Broken Frontier

Broken Frontier: I always hear how hard it is to break into the comics industry, as a writer especially. How did you end up writing for DC’s most popular character?

Shane McCarthy: It’s very, very hard for a writer, because for the artists, they can just bring their work and show [the editors]. With writers, you can’t show your stuff, because they don’t have time to... Even a page, they don’t want to know about it.

BF: And there’s the legal thing of not being able to read someone’s story.

SM: Pretty much. It really comes down to time. I mean here [at Comic-Con], everybody wants a piece of them, and they don’t have the time to read something. They can look at something and say “Hey, that’s great,” but to read something...

It just came down to being at the right time, in the right place, and meeting Bob Schreck, who’s this absolute legend as far as I’m concerned.

BF: You met in a bar...

SM: Accidentally, bumped into each other in a bar. Had no idea who he was. We just started talking, but once again - I didn’t know who he was, and he didn’t allude to it.

BF: You weren’t writing comics at the time.

SM: No, I’d been doing stuff at home [in Perth, Australia], but nothing internationally.

BF: Before I read Riddle Me That, I’d lost track of the Riddler. What was going on with the character when you got involved?

SM: Well nothing actually. This is why I got involved. I actually approached Bob and said that I want to do something with the Riddler, because he’s been my favorite villain since I was a kid. But I don’t understand the attraction to a villain whose main claim to fame is being pathetic, right?

BF: Meaning the Riddler?

SM: The Riddler, yeah! He’s seen as a joke within the comic. Like there was this guy who couldn’t stop leaving riddles and it was just kind of pathetic to me. As far as I’m concerned, you want a villain and a hero to be at the top of their game, to make something interesting. Not the hero being great, and the villain being stupid.

For me it was just a matter of approaching [DC] and saying “Look, let’s do something,” and they got really excited and jumped on board. Halfway through all that, Hush happened, which I wasn’t aware of... So then it was a matter of connection Hush to what I’d already done. Which worked out really, really well.

BF: Would you consider the Riddler your favorite Bat-Villain?

SM: Yeah, actually, I would. Well, the Riddler in my head, how he should be. When he’s done being this kind of whiny guy that just can’t do anything, then he’s not interesting at all. Then you have this concept in your head of what the Riddler should be, or what he’s been previously, but maybe not always. He should be the mental foil.

BF: Because Batman is the detective, and the Riddler has the riddles...

SM: Exactly! These guys should be playing a chess game against each other whenever they match up. The Joker is there to be the conflict with his insanity vs order. But the Riddler should be the threat to Batman’s logical side--

BF: What were the changes you wanted to make for Edward Nigma?

SM: In order to make him a threat I had to get rid of what was holding him back as a character.

BF: Which was...

SM: [Lack of] Self-respect, mostly. And being armed with something that was actually a threat to Batman, which was intellect. I mean, here’s this guy who had this weird thing that he would only leave riddles, but in reality, he was really quite dumb. As a kid, I just assumed that the Riddler was highly intellectual, but when I got older I realized he was just this guy who was leaving riddles. That’s just a schtick. Otherwise he’s just normal.

BF: He’s just a guy, robbing a bank --

SM: Who happens to be wearing tights. So for me, the biggest thing was to give him self-respect. Which would then arm him with what he needed, which was the capacity to fight Batman. So I basically made him into a genius. So, he’s secretly always been a genius. I added that.

BF: Well there’s the whole abuse factor.

SM: The abuse thing is interesting, because it was already there. They had already alluded that his family was abusive to him. So it was just a matter of twisting that. It wasn’t something that I added. It was just something that I embellished, I guess. And it seemed to really play right into what I wanted to do.

BF: How much did you have to do with the costume design?

SM: When we started, there was no artist. So the costume, I was probably painstakingly specific about. It was like two pages of detail about what I wanted, right down to the rings on his fingers, where I wanted the tattoos, what colors, what clothes, what hair... everything.

BF: He’s a little more of a dandy in some ways.

SM: Well it’s funny. I mean Tommy [Castillo] did tend to draw him a little effeminate, which I’m totally fine with. I think he looks fantastic, but to me it’s more about him being an attractive guy. The way I approached it was he’s the anti-Bruce Wayne. He’s rich, he’s intelligent and he’s got women throwing themselves at him. He’s got the suits; He’s got the whole business, but he’s using his intellect and his wealth now for evil instead of for good, right?

BF: Where did all that money come from?

SM: It’s funny, because of the intellect... You’ve got guys in the stock market who’ve got a mind for that kind of stuff. And because they do, they can make money hand over fist by watching the trends and whatever. We’ve got this guy, he’s like a remarkable genius, who is like NSA level code-breaking abilities. So he looks at the stock market – it’s easy. That’s the funny thing now. He actually finds it funny that he just makes his money legally. That’s what funds his war against Batman.

BF: So he just wants to fight Batman?

SM: Well he’s in a world full of intellectual ten-year olds as far as he’s concerned. The only person who can challenge him now is Batman. Now armed with what he’s got, he’s out to prove that he’s better than all of them.

BF: So what’s the fan reaction been?

SM: It was really good. To be honest, when I was writing it, I was kinds scared about death threats... Kidding! But the whole business of changing his costume, so on and so forth. I expected a big backlash, but I got a lot of fan response, emails really liking what I was doing. DC was really happy, the fan response was great!

BF: So what’s next for Shane McCarthy?

SM: There’s actually quite a bit, which I’m really excited about. I’ve got some projects happening with DC, which is great. I love DC. They’re just fantastic guys. I mean they’ve really looked after me.

BF: More Batman stuff?

SM: Yeah, I mean that looks to be the case. We’re in the process of discussing that as we started this interview. I’m doing Event Horizon, which is the British anthology, which is fantastic... Liam Sharpe is an amazing guy. Did the whole thing off his back, and everybody wants to get behind him, because he’s so great.

BF: Tell me about Event Horizon.

SM: It’s a collection of short stories done by industry professionals. Dave Gibbons is going to be doing some stuff. We had Steve Niles doing some stuff. I think Geoff Johns is going to be doing some stuff. We wanted to do like a Heavy Metal-style book. Get some punk back into comics. It’s no-holds-barred – swearing, nudity, whatever we want. It’s being seen as this sort of underground, edgy...

I’m doing some stuff for IDW at the moment. We’re discussing Transformers, but we’re just waiting for stuff from Hasbro. I’m talking with Image, and hopefully some stuff at Wildstorm.

BF: Thank you very much!

SM: Not a problem, my pleasure!

For more information about Shane McCarthy, check his website www.shanemccarthy.com!