sword of azrael tagged posts

PopMatters
Azrael, DC’s angel of vengeance, becomes a man of peace in Waters & Cizmesjia series
Sword of Azrael’s Dan Watters & Nikola Čižmešija talk Jean-Paul Valley’s faith… and theirs
Interview by Grant DeArmitt

DC’s Jean-Paul Valley has been many things in the 30 years of his existence. He’s been an avenging angel, an Arrowverse vigilante, and a brainwashed cultist. Heck, he’s even been the G-D- Batman. But of all the mantles Azrael has taken on, he’s never been a man of peace. Until now.

In the Sword of Azrael, DC’s latest miniseries to focus on the titular character, Jean-Paul Valley has renounced his life of bloodlust and withdrawn to a remote monastery. Ahead of the comic’s first issue, PopVerse spoke to series artist Nikola Čižmešija and series writer Dan Watters about Azrael’s journey toward peace… and the violence that won’t leave him.

Popverse: Nikola, tell me about creating the monastery on Ioúdas Island, where Jean-Paul is spending his days. What inspired you? What emotions do you want the scenery to invoke in a reader?
Nikola Čižmešija: Our monastery in the comic was inspired by monasteries of Mount Athos in Greece. Dan shared some ideas with me and I immediately fell in love with the image of a lonely monastery on the edge of a cliff, surrounded by sea. Unfortunately, I’ve never been to Greece, but I visited some lovely islands and cities on the coastline of my country, Croatia. From what I’ve seen, they invoke a similar feeling of peace and relaxation. So that was my main inspiration, to make the readers feel the sea breeze as they were going through the pages.

You’ve definitely succeeded in doing that. Dan, Jean-Paul starts off this comic by reciting Catholic saints that have been killed in horrific ways. Why are they on his mind so much?
Dan Watters:He’s wondering that too! Pain is a huge part of the imagery and ethos of Catholicism, and as someone who has both endured and inflicted more than his share, this is a big thing playing on his mind. Is it a path to redemption, or a cycle without meaning? Or could the latter even become the former? That’s kind of what he’s going to be grappling with over the course of this story. While hitting things with a big flaming sword.

Of course, can’t forget the sword. Speaking of Catholicism, Nikola, talk to me about utilizing Catholic imagery to tell this story. Did you or anyone you know grow up Catholic? How are you choosing what Catholic iconography makes it into the comic?
Čižmešija: I was raised in a Catholic family, so I’m no stranger to the subject [laughs]. Apart from that, a big help for coming up with the imagery was my education at college. I majored in art history, so classes like Iconography and Gothic Art and Architecture helped me convey Dan’s words into visual form. Plus, Dan was really detailed with the script, so that made it easier as well!

In that script, Dan, you bring up the Christian mystic Margery Kempe. Who is Kempe, and what does she have to do with Azrael?
Watters:Margery Kempe was an English mystic who dictated the earliest autobiography in the English language we know of. She had visions and conversations with God – and with demons, who even tried to drive her to suicide. She’d almost certainly have been considered mentally ill in today’s world, but in hers, she became a preacher, traveled the world, and was heard – and is remembered – in a way that she certainly wouldn’t have been otherwise. The idea that she took something so potentially dark, and through faith and will transformed it into something else, is really interesting to me. I thought it’d be very interesting to Jean-Paul, too. There are definitely some elements that rhyme there with his story so far.

Nikola, since we’re on the subject of inner darkness, one of the (many) interesting things this comic does is split Jean-Paul and Azrael into different personalities. How do you convey this in how you draw the characters?
Čižmešija:In my eyes, I see Jean-Paul and Azrael as Yin and Yang. With my take on the character, I’m trying to make Jean-Paul a gentle person. He should be smiling every time he gets a chance, but he’s also no stranger to conflict and defending people. While drawing him for the first time in our short Batman: Urban Legends run, I discovered that glasses are also a great way to act out emotions by showing and hiding the eyes. As for Azrael, he is much more aggressive and dark. So when he does come out, to me it’s like he stops being a man and becomes more of a force, an instrument of God. He becomes more firm and fiery.

