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The Greatest Generation

the high-stakes world of drawing

the secret of longevity

So, I was on Twitter this morning, talking about a thing I like to call the ‘Batmobile Effect,’ and some friends like the great Ian Rankin and the wonderful Ed Brubaker jumped in, it was great fun.

The Batmobile Effect seems to hit every pro writer who works on licensed characters at some point or another, I don’t know anyone who is immune. I have heard similar statements from editors and artists, as well.

It goes like this. You get a pro assignment working on a character you loved as a kid, and the first time you are working on that character, some small thing that is part of their mythos suddenly SMACKS YOU IN THE FACE AND YOU REALIZE YOU ARE WRITING BATMAN (or Spider-man, or Godzilla, or whomever it is that you loved as a kid).

For bat-writers, it’s almost always the first time they write the word 'batarang (which it was for Ed Brubaker and Devin Grayson)’ or maybe the word 'batmobile, (which it was for me).’

It’s this amazing feeling, like a HOLY SHIT moment. No matter how cynical you fancy yourself, no matter how jaded, when you realize you are writing that character that meant so much to you as a younger reader. And the triggers are often very small…who would think grown men and women would shout out loud over the word 'batarang?’ But we do, and we’ve almost all done it.

Ed said it also happened to him the first time he wrote Cap throwing his shield. It’s happened MANY times for me…Batgirl, Red Sonja, Oracle, Justice League, Wolverine, Kato, just on and on. It still happens and I am coming up on having written 500 comics!

I think, if I may wax goofy for a moment. I think it’s more than just, WOW, look at how my dreams came true!

I think it’s also a direct, electrical charge, like a time machine. In a passing word that represents a physical manifestation of a concept we loved, we are communicating directly with our previous selves.

Maybe Batman helped us get through tough family times, maybe Superman was a father figure, maybe the X-men helped us be okay with our sexuality, whatever. When we finally get to write those characters, we are, in some small way, talking directly to ourselves at a time when those characters were a big part of the joy in our lives, and maybe even a reason to go on living.

Beyond that, there’s also this amazing feeling of the tapestry, the huge lineage that goes back decades, maybe more, all the way back to the original creators of the characters in question. When you type the word 'batmobile,’ you are putting yourself in a room with all the people who wrote or drew that weird car all the way back to Bill Finger, including Neal Adams, Denny O'Neil, Frank Miller, and hundreds of others. You’re in, you’re an inside man or woman.

And finally, I think there’s a dim awareness that we suddenly realize that there may be thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of people out there who may be reading this character for the first time, or maybe this is the story that makes THEM feel what WE felt years ago. And maybe someday THEY type 'batmobile’ on whatever brain software Apple has declared mandatory in the year 2030. :) I don’t know anyone who hasn’t experienced it at least once. For some pros, maybe it’s not Gotham City that turns that switch, maybe it’s a Legion Flight Ring, or a web-shooter, or any of a thousand other little joyful explosions back to childhood. Maybe it’s video game characters, or rpg charts, or who knows what else.

But I don’t know anyone who Is immune. We’re all infected by that joy at some point, even if we don’t want to admit it.

The Batmobile Effect.