'Absolute Batman Annual' Creator Daniel Warren Johnson Explains His Intent Behind Batman Killing Police And White Supremacists
Daniel Warren Johnson, the creator of an untitled story in Absolute Batman Annual, reveals his intent for depicting Batman killing police and white supremacists.
In an interview on the Comic Book Couples Counseling Podcast, Johnson first shared he had no ideas for a story despite wanting to capitalize on being able to sell his artwork of the character.
However, things changed following the second election of President Donald Trump last November. He said, “Then I watched the election and everything changed and I just was very-. Look, I don’t hide the way I feel about-. I don’t think I hide the way I feel about the world. I think it’s pretty clear like where my feelings are and how I feel about the current state of American politics. But all that to say, I watched the election and I couldn’t sleep at night. And I was just feeling really scared and really worried for this country that I love. And sometimes when I wake up in the morning especially after a night of restless sleep or of not good sleep I will kind of awaken in a daze and … I’ve got some amazing story ideas come to me in those moments.”
“This is after the election, I was just kind of churning my mind and my heart in a bad way,” he continued. “I felt very powerless and in a way that I haven’t really felt before and I just got this image of a white supremacist going up for the salute and having their arm get broken by Batman. It was just an image that showed up in my head. And I shot up and I was like, ‘That’s it. That is the story.’ I don’t know what the story is, but that is the main focal image point of the issue that makes this work.”
“I know the image at this time as things are happening in the world right after this election that’s all I need to know that the story needs to get made. It felt like an image that almost provided for me at least this relief this catharsis. Not a celebration of violence, but just an acknowledgement that something’s wrong and there’s a cause and effect to things that happen in our world and Batman is very much an effect in response to gears turning in one way or another when it comes to culture or society or whatever.”
Later in the interview after describing his book as “being on the nose,” Johnson shared that he does not believe that violence is the answer and that he needed to add a question mark in the story and he used the character of Father Peters to do that.
For context, Father Peters is shown in the comic initially helping an immigrant community by providing them food and prayers. He then stops the white supremacists from beating Bruce Wayne to death. After Batman begins killing the white supremacists, he works to stop him from brutalizing them, and then provides aid to those who are dying from Batman’s attack.
Johnson shared, “I don’t know that violence is the answer. I don’t think it is. This is my thought. I needed there to be a question mark in the story. And the only way that I could figure out that there could be a question mark is if Father Peters or if there was sort of character that was legit or had seen some crap in the past that is respectable, that has a dog in the fight, has a different way of going about things. So that was the reason that he’s in there. That is the reason that Father Peters is in there. It’s like the other side of my psyche that is saying, ‘I don’t know if this is right.’”
The TDS is strong with this one. "I don't know if violence is the answer; I don't think it is" means that he'll be fine letting it happen and then excusing his lack of action after the fact. These people gaslight themselves, wring their hands for a minute, and then go on with their lives, leaving bodies in their wake.
Ah, the eternal Redditor. Weird power fantasies about hurting people he disagrees with because… Reasons.