Firm and fiery, I love that. Dan, we know that the “Instrument of God” side of Azrael views the world very negatively, as a thing in need of punishment. But what about the human side? How does Jean-Paul Valley view the world outside the monastery, and humanity in general?
Watters:More than anything, Jean-Paul wants to be a good man. He hasn’t hidden himself from the world because he’s afraid of it, but because he’s afraid of himself – of Azrael – and what happens when he spirals out of control, as he has a nasty habit of doing.

Alright, I want to briefly take a step back from the story and talk about this book’s creation. Nikola, what does your collaboration with colorist Marissa Louise look like? What do Marissa’s colors bring to the book?
Čižmešija:She’s my dancing partner! I love working with her and every new page is a joy! We talked about our inspirations and brainstormed some references to find the visual direction for this book before starting it, and I think we nailed it. I have a few notes here and there with how I imagined a certain scene but, other than that, it’s like she’s reading my mind. What do Marissa’s colors bring to the book? Magic! They complement the mood and elevate the atmosphere of the page to its highest potential.

What a lovely thing to say. Dan, on a similar note, talk to me about working with letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. What about Hass’s work elevates Sword of Azrael?
Watters:Hass is one of the most inventive letterers in the business, something which a book like this honestly needs. There’s a lot of interplay between Azrael’s voice and Jean-Paul’s – overlapping captions, enochian symbols in balloons, all sorts of stuff – so it’s definitely a relief when writing them to know there’s someone there who will enjoy those sort of ideas, rather than drive to my house and throttle me.

[Laughs] Fair enough. Now, let’s get back to the story. Nikola, without spoiling anything, I’ll say that Azrael does not escape his past. Destiny, maybe even doom, is a big theme in this book. Would you call Jean-Paul a doomed character? And if so, how does that affect how you’re visually telling his story?
Čižmešija:Jean-Paul is a cursed character. He never wanted to be Azrael and go down the path of murder and violence. We took a lot of inspiration from the manga Berserk, so there is that. But there is always a way to find light in the darkness. For Jean-Paul, it’s his faith and the will to be better. For this book, I started using heavier shadows compared to my previous work, in order to keep the light parts brighter and in the forefront.

I see. That’s great that you mention his faith, because this book is also largely about a crisis of faith. Dan, are you pulling from your personal experience? What about your thoughts on belief makes it into this comic?
Watters:Maybe my personal interest, rather than experience. I honestly didn’t realize how preoccupied I was with faith until I started writing regularly, and it kept becoming a theme in my work – here with Azrael, but also in books like Coffin Bound and Lucifer. I’m interested in where faith comes from, and the things it drives us to do and create. These are the filters through which we try and make sense of our world, and find beauty and meaning in it. Catholicism is the lens my upbringing gave me to look at that through, so I tend to gravitate there in the work, too.

Very interesting. Alright, this last question is for both of you. Let’s say DC decides to greenlight an Azrael ongoing series after this miniseries concludes. What would you want it to look like? What pieces of this miniseries would you want to carry over into it?

Čižmešija:For me, it has to be the darker tone of the book. I don’t know how much I can say without spoiling anything but definitely the darker tone. Again, we took a lot of inspiration from Berserk, so struggle is a big part of it; the demon inside Jean-Paul and the demons outside. Along with the darker tone, I’d want the message of Azrael to remain; that despite his inner demons and the ‘cursed’ nature of his character, there is always a shimmer of light inside, pushing him to be a better and truer version of himself.

Watters: I enjoy the hell out of working with Nikola, so more of that, please. And there’s plenty more to be done and explored with Azrael. He occupies a unique place in the DCU; there are a lot of different facets of faith – organized and otherwise – which he can be used to explore.

Or hit with a big flaming sword, depending on which side of the bed he’s gotten up on.

Sword of Azrael (Volume 2)
Issue No. 1 – August 2022
Say Your Prayers
Jean-Paul Valley does not want to be Azrael ever again. All it has brought him is pain, violence, and misery. He has sequestered himself away at a monastery in Europe to find peace. But when a young woman who claims to have the same System programming that made Jean-Paul into Azrael arrives at the monastery, he won’t have a choice but to don his violent mantle of Azrael once more to protect her from the deadly assassins who wish her harm.

