Today's Batman #38 had two huge developments in the current Endgame story arc.

First, we saw a brand new origin for the Joker that explained how he has a regenerative quality -- linked to Vandal Savage, Ra's al Ghul, and the Talons -- that not only grants him unnaturally long life, but the ability to heal from fatal injuries. Last issue, Jim Gordon discovered pictures of the Joker dating back to the beginnings of Gotham, and this issue appeared to confirm that the Joker is older than Gotham.This new origin would at least explain how he always manages to come back no matter what happens to him.And if that wasn't enough craziness for you, the final page shows a desperate Batman seeking out the Court of Owls for help fighting the Joker.The Court are formidable new foes from the first big storyline of this Batman series, and they haven't been seen since the Night of the Owls finale. They are intimately tied to Gotham's history, so despite them previously pushing Batman to his limits and nearly killing him, they are the one source who would be able to help paint a clearer picture about the Joker's newly exposed origin.We hopped on the phone with Batman writer Scott Snyder to talk about these two twists. We also ask him about the upcoming Batman vs. Robin DC animated movie that features the Court of Owls, and how long he plans on writing Batman.

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Yeah, we always wanted to bring them back for a bit. I'm not really one to go back and do big stories with the characters I made up or used before, like James Jr. or Court of Owls.For me, this story is the second part of the two-part Joker story that we had been talking about for a long time. So once I'm done with this, it's the same; Joker is done for me.But the Court, [Batman artist Greg Capullo] and I were always like, "If we do this, we have to do a story where we get to bring them back in, use them in a way that shows how scary they still are, and say goodbye to them in certain ways." Not that I wouldn't use the Talons and all that again. I actually had such a good experience writing them this time -- Greg too. He wrote to me like, "I miss these MFs!" I'm like, "I miss them too, man!" So it made me be like, "Why don't I write these guys all the time?" They're so much fun.This is my way to say, here they are, this is what's going on with them, and I might not return to them. But now I'm feeling like maybe I will. I really like writing them.I wasn't involved in it, but I spoke to the team there when they were talking about it. They were extremely gracious and awesome to us about what they wanted to do. It's different than the Court of Owls in our story, but I think what they're doing is really interesting.Also, getting to see the Court in animated form is just such a huge thrill for both me and Greg. To see those things come to life that way is hugely exciting. So I'm very grateful to them for picking them up.I'm the biggest fan in the world of DC Animated, from when I was a kid. The Batman animated series is, like, my bible. Literally it goes The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One and then Batman: The Animated Series. So to be a part of that tradition in any way is hugely thrilling. I'm very excited about it.Well, they're taking me over to see it and all that stuff, but I kind of want to be shielded from it too and just let them do what they're going to do with it. So I honestly can't answer just because my feeling was, keep it separate, the way they traditionally have to, and let them make it something exciting and their own and use these characters in the way that they want to. So I honestly can't speak to it yet.Well, for me, Duke is a special character just because I love making up people who live in the streets of Gotham -- like Harper, for me. And now that Harper is graduating in some ways to being Bluebird -- and she has a very big role in the Bat-books, and our book, honestly, in June.I felt like Duke was a character I was really interested in once we made him up -- not to make him a superhero but to have that view of things again and to see what it's like and to have a lens of Gotham life. So as I was writing him I realized, you know what, he did this great thing for Bruce Wayne, he and his family. He essentially saved him. That's isn't really a character you can bring in and leave. He did something that changed the course of Batman.So in that way I felt like it's important to see where all of that goes and what his life is like. As I was writing him I realized he had a bigger role to play. So he's in this story, and honestly I think he's got an interesting and very exciting place in the DCU coming up.Yeah, it was really fun to send Greg a bunch of old-timey bathing suit pictures from, like Coney Island, like strongman unitards. [Laughs]But in Death of the Family, Joker is so present, taunting, and he's trying to lead Batman down this path to prove a point. In this one what I wanted was almost the inverse of that, where if that one is about love in a lot of ways and friendship and this feeling that they're two sides of the same coin, this one is sort of like, "I don't care if you figure out what I'm doing or you don't. You're all going down, and I'm bigger than you thought, and I'm a stranger to you now. You never knew who I was. I'm a different person than you thought, and now I'm bringing all of that to bear against you."So I wanted an issue like this, where Batman is desperate for information. In Death of the Family, Joker provided a lot of it. In this one I wanted it to be like, no, he's not going to tell you anything, dude.So I wanted it to be like, where is he swimming? What the hell is he doing? We only get that one page of him? What?Part of the fun is, when you try and do a story like this, you have to keep it surprising. I really want this to be something where you get to each issue and you're like, "I did not see the Court of Owls coming. I did not see Crazy Quilt coming. I did not see that." It's part of the fun of writing stories and characters that are so familiar to us. I'm just trying to do stuff you haven't seen before.