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Legendary artist Jim Lee once had hard, fast rules about how he drew Batman, going all the way back to his first days drawing the hero in the massively successful story Batman: Hush. And though Lee's now classic version of the Dark Knight has remained strong in the public eye, he's not afraid to switch up the costume details he once considered to be unchangeable.

"When you're younger, and you're a fan, you tend to have very strong opinions, I've noticed, reading things online. And I think when you transition, and work in the industry and become a professional for a while, at least for me, I'm more open to other points of view," Lee tells the Masterplan podcast. "I think, when I started Batman, to me it had to be the Frank Miller Batman. You know, shorter ears, bigger, blockier figure, wrinkly costume. And then he was inspired by Dick Sprang, and sort of the Silver Age of Batman. By the time I finished Hush, he was a leaner body, and now with Hush 2, he's got longer ears."

Hush brings in nearly all of Batman's biggest enemies. Lee's Hush version of Batman has become the de facto style for the Caped Crusader in the minds of many fans, not least because of its ongoing presence in merchandising and market. Later, Lee worked alongside Frank Miller himself on All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder. Since then, however, Lee's personal rules for portraying Batman have changed, leading to more experimentation in his designs.

"I think, for me, it's variety. I did a version of Batman that was immutable at the time, based on the ones I like. But I don't wanna just keep repeating that, especially 20 years after the first one. And so, what can I do different? I can use the yellow and black chest symbol, I can do longer ears, I can do different gauntlets. So I think it's important as an artist to keep yourself interested in the work, challenged by the work, and that means thinking about your work and your style, the 'immutables,' that you once held to be unchangeable and firm, to reexamine and deconstruct, and perhaps think of it in new ways."

Hush 2 just wrapped, with a new follow-up already announced in Hush 2 ² (yes, that's actually the title, though 2 squared is 4, a somewhat confusing numbering process). Stylization aside, the return of Hush, and of Lee to Batman, has been a welcome balm to fans craving a version of Batman that reflects the hero in one of his most beloved eras.

"I think that's part of the artistic process, and so I'm much more open to change and variation than I was early days," he concludes. "Early days I was like, 'No, it's gotta be this costume, it's gotta be this,' because that's how I felt as a fan. And later as you start seeing that all these things can be true and appealing at the same time, you don't have to lock yourself into one approach. So I have a much more open-minded approach to the characters, the designs, the storytelling." 

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