Sword of Azrael (Volume 2)
Issue No. 2 – September 2022
Title TBA
Vengeance has arrived to capture Brielle, the young woman who has come to Azrael for help, but Azrael won’t let this stand. He will fight back against Vengeance and her forces…but will he be able to keep the murderous programming of the System at bay? And is Brielle all she seems, or is she hiding secrets that could shatter Jean-Paul Valley forever? All this as Azrael’s foe the Poor Fellow pulls the strings…

Arkham City: The Order of the World
Issue No. 1 – October 2021
Chapter 1

The Joker’s attack on Arkham Asylum left the long-standing Gotham establishment in ruin, most of the patients killed or missing, and only a handful of surviving staff—a few nurses, a gravely injured security guard, and one doctor. In the chaos of the assault, it is believed that several of the asylum’s patients escaped and scurried off into the dark nooks and crannies of Gotham City. Now, these Arkhamites walk among us, and it’s up to the Asylum’s one remaining doctor, Jocasta Joy, to round up her former patients.

Meet these Arkhamites: a woman with no face, a pyggy in search of perfection, a man who feels nothing and burns everything, a woman who must devour life to save herself, a man unfit for the waking world who looks instead for Wonderland, a body with more than one soul, a being unbound from time who lives in the present and the past, a boy who seeks the comfort of vermin, and the twisted man who sees them all for who they are. And witness the avenging angel who stalks them.

Arkham City: The Order of the World
Issue No. 1 – October 2021
Chapter 2
Dr. Jacosta Joy, Arkham’s last living psychiatrist, continues her descent into the Ten-Eyed Man’s world of delusion. But are his claims of ghosts and ritual purely figments of his imagination, or is there a method to his madness?
Meanwhile, Dr. Double X, a man with the ability to project his soul outside of his own body, has been taken prisoner by a very friendly couple who have discovered that his powers of astral projection can be used on others…and they are addictive. But when Azrael appears in this den of sin, will anyone be safe from his cleansing fire?

Arkham City: The Order of the World
Issue No. 1 – December 2021
Chapter 3
Solomon Grundy has lived many lives over a great many years. Now, located by Ten-Eyed Man’s strange, but nonetheless effective, methods, he leads Dr. Joy and her many-eyed friend on a tour of the hidden history of Gotham City and the madness at its core.

Arkham City: The Order of the World
Issue No. 1 – January 2021
Chapter 4
Dr. Joy is now face to face with the ghost of Amadeus Arkham-the ghost that she had assured all her patients did not exist. Now faced with overwhelming evidence that the Ten-Eyed Man’s “delusions” were anything but, she has found herself questioning everything. Meanwhile, Dr. Phosphorus and Nocturna attempt to live a “normal” life in Gotham, but the good doctor’s radioactive body may be having unforeseen side effects on their unsuspecting neighbors.

Arkham City: The Order of the World
Issue No. 1 – February 2021
Chapter 5
Like layers of skin peeled back by madness, Dr. Joy finally comes face to face with the absurd, gaping maw of the one true order of the world. With only the fires of Azrael and Detective Stone’s hatred lighting the way, what chance do our poor Arkhamites have at survival as they descend into that which lies beneath all things?

Arkham City: The Order of the World
Issue No. 1 – March 2022
Chapter 6
Dr. Joy has reunited with her missing patients. Now all the survivors of Arkham Asylum’s destruction are together again under one very, very nice and normal roof. But they are not alone in this strange reflection of their old home. For there is a specter with them, one of flame, flesh, and righteous fury—the angel Azrael, and he is very, very angry.

DC vs Vampires: All-Out War
Issue No. 1 – July 2022
Left For Dead…But Ready for War
One of the last secret, underground human cities is facing total annihilation and its leader-John Constantine-must plan a suicide mission to assassinate a key lieutenant in the vampire empire! Against unreal odds and with an unlikely team including Booster Gold, Deathstroke, and Mary Marvel, does the Hellblazer have one more trick up his sleeve? A gritty, violent, monochromatic companion series to DC vs. Vampires!

Batman: Urban Legends
Issue No. 8 – October 2021
Dark Knight of the Soul – Part 1
Azrael, the last acolyte of the Order of St. Dumas, has returned to the streets of Gotham City after serving with the Justice League in the stars. He’s convinced he’s strayed too far from his purpose, too far from his teachings, and needs to reassert himself. But he’ll be met with a city that’s changed forever, a city that will shake his faith.

