pamperer for Riddler - Year One by Marvel ComicsIn a new six - issue series from DC Comics , Paul Danois team up up with artist Stevan Subic to distinguish the drab origin ofThe RiddlerfromThe Batman . As part of DC ’s Black Label embossment , Dano and Subic will reveal how Edward Nashton went from an unnoted forensic accountant into a masked orca in Gotham City , which is a can’t - misfire story for fans of The Batman .

We had the chance to speak withDano about exercise alongside Subic forRiddler : twelvemonth Oneand write his first risible Word of God . In our conversation , we asked him what it was like to take on the graphic symbol on the page as opposed to how he portrayed him on the boastful screen inThe Batman , how the task with DC Comics came to be , and what reader can await from the dark forthcoming six - publication miniseries go ahead .

Related : The Batman 2 Riddler Return Question Addressed By Paul Dano

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I got the chance to take the comedian , and it felt very personal . How did this task fall to be , and how exciting was it to tackle it for DC Comics ?

Paul Dano : I do a lot of backstory work . Part of acting for me is have to page one of the handwriting . So , it ’s like , " How do I fetch the life that was lived into the motion picture ? " That touch on your body and your spokesperson and your point in time of prospect , so I do a pretty good amount of work just to forecast that out for myself and connect it to me . Because this comes from comics , in the first place , I did it with some archetypal comic language in brain ; some key icon and such .

I was telling Matt Reeves about it one night on see when we were in Edward ’s apartment . I was like , " It ’s amusing , I kind of saw XYZ in my head when I was solve on this . " He was like , " That should be a mirthful , " and if he had n’t said that , I aboveboard do n’t know if I would have had the moxie to go after it on my own . Even though I did think , " Hmm , this could be kind of interesting . But he make out to DC and Jim Lee and was like , " You should blab out to Paul . " Then I utter to them and , and they were like , " This fathom cool . " And it was kind of like , " S – t , now I ’ve get to actually seek to write a skillful comic . "

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I feel really lucky . I ’ve had a really good time working on it ; banging my head against the wall some day , but I ’ve learned a band , and I lie with the medium . To get to mold in it and make for with an creative person like Stevan [ Subic ] , who I recollect is got a really limited spokesperson , it ’s just been a exceedingly inspiring piece to work on . Even though it ’s a footling a little darkness , I think it ’s been really fun for me . And I go for it feel personal , because it is in some way . It ’s meant to be super subjective . That ’s what I have to offer , right ? Some kind of emotional , psychological , subjective perspective .

What take out your attention to Stevan ’s employment ?

Paul Dano : DC was sending me people . I ’m super dorky , super exhaustive , and super obsessive , so I was looking at a lot of people , and I saw some body of work of Stevan ’s . I was like , " That guy ’s serious , but it ’s not right for this comedian . " I was depart through some more people , and [ eventually ] I require the editor , " Does Stevan have any more samples ? " In the second round of samples that I beat from him , he had an image of the Batman that he had drawn . I was like , " That ’s it . " It was exactly what Edward would desire on his wall to look up to .

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There was something really strong , mythologic , and archetypal in his Batman ; the figure I ’m thinking of , which you have n’t see yet . I inquire for even more employment of his , and there was some Italian horror comedian where I was like , " Yes . This guy ’s got something , and I weirdly think it ’s good for this . " So , it had its own small journey . Then we talked , and he ’s just tremendous .

We ’ve worked very closely together . I do n’t get laid how other writer and artists work , but Stevan and I are pretty collaborative . I ca n’t tell you how many zoom hour we ’ve put in at this point , because he ’s in Serbia , but we function pretty nearly together . I really commit him , and I really feel like it ’s a collaboration at this point . I really love his work and his colors . I recollect as the risible evolves , we ’ll get to see a little more of him have to cut loose , which will be fun .

What was it like examine your words come to life on the page ?

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Paul Dano : Well , that ’s reasonably cool . To have something in your head and see it come to fruition or have it realized with such a wonderful creative person is reasonably cool . And there ’s been thing that are like , " That ’s exactly it , " and then there ’s things that are good . I ’ve made one film , so I remember in footing of visual storytelling . But this medium is different , and Stevan often has a better trace . I ’ve learn a lot too , in terms of panel layout and stuff like that ; the penning is fairly locked in when we commence .

I ’ve just been really revolutionize the whole clock time . It ’s really a privilege to get to make something in the medium .

What was most interesting about adapting this character from the film to the comic Thomas Nelson Page ? Were there any differences that surprise you , in terms of what you could do with the mass medium ?

Paul Dano : The Book of Genesis of it comes from the nitty-gritty of what I did to ready to play the reference , but it ’s now really had to become its own thing . Because I think it has to give you the reader your own experience that ’s not just in avail of the pic . I opine it ask to be its own affair , so it is take on its own life sentence in a way that I did n’t see coming in these later offspring . It ’s been cool to let that part of it develop .

Why it was this mass medium , and not trying to do something lively activeness with it , is because I cerebrate that the inner monologue of a fictional character like this is very brassy . I just think comics offer that opportunity to have a sort of Dostoevsky - esque privileged soliloquy or fustian , and it can work out really well as long as it ’s not saying the exact same thing as the image is . But it feel like the born thing . It was just like , " Well , this is the medium . " I think it ’s something to do with another agency to have a subjective experience of the character .

How did work on this project duringThe Batmanhelp you body forth the character further ?

Paul Dano : My backstory going into filming was just what I did as an actor , and the idea of the comic came much after in the shoot . I ’d kind of see it in my head , , but it was just castle in the air . right work on the comic was after we shoot down The Batman , but I would say that the amount of comics I read through the Batman opened the door to the mass medium again for me .

