I would like to see a series that explore a second Bat family book involving the Fox Family with Tiffany, Luke, and Jace Fox as principle characters. It should be a team-family book and explore more of new york, especially one that is connected to the wider DC universe. Think of famous locations like the old Justice League sanctuary or the Titans tower.
I’d actually love to see a Fox family book!
As ever, Jace and the family is much more interesting to me than Jace as Batman. I could read about the family all day – that’s why I liked SECOND SON so much.
THE NEW YORK FIVE is one of my favorite comics series…
It’s kind of a slice of life story, so just do that with the Fox family too – which John Ridley has done well, but yeah, just do a whole other book that way.
And surely there’s enough room for another Bat book.
John Ridley has of course always talked about the family, and now that they’re in New York…
In I Am Batman #5, it appears that Lucius Fox is poised to become more involved in Jace’s life as Batman. How important was it for you to repair and reestablish the relationship between Lucius and his son?
Restoring that relationship was very important. All of these stories, from “Future State” to Second Son and even I Am Batman has been as much about the Fox family as they’ve been about Jace. These stories have covered their relationship, their difficulties, and their estrangements, as well as their reconciliations. The drive of Jace and the action have been great, but moments like when Lucious and Tanya Fox are talking about mental health in the Black and Brown community are reflective of what’s really going on in the world, as is the struggle with representation.
It’s a very powerful moment of identity when Lucius tells Jace to never put his faceplate back on, represent, and never think of himself as a lesser Batman. He admits that his son has a lot to learn before he is Batman, but he reinforces that he is not a lesser person by any means. Some people have said that I’m doing Black Batman, and they mean it as a compliment. But I say that it is not Black Batman, but Jace Fox as Batman, who happens to be black. This family has to struggle with money, with representation, and with just being out in the world, and you will see much much more of that going forward as Jace and his family make the move to New York in I Am Batman.
In exploring Jace’s story, Ridley gets the chance to do a nice deep dive into the Fox family. As important as they are to Bat-history, we haven’t been given the opportunity to really meet them.
“There’s an element of franchise here. There’s instant recognition of that name, of the Fox name, but at the same time that franchise, and I mean this in the best way, have not been exploited in terms of who they are,” he said. “To be able to talk about the Fox family, you’ve got instant brand recognition. It’s not this whole new thing where people have to go ‘wait, who are these folks? It’s going to take me eight issues to even wrap my head around them.’ People are aware of them. It is the best of all possible worlds to have a brand that people are aware of, but one that they don’t really know.”
With the Foxes now established as one of the richest families in the DC Universe, Ridley also gets to focus on talking about wealth and power in a completely different way from Bruce Wayne’s influence.
“What does wealth, privilege, power mean to this family? I think it’s really interesting to be able to take a Black family and tell these stories from a perspective where you talk about privilege, but not necessarily the way people think about it when those conversations are had on the evening news,” he said.
Where Bruce is driven by his desire to keep others from suffering the same trauma he did, Jace is on a quest for redemption. These contrasting motivations make them completely different heroes.
“Jace’s story is the exact opposite. He didn’t lose his family, he was the driver of what caused loss in another family. He was the agent of chaos, and has struggled with that,” Ridley said. “He’s seen his father use all of his stature to protect him, and then begin to question wealth and power and privilege. Then in real time, where Bruce doesn’t have a family, Jace has a family and it’s a complicated family.”
“To me, that’s where the difference is, Bruce had his parents taken from him and doesn’t have family. Jace shattered another family, but he does have family, and everything he does has consequence in regards to that family,” he continued. “That’s where it’s different, that’s where it’s unique, that’s what I love about it. It’s not just the Jace Fox story. It’s a family drama. Every week to have the opportunity to excavate more and more of this family that people know.”
Though he’s bringing in his own mythology, introducing a new setting and taking Batman in a new direction, Ridley never loses sight of the character’s importance or legacy.
“It’s an awesome, and I mean that in every sense of the word, responsibility to be the shepherd of this real estate,” he said.
There are eight million stories in the naked city. A Fox family book could be one of them.
And I guess they could bring Luke back into the fold, he’s been absent of late.
I guess John Ridley has been spending all the time getting everyone else in place and you only have so many pages in an issue.
It’s almost like they need another book or something.