Batman: Urban Legends
Issue No. 9 – November 2021
Dark Knight of the Soul – Part 2
Dead criminals are walking the streets of Gotham City, and Azrael’s faith is shaken. Is the rapture truly upon us, and will this avenging angel be called home? Or is there a more sinister and human force at work, and what warrior has been stalking Jean-Paul Valley without him noticing? Threats to Azrael’s body and soul are here, and he’ll need more than a flaming sword to stop them.

Batman: Urban Legends
Issue No. 10 – December 2021
Dark Knight of the Soul – Part 3
In his return to Gotham City, Jean-Paul Valley faces off for a final time with the new villain Poor Fellow, who has a lot more to tell Jean-Paul about the legacy of Azrael than he ever knew.

Legends of the Dark Knight (Digital)
Issue No. 13 – June 2021
Catechism: Part 1
CATCEISM BEGINS! Batman heads to Rome to stop Ra’s Al Ghul and the Leage of Assassins from getting their hands on an ancient artifact that they want to use to exacerbate the power of the Lazarus Pits. What Batman doesn’t know is that the artifact is already under the protection of the Order of St. Dumas, specifically, AZRAEL! From the creative team of Critically Acclaimed Writer Brandon Easton and rising star artist Karl Mostert!

Legends of the Dark Knight (Digital)
Issue No. 14 – July 2021
Catechism: Part 2
CATECHISM FINALE! Instead of fighting each other, Batman and Azrael will need to pool their resources to stop the might of Ra’s Al Ghul and the League of Assassins from getting away with the Vessell of St. Januarius!

Batman: The Adventures Continue (Season 1)
Issue No. 7 – July 2020
The Darker Knight – Part 1
The Knight of St. Dumas, Azrael, arrives in Gotham and he’s burning through the city in search of something stolen from the Church. Can Batman wrangle the aggressive vigilante or will his flaming sword pierce the Dark Knight?!

Batman; The Adventures Continue (Season 1)
Issue No. 8 – July 2020
The Darker Knight – Part 2
After nearly killing Penguin, Azrael races to find the person who stole from the Church of St. Dumas. Batman, however, won’t allow Azrael to use such aggressive methods. Who will be left standing when the Dark Knight faces the burning vengeance of St. Dumas?!

CBR
Dark Multiverse: Knightfall’s Kyle Higgins Talks Batman and a New Crisis
October 15th, 2019

An Interview with Kyle Higgins
Interview by L.D. Nolan

Running from 1993 until 1994, “Knightfall” remains one of the the most iconic tales in Batman’s long history. After sustaining a backbreaking injury at the hands of Bane, Bruce Wayne gives up the mantle of Batman to Jean-Paul Valley/Azrael for a time. However, Valley proves too brutal. Wayne eventually has to return and defeat his former protege in order to protect others and once again become the Dark Knight. However, Scott Snyder, Kyle Higgins and Javier Fernandez’s Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Batman — Knightfall #1 imagines a world in which Valley beat Wayne and remained Batman.

Announced earlier this year, Tales from the Dark Multiverse is a set of one-shots set in the worst-case-scenario universe first introduced during the Dark Nights: Metal event. The book picks up 30 years after Wayne fails to take his mantle back from Azrael and explores the dystopian world resulting from such a cataclysmic change, as well as the new Batman’s extreme methods.

CBR caught up with co-writer, Kyle Higgins to talk about the new “Crisis” teased in the book, why Azrael fails as Batman, writing fascism, and world-building for the newest world in the Dark Multiverse.

CBR: My first question for you is about something right towards the start of this issue in the preview that CBR ran. Tempus Fuginaut, who’s heavily involved with Flash Forward teases a new Crisis. What can you tell me about that and how it fits into these one-shots?

Kyle Higgins: I really kind of started my career at DC. I started at Marvel, but my big breaks came at DC, and those were in conjunction with Scott Snyder, working on Gates of Gotham. And then I transitioned for the New 52 to Nightwing and Scott transitioned to Batman. Anyone who remembers that era probably would remember that we often interlinked arcs. So there’s a natural fit here as to why he and I decided to do this initial one-shot to kick off all the Dark Multiverse one-shots that are forthcoming.

