Batman: Off-World writer Jason Aaron has recently discussed the upcoming DC Comics six-issue Black Label series, which will have an early-in his-career Batman taken in a new direction, with the eponymous young superhero expanding his war on crime beyond the frontiers of Gotham to outer space.
Batman: Off-World will mark Aaron's official Batman series debut, and in an interview with ComicBook, the writer discussed his take on the caped crusader, "So I knew I wanted to do a Batman story, and I wanted to do something that was a different, a different kind of Batman story than we'd seen, and I liked the idea of taking a young Batman, the guy who's just fresh off of Year One," he said. "He's still pretty much the Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli Batman, a guy who's kind of just starting to get his arms around Gotham and figure out what he's doing and how to take control of the city, sort of street by street, alley by alley. And then suddenly, he runs up against something he is wholly unprepared for," Aaron added.
Batman: Off World #1
- Written by JASON AARON
- Art by DOUG MAHNKE
- Cover by DOUG MAHNKE
- Variant Covers by DOUG MAHNKE, LESLEY LEIRIX, DAVID FINCH, BEN OLIVER, and PETE WOODS
In Batman:Off-World, Batman is only beginning to establish himself in Gotham, barely known on Earth before being forced to encounter cosmic threats, a theme yet to be explicitly explored in his long and storied history, "He spent years traveling Earth, learning everything he thought he needed to know to fight to protect Gotham, and then he finds out there's a whole universe of threats out there that he knows absolutely nothing about. So, this young Batman has to go out into space for the first time and start fighting the kind of forces he had no idea existed," Aaron intimated.
Aaron will be collaborating with artist Doug Mahnke on the Upcoming Batman series, and the writer revealed the challenge the titular hero would face in the book, "He's fought so very hard to strike fear in criminals, to become the Bat. And then he goes out here, where they don't know what a bat is. They're like, 'What is this guy with his pretend wings? What are you supposed to be?' They have no reason to be afraid of him. I told Doug, right from the get-go, Batman should be the only person who looks human in this whole book," he said.
"Everybody else should be strange and alien. He is utterly alone out here. And that, to me, is the fun of it, of where does he go with that? How does he respond to that? What does he have to do to achieve his goal? And really, what does that mean for him?" Aaron said.
Jason Aaron and Doug Mahnke's first issue of Batman: Off-World will be available in comic book shops on November 21, 2023.
Source: ComicBook