Reaction To: Scott Snyder & Kyle Higgins Discuss [And Reveal Things For] Night Of The Owls

 

Comic Book Resources recently had a great interview with Nightwing writer Kyle Higgins and Batman writer Scott Snyder on the current Bat-event, Night of the Owls. And in anticipation for the crossover blitzing that’s on the horizon with a lot of the #9 Bat-related titles I’ve pulled out some of the more interesting and insightful quotes.

Kyle Higgins to Scott Snyder on the original idea conception of Night of the Owls:

And I remember when we first spoke about it, you were still thinking of writing for Dick Grayson, and that’s where a lot of the Talon connections came from.

A Dick Grayson-Batman event written by Scott Snyder would have been ballsy and a lot of fun, really glad Grayon’s remained such a central element to the story, materializing for the the first time in Batman #1.

Kyle Higgins & Scott Snyder on how long they’ve planned on Nightwing and Batman being the catalyst to the story and intersecting in issue #7:

Kyle: From the day that I came on “Nightwing,” Scott and I made the decision to do this.

Scott: We had this story planned before I wrote “Batman” #1, and we knew we’d reveal that at a certain point.

Kyle: It’s much more impactful when everybody’s on the same page. So I’m glad people are digging it.

Agreed. Nightwing has been good but when I realized what was happening during issue #7 when it began the same scene from Batman #7 but from Dick Grayson’s point of view it made the impact form the reveal

significantly more poignant.

Batman #7 on the left, Nightwing #7 on the right.

Scott Snyder on incorporating his Night of the Owls story into the crossover titles:

giving the general idea of “Night of the Owls” to the other writers, it was meant to be something that they could take and make their own from story-to-story. Some of them do [connect to the character.] Like “Red Hood” actually gets very personal between Jason and the Talon he’s fighting.

Some of them have ties like that, and other ones like “Birds of Prey” happen as these big, fun romps where the characters have to fight off the Talons in the middle of another story that was happening, but it forwards that story too. The story you’ve been reading in “Birds of Prey” doesn’t get put on hold.

Sounds like the kind of streamlined crossover fans want – the main event is contained to one book while trickling non-critical side-stories happen in the other books. It’s a very “everybody wins” move but events in the past have shown that the strength of the main story will determine if it helps the other books at all. Luckily Snyder’s built such a solid core story that I could see this titles benefiting quite a bit. I know my own comic budget for May will be on the “hefty” side.

Some writers, like JH Williams on “Batwoman,” were right in the middle of a story that couldn’t be interrupted. So we just gave them room to avoid this, while the ones that did want to tie in could decide the level of intimacy the issue had.

Such a gentlemen that Scott Snyder. It’s a bit of shame though as a) I’d love to see Batwoman wail on some Talons and I feel like their is a lot of room for the “personal” touch Synder is going for with Kathy Kane and b) seems like the book could use a boost right about now.

The only stipulation was first to try and make the story personal to your character in some way…

…And the second stipulation was that since the Talon could come from any era of Gotham’s history – so if you love the 1950s, you could pick a ’50s Talon, and we had chart laying out the particulars of the history of the city from any time – then the hope was that you’d open a window to that period of history for a moment.

We saw this in Nightwing #8 with the 1800′s story/influence. Personally, I think it’s a great idea giving these villains separate stories with different settings. The Talons are at risk of becoming like any other disposable ninja clan, this layer of depth could keep that from happening.

Gail Simone’s is one of my favorites since her “Batgirl” opens in the 1940s with this great historical anecdote.

You had me at Gail Simone.

Scott Snyder on Owls in previous Batman work, specifically The Killing Joke (first pointed out at Canuck Goose) and whether or not their presence in other works influenced his decision:

One of the most fun things for me about this story is that owls have been in the background of Batman’s mythology for a really long time with Owlman and “JLA: Earth-2″ as well as being this predatory symbol from nature since owls eat bats. So I wanted to use that symbol, and after I decided on it, it seemed to appear everywhere as I was looking through that stuff

This, this is pretty great. Previous to this article I remembered Owls being in the Bat-verse in places, most notably any Owlman references, but those specifics are striking. I mean that Killing Joke image is a dead on Court of the Owls owl. Part of what’s made this whole Court of the Owls arc special is how close it’s felt to the Bat-universe, while new it’s been fairly familiar. I guess now we can point to why.

The Court of Owls spying on Bats during The Killing Joke?

Scott Snyder on Greg Capullo’s work, contribution to the event, and the future:

I think after the event, he’s going to take a break for a couple of issues in between “Night of The Owls” and our next big story starting in #13 where we’ll dive into our next big story. We’re happy to be teamed in Gotham for a long while to come.

While I’ll be sad when Capullo take a break it’s much deserved. And issue #13, new “big story.” Huh?

Anyone else feeling a Joker arc coming up? I don’t know, it just feels like it’s time.

Scott Snyder on the backups in Batman:

But the backups are going to tell a secret story called “The Fall of the House of Wayne.” It’s narrated from the point of view of Alfred’s father Jarvis…

…But this tells a story from his point of view that will reveal some gigantic stuff – some of the biggest secrets in our whole story. So as you’re reading and getting to some of the biggest twists of the feature in #9, 10 and 11, you’ll be learning about the other side of that same set of secrets and reveals in the backups.

This is what I was hoping to get from the backups. Worth every extra penny.

Scott Snyder on Alfred’s father, Jarvis:

It’s funny he’s named Jarvis. We tried to retcon that. I asked Mike, “Can we change the name Jarvis? I mean, it’s in ‘Iron Man’ now.” And he was like, “No way. We predate that. They ripped us off.” [Laughter] So I guess Jarvis it is.

Good call Mike.

Thanks again to Comic Book Resources and their excellent interview. Keep visiting back for more reviews, news, and commentary on Batman and this years big event, Night of the Owls.

Tags: Batman Comics Comic Book Interviews Kyle Higgins Night of the Owls Scott Snyder