And that particular point that you just keyed on about the tease of a new Crisis, perhaps the biggest yet, is absolutely a component of that… I can’t say anything specific about it, but what I can say is that it’s there for a reason, and it’s not a coincidence that Scott and I did this issue together.

Azrael really struggled with being a hero when he first took over for Batman during the original “Knightfall.” Why do you feel that he fails at being Batman?

There’s kind of two components to that. The first is that he was really kind of designed and set up to fail. From a narrative standpoint, if you look at the era that that story was built during, and you look at old interviews that Denny O’Neil gave, he talks about this kind of proliferation of antiheroes. Whether it be Lobo, Punisher, Wolverine, the popularity of these antiheroes of that era is what really sparked this idea for the Bat office, which was “okay well let’s explore this and let’s show people what a Batman that kills looks like, ultimately as a cautionary tale as to why it’s so significant that the Batman as we know him, Bruce Wayne, Batman does not.” So that was kind of the initial set up for what became the “Knightfall” event in the comics.

As far as in-story reasons, I just don’t think Jean-Paul was really equipped for the task at hand. And if you look at a lot of his conditioning under the Order of St. Dumas and his background, he did the best he could with the wiring that he had. But I think that as the pressure mounted and what it means to try to be Batman in a city like Gotham, some people are kind of cut out for that and others aren’t.

I mean, you look at quarterbacks in the NFL, and the ones that come in with immense talent and are playing off of that talent purely for a period of time. They might have success early on, but eventually, there’s enough tape on them, that opposing defensive coordinators figure out how to scheme away a lot of that natural ability, and they’re forced to actually figure out how to play at a higher level within a scheme and that’s where you see careers go off the rails, or you see them rise above… I just don’t think Jean-Paul Valley had the fundamentals. He didn’t have a strong enough foundation that would have made him the type of Batman that could have risen to the challenge.

So, going off of that: your Knightfall picks up a long time after Azrael defeats Batman. Were there any stories from that time that were kind of floating around in your head that you didn’t get to tell. Maybe of successes, maybe of failures? Because as you said, he wasn’t quite equipped for that role.

To me, because of the answer I just gave, I was only interested in exploring this era that was. I think it’s in the solicit. It’s about 30 years after he became Batman. When someone’s not equipped for it, but is either enabled, or, well, I don’t want to get into how and why he was able to, in our version here within the Dark Multiverse, stay as Batman, but to me looking at what that kind of darkest timeline with a Jean-Paul Valley who does not have the right foundation and perhaps moral compass to rise to the mantle that he’s taking on… showing the extreme of that after a significant amount of time [had] passed was the best way to explore it. I wasn’t as interested in jumping in and looking at a few months after the point of divergence and what that would look like.

To me, looking at how the city would have changed, how his support structure would have changed how the very idea of Batman would have changed some 30 years later, that started getting exciting for me.

A lot of that change is that Azrael is kind of running an almost pseudo-theocracy. And in your previous work — I’m thinking specifically of Nightwing: The New Order, which dealt a lot with fascism — what draws you to these stories about authoritarians misusing their power?

Without getting political or anything, I think they’re very timely right now. I think they often make for really compelling cautionary tales. In something like Nightwing: The New Order, or even my Power Rangers work with Lord Drakkon, the idea of someone, for the greater good, doing what is necessary, but ultimately what is necessary undercuts why they got into the work in the first place, that to me is always, like I said, a fascinating kind of cautionary tale.

And in the case of Jean-Paul Valley and the setup of this story, it was pretty ripe for that exploration. Like I said, this is someone who has not equipped morally or mentally for the task at hand, and when left to his own devices, this is a story of how things can go incredibly wrong.

I guess I hadn’t really thought of that before, that I have explored some of those kind of authoritarian tendencies in past work. But, again, I do think that there’s something very — we write about what we’re afraid of. At least I do. And there are definitely things in the world that we live in right now that, again, without getting political, echo some of those fears.

How do you view Azrael’s relationship in Knightfall with the rest of the DC Universe? What’s his relationship to all the other characters who are kind of floating around. Superman? Nightwing?

