New Batman & RobinIGN have a new interview up with Grant Morrison regarding his return to the Bat-franchise on the new Batman and Robin title due to be launched after Battle for the Cowl.

It also includes the first colour picture of the new Batman and Robin by Frank Quitely, and looking at it, if Robin’s not Damien, I’ll be really surprised.

Morrison also describes the new team as a reversal of the usual roles, with a lighter Batman and scowling, moody Robin.  As well as that description fitting Damien to a tee, I’d say it adds weight to Dick becoming the new Batman.  Which makes me very happy indeed.

Of course, Dick’s the obvious choice.  He’s the only person DC can be sure could replace Bruce (temporarily) without the fans completely losing the plot.  Tim could perhaps get away with it as well, but if you had to pick one of them, it’d probably be Dick.    The last time Bruce was replaced (Knightfall), there was huge outcry over Dick getting passed over (of course, he had to be for the story they wanted to tell), leading to him getting a shot at the role during the Prodigal storyline (it’ll be interesting to see if this is acknowledged.  Infact, it could be picked up as part of his current unease at the thought of donning the cowl).

It works as well within the DCU, with most of the heroes already knowing and respecting Dick to a large degree, which means I can see him fitting into books like JLA without much grief.  Infact it’ll be interesting to watch the other heroes play off Dick being Batman rather than Bruce.

Over all, I’m really looking forward to this.  I enjoyed the first issue of Battle for the Cowl, and I can see me picking up this Batman and Robin series.  I think Dick and Damien should play off each other well.   I’ll probably also be picking up the Streets of Gotham series at least for a couple of issues just to see what its like, as it sounds like some of the Birds of Prey characters will be turning up there.

I wonder what’ll be the situation with Tim though.  Red Robin seems the current favourite, but I wonder what title he’ll be turning up in.