normbreyfogle.community

TheSymptom · Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:52 am Post subject:

For those of you keeping score, they resurrected the corpse, and (please stifle your surprise, heh) it wasn't Bruce!

I am interested to see what happens in the Return of Bruce Wayne story though. I have to admit that I appreciate how Morrison has brought back the idea that Batman isn't just some tortured vigilante -- he's a genius. I always loved seeing him be 5 steps ahead of everyone.

Daniel Best · Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 6:15 am Post subject:

it might well be a good story, but the whole 'Death Of' story lines are what drove me away from comic books as a whole. You just know that no matter what happens the original will always be back in costume within 18 months. It's just one big gimmick, to me, and a poorly done one.

At least the pitch Norm and myself made to DC would have the final death of Bruce Wayne. There was no coming back for him the way it was written. In hindsight, probably not the best move.
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George Travlos · Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 9:00 am Post subject:

Why would you want to kill Batman?

Daniel Best · Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 11:56 am Post subject:

Me? Why would I want to kill Batman? I was bored.

No, seriously, I had a brainwave one morning and wrote up an idea. Norm saw it, here, and liked it so much that we expanded it and worked it up further. I then ran it by Alan Weiss who was very jazzed and suggested a couple of minor plot points and possible directions. I then wrote it all up and Norm submitted it to DC where it was soundly ignored.

I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, and who I wanted to engage to assist on this project. If it'd been approved then I was going to approach Alan Grant to assist - as if such a thing would happen. It'd be more like Alan telling me what to do, and rightly so, if he'd accepted. But I wasn't going to mention that to DC until after it'd been approved.

Thus the final credits might well have read:
Story by Daniel Best
Plot: Norm Breyfogle/Daniel Best with suggestions by Alan Weiss
Script: Alan Grant
Art: Norm Breyfogle

Covers by Norm and any number of inkers. Dave Simons wanted to ink a cover, Alan Weiss said he'd do one and I also thought of asking Joe Sinnott to work on the third. I have an idea of who I'd get to the first issue cover inks now that Dave is gone - but I'll keep that one quiet, but I'm sure that he'd have accepted without hesitation.

But DC clearly thought all of that was silly...so why would I want to kill Batman? To get my name in a credit box with all of those guys!!! That's why. I mean, Alan Grant, Norm Breyfogle, Alan Weiss, Joe Sinnott...yeesh!
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George Travlos · Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 12:46 pm Post subject:

Daniel Best · Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:53 pm Post subject:

I like the idea of him brown bagging it every day and watching the clock while he plays Freecell.

Nah, I thought our pitch had a couple of very powerful scenes - there were a few that I'd set out clearly in my head and the few people that saw the pitch were salivating over the thought of the scenes being drawn. Norm had a great image as well - naturally - which at first I disagreed with, but then Alan Weiss told me that I was an idiot as Norm's idea was far more powerful than mine and was keeping in character.

I know enough to concede.
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TheSymptom · Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 6:53 am Post subject:

Well it ended up being far more of a Death Of storyline -- for one that he was never actually dead. One of Morrison's veins of storytelling with Bruce Wayne is how Batman is more than just a smart guy in a scary suit. He has come as far as he has and achieved as much as he has because of how superhuman he is without having superhuman powers.

To explain whose body that was in Superman's arms would require that you kept up with Final Crisis, but just know that it turned out to not be him. Darkseid sent Bruce into a continuous re-imagining of his existence throughout history (which will be the plot of the 'Return of Bruce Wayne' upcoming). Basically, it is a fate that is supposed to be inescapable. But by all accounts and what seems to be implied in the 'Batman RIP' storyline, Bruce trumped the Devil himself.

A powerful scene to me had to be during RIP when Batman had been buried alive. We KNEW he was going to claw his way out. But what took it from the standard Batman escape moment to something defining was that the Joker was there and giddy over the fact that he believed that Batman's captors clearly had no idea what they were messing with, and told them so. Lex Luthor completely hates Superman, the Joker both adores and hates Batman at the same time. Another unique piece of his universe.

Though someone like Superman is certainly not a hero because of his powers, those powers are tempered by the person he is. On the flipside, Batman is a powerful hero on par with Superman because of the person he is.

I admittedly was pretty pissed about them borking all of this (and still don't 100% agree with resurrecting Jason Todd) but I can see the idea of defining how powerful of a character Batman is after being muddied so much in all of the last few crises.

Granted, once this story is over, they're going to have to take this "demi-god" of a man and give him adventures that don't "redefine" him again just to keep things interesting.

Johan Nagel · Metaphysique Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 290

Daniel Best · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 1:16 pm Post subject:

You do know that the idea of Batman being buried alive in the RIP storyline was a direct steal of a World's Finest story from the '70s?

Sorry, it might have been good, and I did read it, but it wasn't original.
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Cobblepot · Bat Hound Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 86

What WF story are you reffering to?

Daniel Best · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 6:33 pm Post subject:

George Travlos · Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 10:17 am Post subject:

Best buried alive ever was "Kraven's Last Hunt" featuring Spider-Man by JMD and Zeck.