the dark knight tagged posts

Instead of copy/pasting the original News section into here I just thought I would archive it here.
Read below all ‘new’ News!

March 16th, 2016
JPV is on the cover of this weeks issue of Batman and Robin Eternal! That’s right, Azrael is in issue #24…however he is only on pages 13 & 14. Still though, having the cover of the issue must mean that he is sure to have more face time in the next issues!

February 15th, 2016
In stores now (if you can find them) is the ‘Knightfall Batman’ 3.75″ figure of Jean Paul Valley as Batman from the Batman Arkham Origins series of figures from the Multiverse line put out by Mattel. If you can’t find the figure in stores (I’ve been searching since early December when they started shipping) you can pick one up off of Amazon. The figure he highly detailed and dare I say ALMOST as good as the Hasbro DC Super heroes figure released in 1999. You can check out a pic of the figure in its package that I posted on Instagram here.

February 13th, 2015
If you follow us on Instagram (if you don’t why not!) then you saw the images I posted today of Theo Galavan on Gotham as Azrael! His suit looks very similar to the one that JPV is currently wearing…coincidence? This also looks like a very clever marketing move on DC’s part to help build even more interest in Azrael with the official trade paperback of the original Azrael solo series due out next month and Azrael’s introduction into the current ‘New 52’ continuity. Only time will tell as the series continues on the 28th of this month!

January 20th, 2016
You seriously need to pick up issue #16 of Batman and Robin Eternal – awesome team-up of JPV, Red Robin and Red Hood! The plot thickens and you won’t believe the turn of events.

January 13th, 2016
The new year brings JPV back in this weeks issue of Batman and Robin Eternal. This issue has a bit more background on the Order of St. Dumas, as well as the person who currently sits as figurehead. A really warped last page as well. Issue #15 is out now!

December 9th, 2015
This weeks issue of Batman and Robin Eternal gives us a bit more insight on Jean Paul Valley as Azrael. He’s also sporting a very ’90’s era haircut as he uses some interesting new powers to not only mess with Bane, but Red Robin as well. Check out all the insanity in issue #10 out now!

December 2nd, 2015
It’s official! It’s finally happened! This week’s issue of Batman and Robin Eternal marks the official debut of Jean Paul Valley, the REAL Azrael in the ‘New 52!’ This is pretty much the best news that could possibly be announced this winter as far as I’m concerned, so go out and pick up issue #9 now to see that insane pic of JPV on Pg 20!

November 17th, 2015
Last night’s episode of Gotham – did you see those member of the Order of St Dumas marching into Gotham? Something tells me we may be seeing an Azrael. If we are though it definitly will not be Jean Paul Valley as he is about 10 years younger then Bruce. However, that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t see his father Ludovac as Azrael!

October 20th, 2015
Did you catch last night’s episode of Gotham? The real ring leader of the whole ‘Rise of the Villains’ that the show is taking this season just revealed that Theo Galavan actually coms from a family called ‘St Dumas’ and an Order of families that controlled Gotham city. Could this be the beginning of seeing the Order of St Dumas and possibly even an Azrael on the show?

An Interview with Dennis O’Neill
Conducted by Jek Tezak

Dennis O’ Neil is responsible for using his creative writing talents to give us our hero and the awesome storyarc of Knightfall. We have some questions for you Dennis, related to the creation of Azrael and the Knightfall storylines. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to do this interview.

How did the idea for Knightfall begin? What was the original concept for Knightfall? Was Azrael a character that was in the original outline?
The genesis of the story was a two-part piece for Detective, by Peter Milligan. Then I thought I saw some big-time possibilities in the idea and assembled the troops to put together an outline. Azreal came along much later. We needed a character to be the antagonist and it fell to me to come up with one. So Az was created to serve a plot need, I never expected him to have an afterlife.

In a visual sense, what did you want Azrael to look like? What was your original concept for the character?
I didn’t have a concept. I trusted the artist and the editor, my late and much-missed friend, Archie Goodwin.