I show comics as kid , and as an adult , I ’ve believably show a couple of the staples . But doing The Batman and study many comic strip , I just screw it . I begin reading about comics before I was even going to spell the comic , because I was just concerned . It just activated a new part of me , but really write the comedian come after the picture show .

What kind of comics did you learn ahead of time ?

Paul Dano : For me , there were n’t that many Riddler comics , so it was more about hock up Gotham and the archetypal Energy Department . And my part attend up to the Batman , which I really could n’t say during press for the film , because people had n’t see it yet . I just kept reading the comic strip to be at the communion table of Batman throughout the pic , so a lot of it was just cultivating this origin of inspiration for Edward .

Certainly , Year One and Ego are probably the most crucial to the motion picture , but there are ones that I just loved . I imagine Court of Owls is top drawer Batman . And then I remember that I had to move Arkham Asylum away from being next to my layer , because it was too much . The space was already so much , psychically speaking , that I was like , " I ca n’t even keep this comic next to my bed . It ’s too much . "

About the narrative itself , where do we happen Edward at the start of the comic ?

Paul Dano : I reckon he ’s like a lonely , fractured , broken guy who is struggling . And I still think he require to survive in some way , as most humans do . The only electropositive affirmation he ’s ever baffle his sprightliness is from a riddle or a puzzle or game , and he stumbles on something that is going to top to something braggart . What he stumbles on is kind of join to his harm , and so in the first one at least , there ’s some unconscious drive of trauma that ’s not fully crystal clear . But it ’ll lead to a breaking point , I guess .

The laughable stack with his hurt in a more verbatim way , specially when he ’s on the underpass and realise the signs . How was it to search that injury and take a deeper dive into this character study ?

Paul Dano : That ’s one of the parts of the first issue that I was most excited about in writing it . The first thing I wrote was Thomas Nelson Page one , which is starting in his header . There ’s these intrusive thoughts that are in it , right on the metro platform , and then when churn the soup . We utilize black as this space inside of himself , and then come back to reality . He ’s got some benighted thoughts and some struggles . Hopefully , it ’s harbour enough . It ’s a little heavy , but it ’s a coolheaded thing to express in the medium .

Then there ’s this whole corruption investigator element that happens or is going to happen . It ’s been interesting to balance all that inner life-time with secret plan or story . That ’s probably the thing that ’s changed the most from my backstory ; just allow that evolve . specially issue # 2 , which is credibly the most different than I would have primitively thought . But I think there ’s some playfulness clobber coming .

Speaking of his backstory , what was it similar to build up that relationship with Batman , and that run into in the first takings ?

Paul Dano : I wanted to start with a really definitive [ trope ] . I almost thought of him being like Mary Jane seeing [ Spider - Man ] ; sort of like beloved at first sight . I just wanted a simple , classic intro — and then that human relationship evolves in the comic . In Edward , at least . And that was a really significant part for me during filming ; Batman was Edward ’s interior gold . I really love what Matt did there as a writer and as a film maker with that relationship and Batman ’s journeying there , from vigilante to hero and to hope . regrettably , this is n’t a journey towards Leslie Townes Hope .

How did you fill in integral details about this version of Riddler and make a backstory for such an iconic character in a new way ?

Paul Dano : That ’s the tightrope to take the air . This leads the character towards the picture show , but it ca n’t just be in service of the film . It is meant to be its own affair , yet it also needs to be in conversation with the account at large , and Gotham at large . It ’s really fun to dally with all of that .

In fact , nigma.org was a really fun addition , once the art was there . It was a unlike name at first , and we could n’t legally call it that . I ’m really felicitous that it work out ; it ’s really fun part of the process that keeps growing as you publish it , see the art , and put the letter in , and do the concluding adaption . There ’s other details like that ; Stevan put something in there that ’s fun to find .

I ’ll be excited to see how those constituent acquire as well , even just the archetypal intuitive feeling of Batman or the Riddler the interrogation mark . Because he ’s apparently different than any other Riddler , so hopefully we ’re make our own thing while still own some connecter to everything else .

I assume we ’ll see a lilliputian piece more of Gotham and its characters in future issues , so what was it like to take a little step aside from Riddler while drop a line a story that surround him ?

Paul Dano : Yes , that was an important encyclopedism curve element for me . When I started write the first egress , as I said , the first thing I wrote was in his head and immanent . And now , the story indeed does have to blossom a bit more into the world around him , although it does remain immanent throughout .

That ’s been really fun , and a really cool learning curve for me as a writer . Because as an thespian , you ’re inwardly of something . But as a narrator , you also have to pop out and look at it from a in high spirits vantage point . I would say that part of it only grows in the next couple of issues . It was kind of like starting here , inside of him , and then let that go out .

Can we expect to see more characters from Gotham City show up in this rule book ?

Paul Dano : I do n’t know . I will say that my hope is that Edward ’s account and his relationship with Batman is the driving force of this matter . Hopefully there ’s a small playfulness to be had , but it ’s its own matter . Again , I do n’t want it to just be in military service of the plastic film , yet it is . So , we ’ll see .

Are there any characters that you would want to drop a line if given the chance ?

Paul Dano : I think , " This is the only time I ’ll ever get to write a comedian in my life , so I good put everything I have into it . " We ’ve been doing that , but I have no clew if I ever will again or not . I ’ve surely really relish it , and I experience really prosperous .

Thanks so much toPaul Danofor taking the time to speak with us ! Riddler : Year One from DC Comics arrives in comic al-Qur’an stores on October 25 , 2022 .

Next : Riddler Just prove He ’s So Much Smarter Than Paul Dano ’s Movie Version