During New York Comic-Con, Warner Bros. Animation hosted “Art Night: Batman in Animation,” a panel where top artists and creators discussed past and current Batman animated projects. The Beat had the opportunity to speak with panelists including James Tucker (Executive Producer and Showrunner, Batman: Caped Crusader), Juan Meza-Leon (Director, Aztec Batman: Clash of the Empires), Mike Ross (Executive Producer and Showrunner, Batfam), and Simon J. Smith (Executive Producer, Batwheels).
Read the full interview below, and stay tuned for more coverage from Ross and the voice cast of the Batfam animated series.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Taimur Dar: What do you think is the core of Batman that is important to Batman Aztec?
Juan Meza-Leon: I am always moving toward the spirit of revenge. He is also a human character who must overcome overwhelming obstacles to become something greater than himself. The story of Batman Aztec takes place in a historical setting of dire circumstances and overwhelming obstacles. This is a man who saw his father killed before his eyes and his village completely destroyed by invaders. There was a bat god called Tsinakan, and this was the window for creating this whole myth about warriors who donned the cloak of this bat god to fight at night against invading armies. We tried to express the spirit of Batman, about a boy who transforms into something big that can bring justice to people.
Taimur Dar: I love Batman’s adaptability, but I think people often incorrectly describe Batman stories like the Christopher Nolan and Matt Reeves movies as serious in the sense of being realistic.
Juan Meza-Leon: In comic books, you see the same thing with Frank Miller, Denny O’Neil, Grant Morrison. One of my favorite books is Arkham Asylum. And there’s also a campy side to it. I think Batman allows himself to be reinterpreted in many different ways. When you hear someone say “this and that,” it’s someone who only knows movies and not comics. Both are equally great. Frank Miller is very different from Grant Morrison or Neal Adams. It’s all the same essence. A person who suffers from his own psychology and weaknesses and tries to overcome them.
Taimur Dar: Batman Aztec ends teasing a major Batman villain with a bird theme. Is a sequel in the works?
Juan Meza-Leon: The entire world of Batman Aztec was originally conceived as a miniseries, but it was condensed into one story. If you know the history of the collapse of the (Aztec) empire, it wasn’t just war. They brought pestilence and disease. So when you see Dr. Waldo holding all these vials in the movie, it brings that aspect of the story. The evil has only just begun. I hope to continue the story. We never call him Penguin. He is Dr. Waldo. He is a person who combined science with the religion of his time. He is a very dangerous person. He will greatly contribute to the decline of culture. Yoka will also be heavily involved in the next story. I hope I get the green light to continue the story. There is a cure.
Taimur Dar: Were you a Batman fan growing up?
Simon J. Smith: I’m late to the party. I loved the 66 series when I was a kid, and of course I loved the Batman movies. But when The Dark Knight Returns was released, it blew my mind in terms of its tone and artwork. Since then, I’ve always kept Batman as close as possible. So when Warner Bros. asked me to be a part of their Batman project, I said, “You put me up to bat!”
Taimur Dar: I loved the “Banebuggy” episode of Batweel. We’ve seen people involved with the show commenting on the challenge of adapting these iconic Batman villains into something for kids. Was it really difficult?
Simon J. Smith: It’s very difficult. Sometimes they are crazy lunatics with checkered pasts who justify in their minds what they do. We can’t do that. We are trying to bring villains and heroes into our world, and this is very much a playground scenario. In other facilities, villains are killing people, but in our world, we’ve turned Gotham into a theme park where villains are humiliating people. That’s the most they’ve ever done. (For Bane Buggy) All he wants to do is get big. Because he is actually very small. He wants to be the real Bane character in the Batman universe, and that’s his motivation. He doesn’t want to crush people.
Taimur Dar: How did Adam West’s Batmobile come about?
Simon J. Smith: It came from Sam Reigster, our president of animation, and he really liked the idea. We also wanted to have the original ’66 Batmobile in the show. My co-showrunner Michael G. Stearns and I really loved the idea of bringing that character into the picture. Sam said, “You can use lines from the last two movies that Adam[West]played.” Michael did a great job working with the writers to create episodes that allowed us to include audio. We called this character ADAM, so that’s what happened. In season 3, he makes a surprise appearance in another episode along with the rest of the Batmobile. There are some interesting things happening in season 3.
Taimur Dar: On that note, are there any other teases about the villain?
Simon J. Smith: Season 3 introduces the Clock King. There’s a mini-arc of several race episodes with Professor Zoom. The battle with Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash, consists of a total of 10 episodes.
Taimur Dar: Do you think you can’t publish guest testimonials?
Simon J. Smith: Dan Stevens plays Professor Zoom. He loved the character and did a great job. Ethan Hawke remains as Batman. Season 3 will be the best season yet.
