1998 Batman DC Comics Staff - 50 Questions and Answers

[The Joker]

Here are scans of a 1998 Wizard Magazine Batman special issue that offers an interesting time capsule look into the line of thinking that was going on with the guys who were guiding the bat books back during this era; Dennis O'Neil, Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, Alan Grant, Bob Greenberger, and Scott Peterson (the editor/writer, not the murderer). 

[The Laughing Fish]

Denny O'Neil didn't hold back from showing his distaste for the idea of Batman and Talia having a kid. He must've hated it when Damian Wayne became canon. I'm not a huge Damian fan either, but for better or worse, he's here to stay. Until maybe the next DC reboot.

Thomas Wayne was definitely stern going by how O'Neil wrote him in The Man Who Falls. Thomas reacted quite harshly after rescuing young Bruce from the hole he fell into, going so far to call his son an "idiot" and repeatedly scolding him for running off by himself. With that said, it's perhaps that sort of tough parenting that instilled some discipline in Bruce to not take any reckless chances growing up.

I'd like to know how critics would've reacted to The Man Who Falls if it were to be published today. It's a short story with only thirteen or so pages long, but I just can't help but feel there would be agenda-driven people out there who would complain about the gender roles the Waynes play, with Thomas justifying his overreacting because Bruce had to learn to not put himself in danger, and Martha portrayed as the gentle mother. I can see there being an argument of the parents being too careless in allowing their son to wander off alone, but the cynic in me suspects it would've been ignored in favour of criticising O'Neil for making Thomas an an example of "toxic masculinity" or some sh*t. My expectations in media discourse and analysis is rather low.

It never occurred to me that people wondered how Bruce didn't get put into an orphanage, I always thought Alfred had automatic legal guardianship. The only other family relative I remember Bruce Wayne had was Uncle Phillip, but I can't remember if he appears in the original Golden Age or if it's only in the retelling of that era in the first issue of Secret Origins and in Scott Snyder's Zero Year.

[thecolorsblend]

Here are scans of a 1998 Wizard Magazine Batman special issue that offers an interesting time capsule look into the line of thinking that was going on with the guys who were guiding the bat books back during this era; Dennis O'Neil, Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, Alan Grant, Bob Greenberger, and Scott Peterson (the editor/writer, not the murderer). 

Now this is interesting.

#16 says the bat-signal's origin hadn't been revealed in continuity at that time. That caught my eye because the storyline 'Prey' from (Legends Of The Dark Knight #11-#15) shows Lieutenant Gordon improvising the bat-signal specifically to catch Batman's attention. So, presumably that wasn't in continuity? If it wasn't, I'd find that peculiar since Doug Moench wrote that storyline and he was a Batman writer at that time.

It doesn't matter a whole lot, admittedly. I just think that's interesting.

[The Joker]

Just because it's a scan from 1997, I'm placing this Wizard character profile of Batman here.