nana-nana-nana-nana-na-Batman!

So, over at Newsarama, DC Universe Executive Editor Dan DiDio sat down to talk about a few things, the most exciting being the way that the Batman corner or the DCU is changing in the wake of Batman: RIP and Final Crisis.

For those of you that don't know, at the end of those series, Bruce Wayne fought the reincarnation of an alien god named Darkseid. So it was a guy with a really cool tool belt versus a God. Did not go well. Basically Darkseid zapped Bruce Wayne back to prehistoric times where he was last seen carving a bat into a cave wall. Seriously. If that seems ridiculous, well, it kind of was.

Now there's a miniseries going on called Battle for the Cowl, where a bunch of candidates are set to scrap over taking over the mantle. The candidates are: Dick Grayson, the original Robin who now goes by Nightwing; Jason Todd, the resurrected second Robin and all around asshole; Tim Drake, the current Robin and nerdy virgin; Harvey Dent, former Two-Face; and some sort of unknown psycho who is killing criminals. Along for the ride is Damien, the illegitimate son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul. This annoying ten year old was raised by a league of assassins.

The photo included here shows the new Batman and Robin, as drawn by Frank Quitely. He worked with Grant Morrison on All Star Superman, and they're teaming up again on the new book. From the look of things, I'm betting our new dynamic duo is either Dick Grayson and Damien or Jason Todd and Damien, but certainly Damien looks to be the new Robin. And what of Tim Drake? He'll be the new Nightwing, I'm betting.

Here's how DiDio says the new Gotham City will shake out:


The Batman titles that are coming out in June – a reader asked if there will be a cohesion between them once they all launch and start rolling in the post Battle for the Cowl world as we see in the Superman titles after New Krypton?

DD: There’s a cohesion in a sense that it’s clear that they’re all coming from the same place. There is a new Batman, that’s pretty clear, so that character will be reflected in all the series and the ramifications of the change in the character will be reflected as well. But each of the series comes from a different point of view – Batman & Robin will naturally focus on the new team of Batman and Robin, Batman will focus on the new Batman, Detective Comics will focus on the new Batwoman and her role in Gotham City as she tries to affect change; Streets of Gotham will focus on the supporting cast members of Gotham’s world and how they interact with Batman; Gotham City Sirens will be dealing with Catwoman, Ivy and Harley Quinn and their adventures, many of which may dovetail in with other adventures that are taking place in other places in other aspects of Batman’s world; Outsiders deals with Alfred who will be seen in other books, but this is Alfred’s mission and directive and is about adventures that take place outside of Gotham City and Batgirl will be featuring...well, we’ll leave that for another day.

NRAMA: And all of those are ongoing?

DD: Yes they are.

Hmmmmm, we'll see.