One of the faithful Major Spoiler Legion sent me an email the other day, and I sat on it until someone else broke the story, because frankly, I don’t need another C&D. Tony Daniel posted on his blog (and then deleted) some sketches of his Batman and Robin designs. While the designs are nothing spectacular, the notes scribbled on the page are, as Daniel reveals who “wins” the Battle for the Cowl. The reveal isn’t much of a surprise to those who can put two and two together, but if you really want to know, take the jump to read the email we received.
Oh, and SPOILER WARNING AHEAD!
Hey there Stephen,
First of all, just wanted to say that I love major spoilers and have been a reader for a few years now. I’ve commented a few time on stories but have never contacted you guys until now-I wasn’t sure if this was something other people caught or not.
I’m subscribed to Tony Daniel’s blog on my RSS feed. I noticed he updated this morning and, knowing that he had promised to upload his sketches for the Batman and Robin redesigns (his batman one didn’t get chosen but his robin one did), clicked on the link. However, when I got to his blog it gave me an error message saying that the page didn’t exist.
It obviously DID exist at some point, but Mr. Daniel must have deleted it for some reason so I just went back to Goodle Reader and read the entry there. I think I found why he took them down. Enlarging the sketch for his new batman suit i read the notes that were scribbled on the lower right corner of the page.
*Black Bodysuit
*Forearm blades can spring out to 45 degree angle
-otherwise aerodynamic
*Cowl extends around neck for support
etc.The most interesting note, though, was this one:
*Pitch black cape, can envelope Dick and hide him completely
So is this confirmation from the writer of Battle for the Cowl himself that Dick is Batman when the smoke clears? The fact that he removed the post from his blog seems to indicate that it is.
Anyways, just wanted to share this with you guys before anyone else! I saved the images to my hard drive and have attached a copy of each for you guys to take a gander at.
Ah the Internet, always there to reveal our transgressions when we least want them too. If you want to see the page in question, Robot 6 has it, for now…
UPDATE: Seems Tony Daniel “accidentally” posted the image and information on his blog site before taking it down, and once Robot 6 ran the story and image, Tony seems to think sharing information posted publicly on his blog site (and then taken down) was a very bad thing for Robot 6 to do.
A note to the good guys and the bad guys,
No trouble from DC, so I can stop that before it gets any legs right there. But the good folks at CBR have helped me come to the conclusion that I should keep more to myself. Thank them for my permanent radio silence from here on out.
For the record – Jason, Tim and Dick each had their own suit designed by me for BFTC. That’s what was shown, and before I could correct it and put the right images up, people ran with it and made it into something it wasn’t.
I would hope that the good folks didn’t mean to be malicious in posting something I almost immediately took down because I realized it was the wrong image. So for my own good I’m going silent. No more blogs. No more correspondence.
Over and out. For good.
Thanks to everyone who’s visited my blog and supported me. Almost half a million since it began. Maybe when I’m old, drunk and senile I’ll do something again.
Tony S Daniel
So while Google Reader, NewsGator and other aggregators already distributed the content BEFORE Robot 6/CBR ran the story, Mr. Daniel has decided the actions by others is reason enough to delete his blog completely from the Intard-Webs.
Now it’s your turn to discuss.
If you have any tips, or inside information, all you have to do is contact us at podcast@majorspoilers.com
15 Comments
I thought it was common knowledge that he was gonna be the next Batman.
I think Daniel is overreacting. Seriously, it’s his own fault for posting the “wrong” image. Realistically, don’t post preliminary designs of a potentially spoilerific nature until after the story concludes.
Agreed. This is the internet and this mistake has been made by many. If you put something up, it is your fault.
My compliments to you Stephen for holding it. Too often people in the business (or the passion) of presenting news come across a story which, by presenting it, causes more harm than good. They hide behind the phrase “people have a ‘right-to-know'”, ignoring the harm they might cause. Sadly another creative voice is now silent.
I agree with the people who say that it is his responsibility for making a mistake. Now, one way to prevent said mistake from recurring is to disengage in the actions which lead to the mistake. In other words, it is “better safe than sorry” to withdraw oneself from the blogosphere, especially when you work in an industry where “secrets” can be accidentally disclosed or even “changed” so that what you thought was fine for posting yesterday is not anymore due to a managerial decision you weren’t even appraised of. Given all this, I don’t think it is an overreaction to burn his blog-bridge. Mr. Daniel wants to make sure he doesn’t screw up again, and, while it is a bit severe, he has taken steps to be more careful.
I don’t think he needs to stop blogging… He just needs to stop posting work before the story is told. Just hold on to the sketches till the book is published. Easy.
We know Robin = Damien, Batman = Dick, Red Robin = Tim, so what happens to Jason Todd?
What Mike Keller said. Thanks a lot @ssholes.
Anybody who has the variant cover for Battle For The Cowl #1 already knew.
Unless there is a change in color scheme, that is not a drastic redesign. Like everyone else, the folks over at Project Rooftop ( a site dedicated to costume design, not the comic books per se) have correctly assumed who the new Batman is for months. They’ve held a “Batman 2.0” redesign contest, specifically requiring the artists to design a costume for . They just posted the winners and various runners-up, and some of them are freakin’ awesome.
The artists came with different perspectives, and every single one of the top 10 redesigns is worthy of praise for some element. Frankly, I prefer 3-4 of them over what the new Batman will actually be wearing in the comics.
The site is at http://www.tencentticker.com/projectrooftop/ (I hope Major Spoilers doesn’t mind me mentioning it.)
Maybe he just meant that the cape will envelope BATMAN’s dick. And not that Batman with BE Dick.
I’m another one of those folk who feel anyone other than Dick wearing the Batman costume would be a mistake, so I read this tonight and said “Whew.”
That said, Judd Winnick is writing the book – and I’m not going to buy it. I decided that after reading the June solicitations right here on Major Spoilers that I wasn’t going to buy ANY of the Bat-books after Cowl, and I’m only buying that because I’m a chump.
The addition of Damien, I think, has been nothing but a bad idea. Dumb when Morrison did it. And it’s not going to get better as DC adds 127 different writers to the mix. That many cooks in the kitchen will mean at least 50 or so different characterizations of the bad idea.
And they’re going to make Barbara Gordon walk again. How Alan Moore doesn’t enter DC with guns blazing is beyond me.
^ What Dave said.
Thanks, um, duckface.
Btw, leafed though the first issue of Oracle this weekend. Now I don’t know, but I don’t think so either – Really? Are people suffering from paralysis don’t look so, shall we say, fit from the waist down?
I thought it was going to be Bucky. :-(