Buccellato's "Black Bat" Takes Wing at Dynamite

[CBR News]

Writer Brian Buccellato spoke with CBR about updating pulp hero the Black Bat in a new series for Dynamite Entertainment, modernizing the character while remaining true to his history.


Full article here.

[Professor Moriarty]

i'm looking forward to this. The Black Bat has always interested me.

and i just bought this.

[Jon Clark]

i'm looking forward to this. The Black Bat has always interested me.

and i just bought this.

I'll be getting it, but am wondering just how the character will be. Trying to make him distinct from all the guys that surrounded and followed him (Shadow, Hornet,, Spider, Dr Mid-nite, Marvel's Daredevil, not to mention Bats) doesn't leave a lot of room.

[jsf]

i'm looking forward to this. The Black Bat has always interested me.

Ditto. Really want to see how this goes.

[Ed Love]

I'll be getting it, but am wondering just how the character will be. Trying to make him distinct from all the guys that surrounded and followed him (Shadow, Hornet,, Spider, Dr Mid-nite, Marvel's Daredevil, not to mention Bats) doesn't leave a lot of room.

Agreed. Can you imagine if he took this tact with the Flash: Let's see, there are quite a few guys now that have super-speed so let's get rid of that. Tights? Dime a dozen, so that's out. Powers from a freak scientific accident? Gee, that's almost every character at that other company. Blonde hair? How cliche.

It's funny that he sees the character being an attorney (and a blind one, at that) as being a bit too much on the money of another hero and he makes him a DEFENSE ATTORNEY? That's exactly what the other guy was. If you read the pulps, he didn't really practice Law after the accident anyways and was played as retired and being a bit of a consultant on crime.

There's an irony that DC and Thrilling reached an agreement over Batman and the Black Bat, and then DC pretty much ripped the character off any chance they got. The fins on Batman's gloves. The accident (being the origin of both Two-Face and Dr. Mid-Nite), the night-vision. I say, take the opposite tact. Embrace the similarities and recognize it's the aggregate of the character that makes him stand out. His willingness to kill those that beyond the reach of the Law, his aides that help him, the loyal love interest, the cop out to expose him. The tv show ARROW works as a template of what the Black Bat should be like.

Since the article made mention of the other Black Bat, wonder if they'll bring him in as well. He struck me as an interesting if enigmatic character. Then there's the Bat, whose inspiration for becoming a masked hero is used almost verbatim for Batman's.

I find it interesting that Dynamite is again raiding a property produced by another company, Moonstone again this time. While BB is apparently public domain, there's still the issue of trademarks and the company was producing a Black Bat comic. Wonder how they feel about that?

[emb021]

Eh, have to agree once again with Ed Love on this one.

I wasn't too happy with Moonstone's take on the BB. They ignored the fact that his edge was the night vision, and tried to go with a Daredevil-like radar. Then had the nonsense of putting a big red blood stain on his chest.

If you want to get the gist of the REAL Black Bat, you have some options.

Altus Press has plans to reprint the original stories. They have one Omnibus out so far. They also have the definetive work on the character, the Black Bat Companion.

Since he's in the PD, several have written original Black Bat stories, some with other pulp characters.

Airship 27 has 2 volumes of original Black Bat stories. Volume 1, Volume 2.