I don’t want to spoil too much here, but that was something that Scott and I talked quite a bit about. What does the outside world look like? And the idea of cutting Gotham off from the rest of the world as a result of what has happened in the rest of the world… Azrael definitely believes that the ends justify the means, and that he has kept Gotham standing, and he has turned this city into a paragon of virtue that the rest of the world could only ever dream of becoming through strong moral conviction and willpower. But so much of what the rest of the world has become, you could argue, is actually a direct result of Azrael cutting Gotham off from it. So, there’s a little bit of a chicken and egg kind of question at the core of this story.

There are little hints throughout the issue as to what things look like. Whether outside of Gotham, whether it be other heroes or other threats, different types of plagues. Even just kind of the status of Lazarus Pits in the larger DC Universe. To me, that wasn’t the core of the story. And this a story with a pretty limited amount of space. I mean, larger than most one-shots, but still, to build out an entirely new status quo, you have to really kind of pick your battles as far as where you decide to focus your page real estate for world-building. So again, we kept things pretty tight on what Gotham looks like in this world. But I think eagle-eyed readers will see hints about the fate of different characters throughout.

You have worked on a lot of alternate worlds and continuities or things that give you more room for play. When you’re writing something like Tales from the Dark Multiverse, what storytelling possibilities does that open up for you?

Well, I definitely pride myself on finding the most interesting through lines within a kind of higher concept. And a lot of alternate timeline stuff really allows for that, because at their core there tends to be a point of divergence or a higher concept that, for lack of a better term, a quote unquote “elevator pitch,” right? This is a story of where it’s this but in this era, where this happened and then that naturally leads to questions. Well, how did that come about? What is this person? As you just said, what happened to Superman? What happened to these people, and then it allows for really interesting world-building opportunities.

I kind of really spend a lot of time figuring out the world- building and in the most efficient and, hopefully, emotionally resonant way. It’s kind of like a tumbler lock, where each pin is a different possibility within a concept, and you have to get them all to kind of lineup right for the lock to open. I just really enjoy that challenge. And the “what if?” of it all, to me, is always a lot of fun to play around with. You can take it to an extreme that you couldn’t in standard continuity and use that extreme and the exploration of that extreme status quo to ultimately make whatever kind of emotional or thematic point interested you in the story in the first place.

Is there anything else you’d like to add just as we finish up?

It’s always fun to come back to Gotham, and I’m really proud of the issue and really happy to be working with Scott again and hopefully people will pick it up, give it a chance. The other Tales from the Dark Multiverse stories are all very exciting. And I think this is a really cool line that’s coming up and hopefully people won’t sleep on it.

Justice League Odyssey
September 2019
Issue #11

What can you tell us about the story?
If you think Jack Napier was unhinged in Batman: White Knight, that’s nothing compared to what Joker does with Azrael in Batman: Curse of the White Knight. As Bruce struggles with the idea of telling the identity of Batman, Joker threatens to expose a hidden truth about the Wayne family. Something that Bruce isn’t even aware of. Something that goes all the way to the founding of Gotham Village in 1685.

Why are you excited about this project?
I’m interested in going deep into the past about the Wayne family and how they’ve come into power in Modern-day Gotham. Batman: White Knight focused a lot on the present, Batman: Curse of the White Knight will focus more on the deep past. And if there is a third series, my plan is to focus on the future of Batman.

What’s it like to be both the artist and the writer of the series (along with your collaboration with Matt Hollingsworth)?
It’s a lot of work, but it’s the most satisfying way for me to make comics. Writing the scripts is also a great way to make sure that the artwork is the best that I can make it. I always put 100 perfect into my books, but being a writer makes me strive for 110%.

How does this tie into the current DC Universe?
This book is set aside from the current DCU. It’s marketed like a Batman movie: a familiar Batman with a different spin. One that doesn’t require the reader to be fluent in 80 years of Batman comics.

Why should fans check this out?
Readers should check this out because it’s slightly different to what they’re used to reading about Batman. And there aren’t many ‘single vision’ mainstream books these days (meaning the writing and art are handled by the same person).

Describe the series in seven words or fewer
If you miss this, you’ll regret it.

What should first time readers know before picking this up?
Nothing! You can come into this series without ever reading a comic.