Today's Batman #41 is our first full issue with the new Batman with a new status quo. It's James Gordon wearing a robotic Batsuit working alongside the GCPD instead of outside the law. We asked writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo about the new Bat-signal, the new robotic Bat-suit, the sleek Batsuit he wears underneath, why Gordon decided to be Batman, and, of course, the potential return for Bruce Wayne.

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For me, I wanted it to feel like everything was upside down in Gotham. Talking to Greg, a lot of the great design stuff came from him. I gave sort of the general idea. You know, "We want things to feel reversed. We want it to feel like the whole city's been turned on its head." There's so much of it he'll come up with, with that. The feeling was, you're used to the signal shining up. Here, it shines down on whatever's happening, where Batman's going to be.Yeah, and then I just took it a step further and designed this insignia for, like, jumpsuits and stuff, which, to me, I really love that insignia. I was thinking airline logos, stuff like that. You go, "That'd be cool," because it's kind of a corporate-run thing. But yeah, Scott just told me, "We need a Bat-Signal. Go!"It's "Bat-kilt," actually. [Laughs]Yeah, I think the idea is supposed to be that the suit is a prop. It's sort of his armor at first, but then when you see him step out at the end of the issue in a different way, you get the sense that it's just an extension of himself. He's really Batman beneath it as well. He has to step into that role and be [Batman], with or without this giant protective armor.So a lot of the issue is arguing the point with ourselves about why this idea is so much fun and makes sense. As a Bat-fan, when I came up with it, all the things that Gordon worries about as to why he might not be a good Batman are the things that I worry about as a fan -- as I'm sure other fans are worried about. But I wanted to make an issue where he as a real person, a character who's like us in that he is not trained to be Batman -- he's not waiting in line to take the cowl, somebody like [former Robins Dick Grayson or Tim Drake] -- he has all the same fears that we would have about him as Batman.So a lot of the fun of it is addressing him as though he's arguing the points that we would about him.I think we're going to win the crowd over with the ice-dispensing scene. It's one of those really hot days, the kids are out, the fire hose is on and stuff, and he just comes along and cools the kids down, you know? Out come the cubes, and everybody goes, "You know, he's a cool Batman!" Literally, cool!Again, to state everything that's gone before, you just want to make it somehow different, you know? In the scene that Scott just wrote here, it makes me happy that I decided to really sling that gun holster low. It's almost like Clint Eastwood has dawned the Batsuit. But it was more like, just give him something fresh and new and still stealthy and Bat-like.So much of that stuff, kind of like Greg said, you zig if you've zagged before. The armor itself is a zig where you feel like it's this giant, hulking shell, this kind of huge, imposing Batman. And we wanted this to feel more vulnerable or in some ways sleeker, more sort of Under Armour than the normal Batman suit is, to give this sense of vulnerability but also to cut that classic silhouette. Just do something a little different, that had that gunslinger feel but at the same time was recognizable as Batman.That's kind of the joke -- the suit is so far from what you recognize. It's like the most stripped-down version of the iconic elements of Batman. It's black and yellow and has the classic cowl, you know?Well, for me, the thinking is twofold. There's the kind of, you become Batman because you want to protect other people from that role, for Jim, and this way that he is a father figure to the cadets and other people looking at the job.But there's also a much more proactive reason for him to do it, which is, when he says to Harvey, he wonders if Batman would honestly work better if Batman was an extension of the system that's put in place by Gotham, to protect them: the police, government, business -- all these things they rely on to make the city a safe place, where they can thrive. If Batman is one more part of that and has checks and balances and is culpable -- all those things -- like, will he work better? It's almost like Jim's saying, "If Batman is a part of this system I've believed in and worked for my whole life, can he be an even more effective Batman than he would as an outlaw?" So he does worry about those things, and his family.His concern about his family is going to be handled really well in Batgirl. I was actually going to do a scene with Barbara, but when I heard was Cameron and Brenden had planned, I figured let them do it, because there's is terrific. So in that way I think his concerns about his family you'll see elsewhere.But really, here, it's both him being protective of the cadets, who are part of his family as well, and also him in a bigger way, I think, wondering if Batman might be improved by being part of the system he's fought for.[Laughs] That would be awesome. I assumed it was at the tailors that made him a trench coat in previous issues. I don't know if Scott had a place in mind. It could have been from the circus, for all I know.Yeah, yeah. I mean, Harvey has his ways. I think Harvey is the kind of guy who would get it from somewhere he shouldn't. [Laughs] But no, it was more of just a nod. You probably won't be seeing Batman in a humungous, 11-foot trench coat in this arc.Maybe I'll just do it and tweet a picture of it.Yeah.No, I don't think so. We've thought about something with "bats" and "bunnies." [Laughs] We've been trying to combine those two words somehow.It's the Babbit! [Laughs] As the arc goes forward -- I'm writing #45 now actually -- the suit takes on a bit of a life of its own, in a fun way, where I think Gordon becomes more fond of it, as do the other people around it. There's a point where it can be remotely controlled as well. So it has a bit of a personality, I think, at some points.It's really fun to write in that regard. It's almost like a pet -- a giant, robotic, deadly pet.I'm getting a stomach ache!We all knew about it in advance, so we all had to figure out our own way around it, right? So whatever clever bit Scott wanted to write. And he wrote it in such a way that when you go and truncate my work, we can assemble it, and it won't look off when we reassemble it for the trades. I really shouldn't talk about this thing... because, yeah, it's not something that sits very well with me at all.I think when you see the issue, you'll see that we tried to make it work in a way that was both respectful to Greg's art and to make the page work in a way, like he said, that could be reassembled.But also, I think we pride