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CBR TV @ CCI: Judd Winick Discusses “Batwing,” “Catwoman”

Judd Winick spoke with CBR TV during Comic-Con International in San Diego about his role in September’s DC Comics relaunch, from the initial veil of secrecy surrounding the project to his two titles, “Batwing” and “Catwoman,” his initial reaction when DC approached him with their plans and more.

On the topic of “Batwing,” Winick discusses the perception that a white writer shouldn’t be writing a black character, the research he’s put in to accurately portray Africa and an African lead in the title and the overall concept of a superhero working in a very poor country with very real problems.

From there, the conversation shifts to the fictional streets of Gotham City and Winick’s “Catwoman,” from the feline-themed thief’s motivations to her current relationship with Batman and her timeless appeal.

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  • http://twitter.com/SonofBaldwin Son of Baldwin

    When you can say something like this:nnhttp://www.newsarama.com/comics/sdcc-2011-dc-new-52-saturday-110721.htmlnnJudd Winick:nn”We write about stuff in nthe states with supervillains and criminals. In Africa you have guys whon are called warlords and put guns in the hands of kids and kill them. nThey are already supervillains!” nIt tells me that you don’t know a great deal about the history of your own country (with its own supervillains like cowboys; the mob; the Ku Klux Klan; neo-Nazis; drug dealers of all colors; greedy corporations; corrupt and murderous police officers; and Wall Street executives). And it tells me that you are already viewing African culture through some Otherized lens.u00a0 nnSo you can’t be shocked when members of the audience are immediately suspect of your position as writer on this title.

    • http://www.facebook.com/pdokeegan Patrick Keegan

      The US has certainly had its share of arch-criminals, but the evils perpetrated by the likes of Thomas Lubanga’su00a0Union of Congolese Patriots exist on a scale that is unknown in the modern United States. There is no doubt that American history is deeply rooted in blood, but much of Africa still drowns in the blood of her own people – particularly the DRC. I find the idea of a home-grown hero, and not some westernized white hope, to be fascinating. A hero in a hopeless land. It’s worth mentioning that I am African, and cannot wait for this new book.

      • http://twitter.com/SonofBaldwin Son of Baldwin

        If only I had the luxury of believing that American citizens are somehow less evil or brutal than regimes in other countries. As a person of color whose American family tree goes back six to seven generations in this country, the experiences of my family are VASTLY different–and much more brutal, murderous, and harrowing–from the ones Mr. Marsh and Mr. Keegan assure us are true. I wonder, Mr. Keegan, if you would be so anxious to read this comic book if you were a black African. And I also wonder, Mr. Marsh, what experiences in this country you lack that you would find the truth disgusting.nnSomehow, I’m expected to believe that tyranny is always WORSE when committed by a person of color. Someone should tell that to the two white teens who just brutally beat and murdered a man in Mississippi simply because he was black:nnhttp://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/06/mississippi.hate.crime/index.htmlnnThe odd thing about this story is that many of the mainstream news organizations are presenting the murderers as sympathetic–which tells me a great deal about the racial imagination of the country.

      • http://twitter.com/SonofBaldwin Son of Baldwin

        Also, Mr. Keegan, I’d like to correct something you wrote.u00a0 You said: nn”The US has certainly had its share of arch-criminals….”u00a0 nnYou used the past tense. I can assure you, as an American myself, that the present tense should be used.

    • http://www.facebook.com/cmarshperla Cameron Marsh

      Wow, didn’t expect to find such an anti-american standpoint on here but you post is disgusting at best. Judd Winick nor anyone else on here was suggesting that America is void of crime, corruption or sin but you just had to throw in your dumb little comment to try and belittle what he’s doing and make it overtly political. He’s actually trying to make a non-stereotypical view of Africa and actually have a native superhero there for once whose actually doing good and help his countrymen, unlike you who are just spewing ignorant rhethoric and flames.

  • Terry

    It’s scary how much Judd Winnick looks like James Carvell.

  • Catsmeow

    Why did Judd shave his head? He looks like Damon Lindelof, and that’s not a compliment.

  • Chewiep1976

    David Cross is writing comics now?!?u00a0 AWESOMEu00a0 *eye roll*

  • Catsmeow

    Also, CBR, it’s Winick with one “N”, not two.

  • http://twitter.com/dreamnasium Geoff Thorne

    I wanted to comment on this and I have nothing against a freelance writer taking a job but, REALLY DC?nnYou can shove this one up your ass.

  • http://www.facebook.com/JonesDeini Jonesy Stark

    I’ve got no problem with Winick writing this. I trust dude as a writer and from interviews like this one I believe that he’s taking this book very seriously and wants to do the motherland justice. I’m glad he’s been doing his research and wasn’t content to fall back on ignorant stereotypes and tropes. Last great depiction of Africa I saw in comics was Dysart’s Unknown Soldier (amazing series by the way) and to my knowledge neither he nor Alberto Ponticelli were African or African American. Though I will say the book appeared more lush and alive when Pat Masioni took over pencils for a while. That brother was a native African and it really showed in his work. Would love to see him doing more work in American comics.u00a0

  • Gdkeen

    Wow. “Batwing” is gonna suck.u00a0 And please stop calling the character “black Batman.”u00a0 nnThis book takes place in “Black Africa,” Judd? Wtf does that even mean? There are a lot of black people in it, you say, and you and the host giggle as if that’s such an absurdity?nnWhy would anyone want to read this book when the writer sounds so ignorant?