As the title suggests, this week’sBatman#75 finds Gotham City overrun by Bane.
Though he first appeared early in the run, Bane was only getting started.
EW spoke with King recently in a long-running conversation about his run and what it’s been building towards.
The brother and sister duo called themselves Gotham and Gotham Girl.
Their magnificent powers were slowly killing them and driving them insane.
Flash forward to the present, where Gotham Girl is allied with Bane now.
Not only that she’s one of the main reasons he’s able to control Gotham City at all.
Why doesn’t the Justice League take it over?
Because they’ve got an atom bomb.
By using her that way, he’s killing her."
That wasn’t the only meaning of the title, however.
He was saying, ‘I have no more use for Bruce Wayne.
I’m now this other thing.
I’m the man who wars on criminals.’
I think that was always there, I just made it a little more, maybe, explicit."
They care about something other than being Batman, but Batman only cares about that.
Only future issues will be able to tell whether that singular determination is enough to overcome Bane.
Thomas Wayne
A few years beforeDC Rebirth, the publisher reinvented its entire line.
Previous continuity was erased, and every comic series started off from a new issue #1. so that do that, I’m going to throw away my entire life.
I’m gonna be totally obsessed with it.
I’m gonna risk my well-being every single day.
That’s an absolutely horrible idea.
You need balance in your life,'" King says.
“Then it becomes an idea of addiction.
The way his father sees it is, ‘My son is addicted to something.
He made this suicidal choice and now he can’t quit.’
Thomas wasn’t kidding.
Thomas becomes Bane’s top lieutenant “the Darth Vader to his Emperor,” in King’s words.
“He does have an outsize role,” King says.
He’s got a big role because the city is controlled by villains, and he’s a villain.
As usual, Lucy always takes the football and he always falls on his back.
Catwoman
It all comes back to Catwoman.
It was a beautiful mess of divergent tones that also made perfect sense.
“Comic books are fundamentally absurd,” King says.
It’s completely nonsensical.
The thing that mitigates that is that life itself is fairly nonsensical.
That’s not life.
Life is like a comic book.
Life is ongoing and, at least to you, never-ending.
So, that’s what I do.
I take that absurdity seriously because when we look around everyday, we take absurdity seriously.”
Your brain has to process it all.
And then you turn on the news and everything’s falling apart.
All of these things have to exist in you at once and that’s what comics can be."
And in that case, who would be around to stop the Joker from killing everyone?
That’s a question Catwoman has struggled with.
Together, the two of them might be Gotham City’s only shot at salvation.
It’s gonna be just tough for everyone.
And we’re finally turning that corner.
Or John Wick seeing his puppy die and being like, ‘Alright it’s on.’
You’re running that 400 dash and your best runner just got the baton."
Batman#75 is available now.
