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It’s been a minute since we had Matt Fraction on an ongoing series from at the big two superhero publishers in comics, and we’re happy to have him now as writer on DC’s Batman. Joining artist Jorge Jimenez, Fraction is embracing Batman’s superhero traits, leading the Dark Knight on mysteries that only the world’s greatest super detective can solve. Fraction, when I spoke to him at San Diego Comic-Con this year, reflected on his movement back to comics after working in television these last few years on shows like Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on Apple TV+, as well as what it means for him to be writing a character who starred in the first comic book he ever read.

"I want to embrace the comic book nature of the comic, you know? I think it allows for a tonal flexibility. I think we can do all kinds of different [stories]. The stories all can fit, and I think the character and the medium are elastic enough to sustain them all," says Fraction. "But it's not so much about the world's greatest detective solving the world's toughest crimes. It’s the world's greatest SUPER detective solving the world's greatest super crimes. There's an annual coming up where Batman solves the murder of a bee. I want weird cases and fun comic book and science fiction and superhero and all that kind of stuff all under one roof. We'll see if it works.

The writer stressed that even after all these years of working in the industry, the magic of comics hasn't been lost on him yet.

"I've sort of sworn to myself that the day that that's not special is the day I'll stop, you know?" says Fraction. "But it's always amazing. I feel like it was at a grocery store and I feel like I was in a stroller or a shopping [cart]? It was somewhere that I could reach, is my memory. But I was literally 3, so I'm not entirely sure. There is something profound in it for me in that I really do feel that this is the character that brought me in, and then I wouldn't be here sort of without it, at least not in this way. You know what's going to happen when the comps come out, is it will finally become real. It doesn't really feel real yet. As far as into it as I'm in and as much as I've done."

For a time, Fraction was a full-time comics writer, but as his career has progressed, he's writing as much outside of comics as in. And while we can call that progress, Fraction says he has missed it.

"Oh, yeah, I missed them terribly. I like television. I had fun. Have fun. I'm still working in television, but it's also like flood water and it just takes all the space you can give it," says Fraction. " And you know, I lived in Vancouver for six months shooting a show, and there’s budgets and locations and studios and networks and all these. It's so collaborative, which is great, but can also be supremely frustrating, especially when this thing that I do by myself in my head whenever and wherever I want, and then three weeks later, it shows up at my house and then goes out into the world – it’s great. And not that comics aren't collaborative, but like it's a smaller circle. It’s me and an artist and an editor and a colorist and a letterer. And we all work together and that's it. We're the group."

And personally, I think for a storied character like Batman, he needs a writer with this kind of attitude. There have been so many Batman stories, beyond just his eponymous comic book series.

"So I'm trying to write a love letter to this insane industry and beautiful medium and all of the lunatics like us that have found a calling in it, you know. It is yet to actually feel like work, it is all a labor of love at this point, and I'm just having the time of my life."

He is vengeance, he is the night, he is... one of Popverse's favorite subjects. Learn how to do a Dark Knight movie marathon right with our Batman movie guide, and for the true World's Greatest Detectives out there, dive deep into the heart of Gotham City by getting to know Batman with Popverse. Here are some of our latest Batman stories:

• Batman and his prank war side from Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen days will pop out some in Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez's upcoming DC relaunch
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• DC's Batman teams up with Inception storyboard artist Gabriel Hardman for R-rated "open class warfare" story pitting the Dark Knight vs. Green Arrow and the Question