Any actor worth his salt will go to great lengths to immerse himself in his character’s backstory and get a firm grasp on what led him to his current situation. There are certain characters whose backstories are so compelling that the artist feels compelled to provide readers with even more information. Paul Dano revealed back in March that he will be writing a comic book titled The Riddler: Year One, which would detail the villain’s backstory and how he came to be the antagonist in The Batman. Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) was put to the test by the Riddler, a criminal who plagued Gotham City by leaving riddles as clues to his next victim. Both Dano and the series’s artist, Stevan Subic, contributed to the spinoff’s genesis narrative, which will be published in a six-issue bimonthly limited DC Black Label comic book series.
The protagonist, a young Edward Nashton, recounts the events that led to his becoming one of Batman’s most fearsome adversaries. DC Comics published a video with Dano and The Batman director Matt Reeves discussing the origins of the comic book in honour of the first issue. Dano says in the video that he and director Matt Reeves talked extensively about the Riddler’s backstory (Reeves co-wrote the film’s screenplay with Peter Craig) and that Reeves was impressed by Dano’s investigation into the character.
Dano discussed the villain’s isolated childhood and what it’s like to inhabit the villain’s head in the video: “The opportunity to indulge my inner nerd and learn so much about Batman’s background captured my attention. The goal here was to take a very first-person perspective, thus most of this is focused on Edward Nashton’s thoughts and feelings. And I’ve always had the impression that Edward Nashton’s primary source of self-validation was through his success at various puzzles and games.” Similarities exist between The Riddler: Year One and another well-known DC comic book set in the same universe: Batman: Year One, a retelling of Bruce Wayne’s origin tale written by Frank Miller (Sin City) and published in 1986, quickly became one of the most famous stories of the superhero and served as inspiration for Christopher Nolan’s 2005 film Batman Begins.
The Riddler Annual #1 is now in stores everywhere!