Recently, M + M did a read through Alan Brennert's early Batman stories, and we both agreed they were masterpieces. These stories meant alot to us in our youth, and again in our middle age. He packed those comics with stories about aging, vulnerability, and mortality, and they speak to us now just like they did then. He was nice enough to agree to an interview with DC in the 80's. Here are 5 questions with Alan. Hope you enjoy!
1. It’s 1979, and the studio says "We want a guest star on Wonder Woman, any DC character, and we need a story" which DC character are you picking to guest star?
Alan: That question would never—could never—have been asked. Back then, when DC licensed a character or property to a studio, it was for the main character(s), supporting cast, and villains. No options were available for other DC Universe characters because so many of them had options out to other producers and studios. This was decades before Warners took charge of all the characters. I would have liked to use the Cheetah as a villain, but on WONDER WOMAN either the studio, network, or producers shied away from supervillains. They did try one original creation, “Formicida,” but that was about it for the modern-day shows. I did create a superpowered villain in “Disco Devil”—his power was telepathic—but no costume, unless you want to count his John Travolta-inspired discus duds!
2. You've mostly written Batman, and I'm sure Paul Levitz offered, but were there any other DC books you maybe wanted to write or had an idea for?
Alan: I got to write a lot of the characters I wanted to write as guest stars in Brave & Bold. I wanted to write a Batman team-up with the Justice Society, but at the time Roy Thomas had veto power over the use of any Earth Two characters by another writer. So I suggested using the Earth-Two Robin (later I added/created an Earth Two Batwoman) and since they would part of the Batman family Roy had no objection, and even graciously allowed me to use Starman in a cameo.
By and large I felt most comfortable writing Batman because he didn’t have super powers and his motivation was human and relatable.
3. Grappling with mortality and that feeling of running out of time are shared themes throughout several of your stories, especially for Batman. At the time you were writing them, what inspired you to explore those particular themes through Batman stories?
Alan: I’d always loved Earth Two because those characters could age and change and marry like real people, and that was more appealing to me than the static, never-changing Earth One heroes. I was a big fan of the 1970s All-Star Comics, especially the Paul Levitz/Joe Staton run. That was the direct inspiration for my story “The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne” and I even asked for Joe Staton to draw it. And the more I got into it Batman’s psychology, the richer, more complex, and dramatically it was to me. There’s a reason that that character has gone through so many incarnations in movies and TV. I remember seeing BATMAN BEGINS with my wife-to-be, Paulette, and when it was over she turned to me and said, “Now I understand why you like Batman!”
4. Your stories explored Batman's trauma, loneliness, and yearning for the warmth of family. How important was vulnerability in your version of Batman?
Alan: It was vitally important. It’s important to any character—I mean, even a character as dark and violent as the Punisher has his vulnerability, the trauma that Frank Castle went through. He ended up in a different place than Batman did, but you identify with him nevertheless.
Additionally, the British writer Gerald Kersh once said, “There are men whom one hates until a certain moment when one sees, through a chink in their armor, the writhing of something nailed down and in torment.” Marvel has done this with some of their villains--Kingpin's chink in his armor is his wife Vanessa, for example--and though it doesn't necessarily work for monsters like Darkseid, I think showing a human vulnerability always helps to dimensionalize a character. Elliot Maggin wrote a story about how Lex Luthor breaks out of prison once a year to go to pay respect at the grave of his idol, Albert Einstein. I thought that was brilliant. I did this on a smaller scale in my Batman/Hawk & Dove story, in which the mob boss expresses regret about forcing his dead son to go into the "family business."
These days Batman has less vulnerability and an almost-superhuman ability to work all the angles of a situation, and that's less interesting to me.
5. Before social media, were you aware of how cherished your comics work is among the generation that grew up reading them as they came out? And how did it feel to realize the positive impact your writing had on these readers?
Alan: I did receive some fan letters from the start, and good reviews in fanzines, but yes, social media really opened up the floodgates of my contact with fans of my comics work. I was flattered and a little stunned that those stories had been so important to so many readers’ childhoods, in the way the work of Gardner Fox and Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and Roy Thomas had been to mine. I never expected DC to bring out a collection of my stories—thanks to Mark Chiarellio and Kurt Busiek for that—and it’s really rewarding to have them preserved in book form. I’m as proud of those stories as I am of any of my prose short stories. (More, when it comes to some of my early science fiction stories!) I’m grateful to Paul Levitz for opening that door for me, and Dick Giordano, Denny O’Neil, Len Wein, and Mark Waid for continuing to ask me back over the years.
DC in the 80's: Thanks so much for speaking to DC in the 80s. We want to mention that Alan has a new short story collection (sf, fantasy, horror) coming out later this year from PS Publishing in the UK.
