With Bruce Wayne behind bars and the Waynes’ assets under the control of Gotham Motors CEO Derek Powers, a Batman-less Gotham is left vulnerable to crime…but once Jason Todd steps in, the tide begins to turn!
With Batman: Beyond the White Knight having recently hit the shelves, we’re excited to welcome writer and artist Sean Murphy to the DC Community for a Q&A on April 15th at 2pm PT/ 5pm ET! Want to know what it takes to write and illustrate a Batman book? Curious about Sean’s approach to this new take on Gotham and its heroes? Join us next Friday for a deep dive into Sean Murphy’s process.
Drop all of your burning questions in this thread, and join us next week for a chance to get your question answered! Please remember to submit only one question ! We have a limited time with Sean, so we’ll try to get through as many questions as possible.
Will we see a Nightwing (or is it Whitewing) Vs Red Hood throwdown in this? I don’t want to know who will win I am wondering if they will settle some lingering brotherly issues with their fists.
Hi Sean, thanks for joining the community for this Q&A! It’s no secret that one of the biggest influences on White Knight is the cast and setting of Batman: The Animated Series, to which your work directly parallels and contrasts. Naturally this has culminated in the torch-passing to Batman Beyond, as the Animated Series itself did decades ago.
There are a few characters, however, which you use in this series who had no role in BTAS, such as Azrael, and Duke Thomas. Your updating of Azrael’s origin to fit the narrative of Curse of the White Knight served the story well, but I’ve always been sort of confused about the radical differences between Duke as characterized in his original comic appearances as a bright kid providing a light to contrast Batman’s darkness, and the older, gun-carrying, military veteran-turned-gang organizer Duke Thomas presented in your story. Both are essentially heroic figures, but some unfortunate lines can be drawn between the Duke Thomas of White Knight and certain age-old stereotypes surrounding Black characters and the kinds of heroes they’re allowed to be. Scott Snyder’s puzzle-solving, problem-oriented Duke was created in contrast to these stereotypes, while the White Knight Duke appears to lean in. What was the thought process behind this? Were you attempting to foster a more realistic approach to Duke’s character to fit your story, or did you have something else in mind? And if you had to change Duke so dramatically to fit that role, why use Duke Thomas at all, as opposed to, for instance, Gavin King, aka Orpheus, a character who was created to occupy a very similar role to Duke’s in this story?
Mr Murphy. I just want to say I like your ideas when it comes to your art and designs for this run. Do you have any concept art for characters that didn’t make the final cut you can share with us. Or will they be part of a special edition.
Mr. Murphy thanks for participating in the Community, Batman has had a lot of different interpretations by writers and artists over the years, which ones do you feel have effected your interpretation the most?
Hi! Recently, I watched all the episodes of Batman Beyond, and I was wondering, besides for of course the pilot, Egg Baby, and Out of the Past(I know that really cuts out some of the best ones but these are the most popular episodes I seem to hear and would like to hear others), what is your favorite Batman Beyond episode? Personally, I’m fond of “April Moon” “Splicers” “Plague” and many more. Thank you! I really can’t wait to see what else you do with the White Knight world!
I have a question. Out of all of the former Robins, why did you choose Jason Todd to lead your series? What qualities make Jason Todd perfect for this story?
When you were planning the first White Knight series did you have plans for the universe to be expanded to its current state and if so, was that part of the initial pitch?
Thanks for joining us, Sean, and thanks to the DCUI Community staff for setting this up.
When approaching a book about Batman and Gotham how do you approach characters that are so well known? What do you do both as a writer and an artist to make your book unique from all that has been done but also familiar to fans of the characters?
Are you wanting to continue the story of Victor Fries in the White Knight universe, or have you already told everything you’ve wanted to tell with him?
SM: Thanks for joining us! Im super proud of peoples’ response to Fries and White Knight. I’d love to more with him, but don’t have concrete plans yet. Definitely planning for more though!
SM: My motto is “unique but familiar”. I believe in following the 10 commandments of every character, giving readers what they want—but I’m happy throw in a few curveballs to freshen the character. Nothing too wild that would throw readers off though! I take my trust with readers very seriously, so I push where I can, but I also realize that this isn’t only my sandbox to play in.
SM: Issue #3 (vol. 1) was when I realized we had a sustainable hit with WK, and that’s when I started to plan sequels. I really admire what Frank Miller did in his universe, so I thoughts “what if I tried to do what Frank did, but did sequels right away, and built it more consciously, and in a narrower timeline?”.
SM: Yes! I plan on expanding the WK universe into some Justice League characters in the next few years. I have a series ready to go that features the Joker hologram taking his kids away in a stolen Batmobile—because he never really got to know the kids before he died. So he’ll be visiting a lot of famous cities like Keystone City, Metropolis, etc…but none of the superheroes have powers…yet
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