I’ve heard the term Bat summit meeting. Is this refering to creative brainstorming meetings on where to take the Batman storylines? Can you give us a rough idea as to how the first meeting about Knightfall went?
It usually worked like this: I assembled as many people as the budget would accommodate somewhere outside Manhattan and explained the problems to them. Then, for about three days, everyone drank coffee, took walks, played poker, and talked talked talked. Jordan took notes and at the end of our time together, we’d solved enough of the problems to begin the project.

There was a rumor going around roughly when Sword Of Azrael was at the news stands that the Death of Superman team copied the Knightfall teams ideas, that originally Bruce Wayne was supposed to die. Is there any truth to this rumor?
Mike Carlin did not copy me, nor I him. I didn’t know about the Superman storyline until we were some months into Knightfall, and Mike was equally ignorant of my stuff.

Besides what we’ve already read, Were there any changes to the storyline or characters made when Knightfall was hitting the newstands? By changes I mean, last minute ideas or concepts that were not originally going to be used?
I’m sure there were. I always tried to keep the outline loose enough to accommodate good, late-blooming ideas.

One change I’m curious to know about is why the Azrael Batman suits final design was changed. I noticed in an old Wizard magazine that the AZbats suit looks much different than it did in the comics. Why did you guys change the final suit?
Ask the editor. I’m not sure, but lame sales might be a good guess and if so, the editor was doing his job.

When reading Knightsend I really felt like Azrael was going to become a full time Batman villian and added to Batman’s already infamous Rogues Gallery. Was this ever thought of in the process of creating Knightfall?
We were mostly thinking about filling a plot hole and undertaking a year-long juggling act. Not much consideration of anything beyond that.

In your very honest opinion, what do you think of the Azrael character?
Tough one to answer. I wish I’d done one or two things differently, and I think the series kind of lost its way for a while in the middle of the run. But all that aside…I don’t think there’s ever been a character exactly like Az before or since and I generally enjoyed working on him. I wish the 100th issue could have been stronger, but it was wonderful of Mike to let me write it; I was only weeks past major surgery at the time and maybe a ways from my best.

In the Knightfall saga, Azrael was Batman for about a year. I know some fans were very upset sending death threats to DC comics stating that if Bruce Wayne wasn’t put back in the Batsuit, that you would lose loyal readers. How long was Azrael supposed to be Batman? Did those letters from the fans influence your decision on how long Azrael was going to be Batman?
No, We had most of the series, and particularly its length, planned from the git-go. Actually, I would have been more bothered if the readers liked Az–that would mean they favored a nastier Batman and I would have had problems with that.

Do you have any little known facts or secrets that fans don’t know about the Bat-summit meetings or the creation of Azrael/Knightfall?
If I ever had such secrets, they are lost to a memory riddled with hard living, defibrillation, age, and maybe genetics.

There was a rumor going around that DC wanted you to outright kill off Jean Paul Valley/Azrael and you didn’t want to. I heard that you wanted to make the ending of Jean Paul’s character vague because you liked him too much to kill him off outright. Is any of this true?
No. He was, at first, a plot device and often plot devices bite the dust. In fact, before my heart attack, I was doing a continuity that would have culminated in Az’s shuffle off this mortal coil. It was Mike’s idea, but I was completely comfortable with it.

What really happened to Jean Paul Valley at the end of issue#100?
He left? Gotham? Earth? Life? I wanted the readers to decide for themselves. As noted above, the original idea was to kill him off, but I was myself briefly dead (and revived by defibrillation and a stalwart fireman) and while I was recovering, Mike called Marifran and told her that maybe having a character I created die might be letting fiction get a little too close to fact, and maybe we shouldn’t do it. So we didn’t.

With this Battle For the Cowl and a new Azrael comic, will we ever see the return of the original Azrael, Jean Paul Valley?
I have no idea.

In terms of collecting Knightfall memorabilia, were you excited to see Azrael finally as an action figure?
It was nice, and it gives me credibility when I talk to Marifran’s grade-schoolers