not about the why right now, and I apologize to people who are looking for that immediately. The why is not going to be important for a really long time. The only hint I’ll give is that it’s no accident that DC Countdown and the return of Jason Todd happened on the same day. There’s a much larger story here – a story that Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka and I have been planning, and Jason Todd plays a part in it. So yeah, in one day, I’m partly responsible for killing off a hero, and bringing back another one…”
“We decided a long time ago that Jason would be a very important part of the puzzle – this was brewing while Countdown and Infinite Crisis was being created. Jason plays into all of what’s coming. It’s going to be a while before the why and how is explained, and for me, it’s the least important part of things right now. Right now, it’s all about the who and what when Batman and Jason finally meet – we’re getting there, we’re three of four issues away from the point where the arc started and they were beating the living hell out of each other.”
The only hint Winick will give about how long Jason has been alive, and what he’s been up to – a possibility to consider: “I’ll put it up as a possibility – there’s an excellent chance that the Jason Todd you saw in Hush is the one you’re looking at now. I’m not saying this definitively – it’s only a possibility. But I’d urge people to go back and look at ‘Hush’ and figure out if there’s any point in the fight between Batman and Jason where there could have been a switch – where Batman could have been fighting Jason, and then, a moment or two where he could have been fighting against someone else.
And finally, for those wondering, yes, Winick was reading Batman in 1988, and, when the time came, he called in and voted for Jason to live. 16 years later, he got his wish.
