If everyone in Hollywood seems to be working on a script, everyone in comics seems to have at least one Batman pitch. He may have the most varied interpretations of any character in comics, after all: sometimes he's goofy, sometimes he's gothy, sometimes he's a team player and sometimes a hag-ridden loner, sometimes he's written by Alan Moore and sometimes he's written by Kevin Smith. But no matter who he is, he's the highest-profile superhero who "could be you," who doesn't have the benefit of an alien upbringing or irradiated or otherwise altered cells, but just does what any average red-blooded citizen might do, if an average red-blooded citizen had a crimefighting obsession and virtually infinite money. That gets people writing the kind of fan-fiction that sometimes becomes a full-fledged pitch. And everyone wants to see him kick Superman's hinder next year. All kinds of ideas about Batman will never see print, sometimes for foolish reasons, sometimes for mundane ones and sometimes for really, really good ones. Follow us on a journey that begins with regret, and ends with profound relief.
T Campbell has written quite a few online comics series and selected work for Marvel, Archie and Tokyopop. His longest-running works are Fans, Penny and Aggie-- and his current project with co-writer Phil Kahn, Guilded Age.