Taimur Dar: How he created a hilarious Batman
Mike Ross: It all grew out of Merry Little Batman. We wanted to tell the timeless story of Christmas, and we wanted that “co-viewing” experience. The idea was to make Batman more tame. He swaps out his tux and is in full dad mode. He has a beard and wears flannel. He took all the Batman energy he had and put it into being a father. From there, as we were building the movie, I was really excited about what would happen if we brought in other characters and how far we could go. There are still so many stories to tell and places to go.
Taimur Dar: I was really impressed with the world building in Bat-Fam. A lot of past history is hinted at that has yet to be revealed, including Damian’s mother, Talia al Ghul. Is every character’s past history already established in your head, or do you make it up along the way?
Mike Ross: For some characters, yes, we make them up along the way. It stops short of breaking a character like Clayface and doing something completely random. But at the end of the day, he’s still Clayface. As he was introduced, we realized how perfectly he fit into this puzzle. I have a plan for people like Talia. She had an idea of who was on the property before we saw anything. Full disclosure, there are moments where we tiptoe through some storylines to make sure that if we get to a place where she can come back, we’re carving out a space that makes sense for her.
Taimur Dar: Is Selina Kyle there?
Mike Ross: I think we’ve always envisioned Catwoman. (lol). Bruce naming his cat Selina is definitely an Easter egg.
Taimur Dar: What did it mean to you to create a new character for the series?
Mike Ross: DC and Warner Bros. have given us a big sandbox to play in. There was space to introduce new characters. Bruce is very practical and methodical. We wanted to add that voice to the mix. Some of Alicia herself has told us this. Of course, we wanted her to feel connected to her family, so it made sense to have her relate to someone in the family, like Alfred. I also liked this idea of Bruce’s childhood. It all comes down to what the property or story needs and where we want to take it.
Taimur Dar: Ed Brubaker, who worked on Batman: The Caped Crusader, said on a podcast that they actually worked together on a Batman comic many years ago.
James Tucker: A long time ago!
Taimur Dar: I would love to hear about your experience with that comic project.
James Tucker: It was for Batman #600, so it was interesting. I think I initially contacted Darwyn Cooke and he recommended me. We used to work together on Batman Beyond. I think Ed called me directly and said, “We want to do a parody of a 1950s Batman story.” I was such a fan of those that I ended up basing my Batman: The Brave and the Bold show on that type of story. Those ’50s stories were politically incorrect and wrong. That was the era. I said, “Let’s do the politically incorrect one again.” That’s where the story ended. It was fun to draw in an old-fashioned style. After that, I ended up drawing him in “The Brave and the Bold,” and I also drew him in the episode “The Legend of the Dark Knight” in “The New Adventures of Batman.” We did a 1950s Dick Sprang style corner. I drew the storyboard for that part. That’s what Ed and I used for our story. Very few people know that story! (lol). It’s a silly story, but it’s fun to try.
Taimur Dar: As you said, it’s no secret that you love Silver Age comics. I think people used to look down on those stories as ridiculous. But the Silver Age comics seem to be gaining traction, especially considering how much they influenced James Gunn’s new Superman movie. What do you like about Silver Age Batman comics?
James Tucker: What the Silver Age was right about was that it was very fanciful and original. The idea was very big and broad. They were goofy, but sci-fi based, like aliens and weird inventions. It was a departure from the 1940s, which was more noir-based. Even Superman was more of a noir-based character, as he originally only fought corruption and street-level gangs. Science fiction has been brought in more and more. In Batman’s case, the ’50s were when he really started to push into something more sci-fi. As the Silver Age, the core of most of the characters we still love were established in the ’50s. All the fantastical stuff that makes up Superman came out in the 50s, like the bottled cities of Kandor and Krypto.
Of course, people try to reimagine them as cringier and more serious. But essentially, they were grand fancy ideas and kind of stupid. But you don’t have to be stupid. If he does it with a straight face like James Gunn does, at the end of the day he’s accepting their greatness and treating them with some respect. Everyone would think it’s too stupid for Superman to have a robot. But it wouldn’t be strange if it was Star Wars. Why is it stupid in a Superman show? Anything from Star Wars could be in a Superman show. Star Wars is full of big, over-the-top ideas. I never thought there was a problem with science fiction or interpretations of the 50s. It’s your way.
Taimur Dar: What can we tease about the Joker in the next season of ‘Batman: The Caped Crusader’?
JAMES TUCKER: I will say that this might look different if you were in a version where you only know Mark Hamill or Jack Nicholson or even Heath Ledger. But if you know the Joker’s history going back to his first appearance, you’ll recognize him. We go back to his roots, just like we went back to Batman’s roots. For me, it’s like seeing the Joker in a reprint for the first time. I was away from Cesar Romero, so it was a completely different version of the Joker than I was used to. He’s a scary Joker. I think there’s been a scary Joker before, but it was a mix of Nicholson, Romero, and Ledger. Over the years, he has evolved far from his original appearance. So we went back to basics.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage of NYCC ’25.
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