Interview: Mark Russell Takes the Dark Knight Through History in BATMAN: DARK AGE

Back in 2022, writer Mark Russell and artists Mike and Laura Allred took Superman through the decades and examined how he impacted the planet through the years and how, likewise, the planet impacted him. Throughout this tale, the creative team showed us how Superman navigated the everything from JFK’s assassination to the Civil Rights movement. It’s an engaging history lesson, a tale of what ifs and maybes, and how our world is shaped by and viewed by others.

Last year, Russell and the Allreds took a similar approach with Bruce Wayne and his famous alter ego in Batman: Dark Age. In addition to hitting historical touchstones, the book also explores how the Caped Crusader’s psychology is molded by these events. How would Vietnam and prison affect Bruce Wayne? Would his father’s hopes for Gotham City come to a reality under Bruce’s watch, or would it become an exemplar of the type of urban decay that was on the news so often in the 1980s? As always, the team highlight those questions in a thought-provoking yet always respectful manner.

I spoke with Mark Russell recently about the idea behind Batman: Dark Age, working with the Allreds again for this project, taking the Dark Knight through history, and what working on the character means to him.

Editor’s note: This interview was conducted last year. Due to technical issues, we had trouble getting the interview to post. Now that has been resolved, we are publishing the interview in full, with minor changes to reflect the time that has past between now and the interview.

FreakSugar: Before we talk about the book itself, how did Batman: Dark Age come about? Was it the next natural step to you after Superman: Space Age? Was it a fully formed idea in your mind or did it evolve along the way of writing it?

Mark Russell: It sort of evolved as we were making Superman: Space Age. I kept having different ideas of what Batman would be doing while Superman was preparing to deal with the extinction of the Universe (some of which made it into Superman: Space Age) but it occurred to me that, at some point, this just needed to be its own book.

FS: As far as Batman: Dark Age itself, what is the conceit of the book?

MR: These are the thoughts and memories of Bruce Wayne as an old man, telling the story of his life as Batman and the people he loved and lost during that time.

FS: Does this outing connect with Space Age in any way?

MR: Yes. Just like in Superman: Space Age, this story ties into Crisis on Infinite Earths. It is a tale told from a doomed Universe, but not one devoid of hope.

FS: You’re retelling Batman’s origin with the backdrop of real-world events. What kind of narrative choices does this open up for you, both in retelling Batman’s origin and the story in general?

MR: Well, I think it gives me some writing prompts. What sorts of social movements and historic figures would Bruce Wayne have bumped into in the 1960s and 70s? Where would he have learned guerilla combat skills? As with Superman: Space Age, I wanted to tell a story that was as much about heroes being created by history as  much as it was about them making history.

FS: Are there any of those real-world events that you can tease that we’ll highlighted in the book?

MR: I will just say that the Vietnam War factors heavily in this story, as does the counterculture that grew in opposition to it. It also, like the Gotham in Superman: Space Age, deals with a lot of the urban decay and street crime that plagued cities like New York in the 1970s. Though, in a lot of ways, it’s just as much about cities of today and how important they are to human civilization.

FS: You worked with the Allreds on Space Age. Do you have a shorthand with them at this point? What’s your collaboration process like?

MR: Yeah, and that shorthand is pretty much getting out of their way whenever possible. Don’t break into three panels what could be told in one. Give Mike plenty of splash pages so he can give you the full Allred treatment.

FS: Batman celebrates his 85^th anniversary this year. We could talk all day about why the character resonates with audiences, but how does he connect with you? Who is Batman to you and why is he important?

MR: As a writer, Batman really resonates with me because he’s a guy who, like a writer, lives an entire lifetime inside his head. His thoughts and motives are largely inscrutable. So that was an incredible opportunity to me. The chance to tell the story, not only of Batman’s actions, but his thoughts and feelings, too. The parts of him that are usually kept hidden from the reader.

FS: How is working on Batman for this book different than your previous stories? Did it give you a different look at how you view the character?

MR: Well, I think all writing is an act of creative empathy, so it’s always different because you’re always attempting to lower yourself into the cockpit of a different human being or beings than you did on the last thing you wrote. But it has definitely changed the way I look at Batman and, more to the point, Bruce Wayne by trying to write the whole story from his perspective and as a form of diary.

FS: Are there any teases that you can give at all for what else we can expect to see in the book?

MR: Ra’s al-Ghul plays a very large role in this book and the rogues gallery of villains, i.e. the Penguin, Riddler, Joker, etc. grow out of the counter-culture of the 1960s. They are, in a lot of ways, a response to the failure of the Wayne family’s ability to create the City of Tomorrow. The villains simply create their own vision of the future. Their own sort of personal utopias.

FS: What comics are you reading right now?

MR: I’m starting in on the Ghost Machine comics and I’m reading The Spirit comics from the 1940s.

FS: If you had one last pitch for Batman: Dark Age, what would it be?

MR: One of the great things about getting the chance to write both Batman: Dark Age and Superman: Space Age is that these tell stories that a reader doesn’t really need to know anything about before reading. This could be your first ever Batman comic and you will understand what is going on. On, the other hand, if you are a lifelong Batman fan, this is an origin that is very different than what you’re used to and you will, I think, enjoy some of the minor characters that have surprisingly large roles in this play.

Batman: Dark Age will go on sale in hardback on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, from DC Comics.

From the official collection description:

Spinning out from the Eisner Award nominated pages of Superman: Space Age comes Batman: Dark Age, a brand-new series from Mark Russell and Michael Allred that reimagines the origin story of the Dark Knight against a backdrop of real-world historical events!

The year is 2030 and an elderly Bruce Wayne is struggling with against the debilitating affects of aging. No longer the spry hero he once was, Bruce has turned to his memories to help hold on to the past for as long as he can — a past that dates back to 1957 and a fateful night that saw both his parents murdered in cold blood. But becoming the Caped Crusader is anything but easy, especially when you’re an angry teenage boy who prefers to punch first and ask questions later in the tumultuous ’60s!