Trivia / Batman (Tom King)

• Creator Backlash: Matt Wagner was not happy about his son being replaced as his colorist for Issue #54 and declared his disdain for ever agreeing to draw it.
• Executive Meddling:
  • According to Tom King, he meant for Alfred's death to be a fake-out but DC higher-ups made him do it for real.
  • Similarly, Nightwing getting shot in the head wasn't meant to have long-lasting consequences; King intended for Zatanna to heal him afterwards, but it instead led to him getting amnesia and becoming "Ric" Grayson in his own book.
  • A minor case of this that worked both for and against King — originally, he wanted to do the War of Jokes and Riddles Story Arc as a separate Batman miniseries, wishing to collaborate again with Mitch Gerads as artist (the two having previously worked together on The Sheriff of Babylon). However, DC editorial loved King's pitch so much that they wanted it integrated into the main Rebirth series, consequently putting art duties on this series' Mikel Janin and June Chung. After a meeting with Dan Didio, King revealed he still wanted to do another project with Gerads, which resulted in them finally reuniting on Mister Miracle (2017).
• Permanent Placeholder: As Tom King recalls, "Kite Man. Hell yeah!" was just something to make a panel less silent, and he would replace the liner later. It wound up in the final product, and audiences found it so funny he decided to make that Kite Man's Catchphrase.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Tom King's run was meant to run for 100 issues, not including specials and annuals. It instead ended at issue 85 but continues over in Batman/Catwoman via DC Black Label.
  • Tom King had previously stated that Alfred's death was meant to set up DC's then-upcoming 5G, a mysterious event that would've seen a new and greatly-expanded DC timeline established in the aftermath of Dark Nights: Death Metal. Given that Batman Annual #2 showed glimpses of a future where Bruce Wayne had retired from crimefighting and married Selina Kyle, it seems that this was meant to foreshadow 5G, which would've seen Bruce retroactively aged up as a result of the new timeline. The end of King's run was supposed to set the stage for a new ongoing Batman series by writer John Ridley, which would've featured Tim Fox (now calling himself Jace) donning the mantle of Batman to protect Gotham after Bruce stepped down. Though 5G was cancelled after the firing of Dan DiDio, Ridley's Batman pitch was later published as a mini-series for the DC Future State event as The Next Batman.
• Write What You Know: Tom King drew from his own marriage to write Batman and Catwoman's romance, citing his and his own wife's inability to agree on how they met as the inspiration for the characters lampshading the inconsistency of comic book continuity.