ourselves a little bit on Batman as being not necessarily always towing the party line. Batman is an outlaw after all, right? You have to have a little fun in the book. So we tried to have a bit of fun with that page in a way that I hope you guys enjoy. I think we kind of snuck it in there, so you'll see. When you read it, I think you'll see we kind of got in our little dig.No, I didn't feel any obligation. I feel that story, to me, is very true, End Game. Batman went down with Joker, the way that I think we as a team and the mythology that we've tried to create on the book, in the way that that mythology ends.So, no, what I mean by it not being a tease is, there's nothing in this story that's meant to lead you on without having a payoff in some way or another. So that's a big part of the story. That ending, that hook, is not something that isn't going to be addressed or returned in a big way in the narrative of the next issue.I can't say. [Laughs] There's no way to answer that question without being spoilery. You'll have to wait and see.I would say, you read the book about a brave guy, Bruce Wayne, and a brave hero, Batman. So put your balls where Batman's are -- well, not literally. That might get a little messy. But! Be brave, buy the book. I think everybody's going to be surprised. It's one of the most fun things I've done with Scott since starting from day one. I'm proud of the arc that we've begun. I'll be more proud when we've wrapped it up, and I'll be even more proud when I see that we won over a lot of skeptics who were nervous and on the fence.It's not what people have preconceived in their minds, and if they give it a try -- as they all should if they're Batman fans and fans of our book -- they won't be let down. They'll be going, "Oh! I worried and gave myself a stomach ache for nothing. This was great!"Yeah, I think from our end, I hope that Greg and I have at least earned the belief in the team, that we would never do anything, make any change, introduce any villain, do any kind of story, if we didn't believe it was just a better-quality story than what we would have done otherwise. We have no horse in the race for why we would do something like this other than we think it's the best story we can do on the book. We love the characters as much as anybody that reads the book. There's nothing we would do to them for sensational reasons or for shock reasons.Honestly, the best way to put it for me is that I think at this point we've been on the book quite awhile, almost four years. It would be pretty easy for us to do very simple stories and spin our wheels and play it very safe and rest on, luckily, the supportive fans. They've been great about the stories we've done so far. The only reason to take a risk like this and to do a story this out-there is if you honestly believe it fits at least shoulder-to-shoulder with the stuff you've done before. Otherwise, why bother? No one's going to risk the good will that we've hopefully built up with fans on something to just shock people or for sales. We've never cared about how the book does or boosting anything with any gimmick or anything like that. We've resisted all of those things as much as we can.So, for us, we hope that, if you've enjoyed the book so far, you'll pick it up and check it out. Honestly, it's also a story that I think -- as wacky as it is and out-there as it is -- it really isn't that far off in a lot of ways. I think it's a lot more about Batman's core mythos than I think people think it is. So give it a shot.The other thing I want to say is, [after End Game], if you were going to write the book, what would you have done? It's almost like, this had to happen, post-End Game. It wasn't like Scott goes, "What's the next big thing I can write and take some kind of risk?" It was a natural progression. This story really develops organically on the tail of End Game. So once people get into the story, as Scott said, things won't be as unsettled as they are imagining, and they'll go, "Yeah, I guess if I were writing the book, I'd have to do something very similar," based on our End Game concluded.Yeah, and the last thing is, everyone knows Bruce will be back. I make the joke on Twitter when everyone asks, "Is he really dead?" I'm like, "Yes. I'm just going to show his rotting corpse for every issue going forward. That's all this arc is. That'll be, like, the backups, just the decomposition of his body over and over."But the thing is, everyone knows Bruce will be back. These stories -- like Superior Spider-Man or [Bucky Barnes] as [Captain America] -- the idea is that they give you a new angle on the mythos, and they let you go places emotionally with the characters that you love, that you'd never be able to get to otherwise. Any time you have a chance to do something that you believe in, that you think you have a good story for, that hasn't been done in the legacy of a character like this, you have to try it. Ultimately, you have to think of it almost as a vacation.For us, I'm exploring this territory that makes the Batman mythos feel entirely new to me, and the books feel entirely new to me. But it also makes me understand the importance of home and how good it's going to feel when you get back to that center too.The thing is, I get it. The fans are nervous. I totally understand and respect that, but I hope that at this point we've earned the trust at least to the degree that people think. We wouldn't try anything unless we thought it was a really fun and good story that spoke to the core of the Batman mythology.Yes, headline: "Snyder and Capullo Not Out to Ruin Batman."[Laughs] Yeah, if only. If only it was that easy. Do you know how many ideas you have like, "What if you did this to Batman?" It's not hard to come up with things that completely fuck up the mythology in a way that would be really sensational. It's not hard to be like, "How do I blow this thing up in a way that's going to get massive sales and news stories everywhere?" But it would ultimately be hard to mesh with the core of Batman itself. So those things are not hard to do. If we wanted to do that we could have done that long ago, when it actually mattered for sales -- back when we were starting or when we were worried about keeping sales up right after Court of Owls -- times like that when you had something to prove.At this point I feel like we're just having fun on the book and doing things that we love and hope the fans love. I've already gotten to do more on this book than I ever thought I would get to do. This is the part that's meant to be like, let's explore together and have fun because we all understand that Batman is our favorite character. We're doing the best we can to do stories that are new but honor the center of that whole mythos.

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Game of Thrones, Green Lantern, or Super Smash Bros. are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter and IGN