Lookin’ good, Jim Lee!
Grant Morrison was a guest on Kevin Smith’s “Fat Man on Batman” podcast, specifically this episode and its second part. Although some writers here at UPROXX consider Smith to be a jorts-ensconced taint enthusiast, we can overlook that because Grant Morrison talks about Batman in this. Specifically, he talks about his method for handling Batman’s backstory. Now a fan has taken a few minutes of this audio and set it to the appropriate visual element.
The audio comes from the second part, and the illustrations were pieced together by Matt Fielding. Check it out below if you want to hear Grant Morrison explain Batman’s entire history in a few minutes.
Here’s a partial transcript we put together. It may not be 100% accurate, as my understanding of the Scottish accent isn’t the greatest despite all the episodes of The Simpsons I’ve watched.
Grant Morrison: The best way to do Batman that’s never been done is to accept every single year as one guy’s biography. […] Batman from 1938 who’s out there with guns in his hand and he’s fighting vampires and crooks, I thought, well, imagine that’s Batman at 20, you know. And then he meets this kid when he’s 21, and the kid’s this little working class circus kid who’s totally cocky. And this introverted young Norman Bates Batman is suddenly, “Wait a minute. This is the kid that died in me. This is everything that I wanted to be.” And the two become friends, and it’s not creepy. It’s like, “He’s my best friend and my brother and everything I wish I could be.” And the kid’s looking at him like, “He’s everything I wish I could be.”
Kevin Smith: “You’re going to make me cry.”
After trying to make the “hanging out with young boys and putting them in harm’s way” thing slightly less creepy, Morrison also has an explanation for how the campiest Batman years could fit into one guy’s personal history.
Grant Morrison: Then it’s suddenly Adam West and Burt Ward for a few months, where it’s just really synthetic and f–ked-up because they’ve been on so many mind-altering chemicals from The Scarecrow and The Joker. They don’t know what the f–k’s happening. When they punch people they’re seeing graphics in air. I thought, imagine it’s just all real. […] It fitted beautifully into the personality of this insane, billionaire, unique human.”
Chalking up the campy years as the effects of supervillains’ psychotropic drugs is perfect. Every time the ’60s TV show had a “POW!” pop up on the screen? Drug-induced hallucinations. Now it all makes sense.
[Hat tip to Bleeding Cool. Picture via CBR.]