During the Batman Panel at NYCC 2013, Scott Snyder talked all things Batman, and, like a proud parent that goes on about their child, he could not help but diverge details on the upcoming issue of Zero Year. Caution Spoilers ahead.
Young Batman is trying to solve a case involving “a very, very old villain that we’ve reinvented in a way that I’m really, excited about,” Snyder said. Jim Gordon is also on the case, and the story is about the development of the relationship between the vigilante and the cop.
“They have this animosity,” Snyder said, “that should be really surprising, except that I’m spoiling it…. Essentially, Bruce is like, ‘You know why I hate you, Gordon.’ He’s like, ‘You’re the most corrupt, crooked villain in Gotham…. Because of what you did on the night my parents died, I’ll never forgive you, I’ll never work with you as Bruce Wayne, ever, ever. You are my mortal enemy.’… There’s a big mystery about what happened on the night his parents were killed in Crime Alley, and Gordon is really at the center of it.”
But, clarifying that they’d never do anything to upset the core of the characters, he added, “Don’t worry, Gordon didn’t shoot his parents. That’s not what I’m talking about. But what I am talking about is their relationship has a new and different foundation that I feel makes a stronger bond. Because what Bruce needs to learn is there’s something he doesn’t know about the night his parents were killed that really sheds light on who Gordon is in a different way.”
“Zero Year” is divided into three sections – “Secret City,” the present “Dark City” and the upcoming “Wild City,” Snyder said, with “Dark” being about “bones broken and reset, it’s about the city dying to be reborn in the third section … where you got a glimpse of it in 21, where you saw the city overgrown – maybe Poison Ivy has something to do with that … you’ll see her in 25, spoiler.”
Additional details: The issue opens with a line in the sand and a military convoy searching for someone and finding a door in the desert floor. Wayne lends the police blimps (in a nod to “Batman: The Animated Series”) to search for Batman. The new first Batmobile shows up (no image was displayed, but Capullo did make the sound the car would generate).
A “very very old villain” reinvented? Who could he be talking about? It’s time to start speculating, my guess, good ol’ Joe Chill, but let us know your thoughts.
Source – LA Times