Well, That Didn't Take Too Long, Now Did It?

It was a mere 37 months ago that the rumours started about Neal Adams drawing a new Batman story, and here we are in April of 2010 with DC Comics finally announcing the project! That means it took a little more than 1100 days, or about 160 weeks, for confirmation to arrive.

Now, I'm not taking DC to task for holding off on the scheduling of the Batman: Odyssey series, now slated to start in July and run for 12 issues. On the contrary, I applaud them for their diligence in that regard, since the last thing we fans want is another project that comes out on the frequency of All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder (we're lucky if we get one new issue a year now). Adams - surely one of the greatest comic book artists of all time - is not exactly known for being quick in producing pages. So delaying the start of the publication until, presumably, many if not all issues are already in the can, is a wise and appreciated move on the publisher's part.

What I can't quite fathom, though, is why DC waited more than 3 years before even acknowledging that Batman: Odyssey was in production. Would it really have been so bad to have spent some of the past 3 years drumming up interest and excitement for the project? I mean, big budget movies often take 3 years to complete (from pre-production right through to premiere), and fans often spend that time ratcheting up their enthusiasm for the finished product. Was DC actually concerned that it would never happen, or just holding off for as long as possible so that they wouldn't have to answer questions about it in the meantime?

At any rate, it doesn't really matter now. The cat's officially out of the bag, and fans of my age group can start licking their lips at the prospect of some eye-popping Neal Adams Dark Knight pages in our future. I'm not sure that the story will make a lot of sense - hey, I've met Neal! - but the pretty pictures alone should make it well worth the price of admission.

[The first substantial comments by Adams himself about the project were just posted on the Comic Book Resources site. I think you can get a pretty clear picture of Neal's personality - warts and all - by checking that out.]

[Update Feb 9/10: In another interview, Neal mentions that he's working on # 8 right now. If Odyssey comes out monthly starting in July, that should mean that he has about a 9-month head start right now. Or, put another way, the 8th issue should be the first one in the series that could even possibly be late! And it's more likely to be the 10th or 11th issue onward that would be delayed, really. If you doubt that pessimistic assessment, just remember that he's on the 8th issue at the moment and has been working on this project, in one capacity or another, for over 3 years now!]