Kurt Busiek and John Paul Leon follow up Secret Identity…
DC today announced a new four-issue miniseries launching in November, Batman: Creature of the Night, by Kurt Busiek and John Paul Leon.
The premise is simple: What if you were a Batman fan as a child and what happened to Bruce Wayne happened to you?
The prestige-format series is essentially a follow-up to Busiek’s acclaimed Secret Identity (art by Stuart Immonen), which posited what it’d be like to be a Kansas kid in our world named Clark Kent who started developing otherworldly powers.
Here’s the solicitation copy:
BATMAN: CREATURE OF THE NIGHT #1
Written by KURT BUSIEK
Art and cover by JOHN PAUL LEON
Young Bruce Wainwright lost his parents in a violent crime…and in the real world, no superheroes exist to save the day. But as grief and rage builds inside Bruce until he feels he can’t keep it inside anymore, something strange starts taking wing in the Gotham night! Perhaps Bruce’s grief isn’t inside him after all?
Modern masters Kurt Busiek and John Paul Leon unite for the spiritual companion to the beloved SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY, putting a new spin you’ve never seen before on the legend of Batman—and the dark emotions that drive him!
On sale NOVEMBER 29 • 48 pg, FC, 1 of 4, $5.99 US • RATED T+
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And check out a preview of some gorgeous, unlettered art. I’ve been wanting Leon on Batman in the worst way, so this is all seriously welcome.
Now there’s no question the subject matter is pretty grim. But I can’t help but be over the moon about the use of the old Ben Cooper costume — which of course, I had — and the Silver Age through-line: The story takes place in 1968 in Boston (a city where I lived for eight years in my late teens/early-20s). And I have to say that as much as I loved playing Batman as a child, it wasn’t lost on me what it took for Bruce Wayne to put on the mask and cape.
So this is something I’m already marking the calendar for.
