We’ve already seen a slew of big stories coming out of the 2015 San Diego Comic Con, with the premiere of the Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer proving the most earth-shaking thus far. While we knew Marvel Studios would not be in attendance, what about the man responsible for their most successful movies, The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron writer/director Joss Whedon?
Whedon is one of the most beloved figures in the realm of geekdom, having created the fan-beloved Firefly and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer shows. His sophomore feature film was Marvel’s first All-Star Superhero Jam The Avengers, which pulled together their previous superhero origin films and set the stage for the future of the still-expanding MCU.
Marvel Studios may be skipping SDCC this year (and will not return to the MCU anytime soon), but Whedon showed up (via THR), acknowledging the “interesting time” he’s had since his last SDCC appearance and saying: “I feel like, five years ago, a tornado ripped up my house and dropped it in the land of Marvel. It’s been a weird time.”
Rather than plugging a movie, Whedon, who has written some notable comic book runs for the likes of Astonishing X-Men and Runaways and stated he wanted to “get back to something I loved very much, which is putting my hand to a comic book again.” This time, he had an all-new comic property to unveil: a six-issue series from Dark Horse Comics which will be titled Twist.
The premise? According to Whedon:
“It basically deals with the most important question there is, which is why isn’t there a Victorian female Batman?”
Whedon shared the Twist promo art below:
Once the question is posed, one must admit that Whedon has a point. Why isn’t there a character like this? Whedon did not share any plot details, but a “Victorian female Batman” suggests that we can perhaps expect a wealthy, strong-willed heroine who takes on the criminal element on her own terms, and that’s just for starters. Knowing Whedon, there’s bound to be much more we won’t see coming.
When it comes to strong female protagonists, few other filmmakers have Whedon’s track record. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Natasha ‘Black Widow’ Romanoff, powerful woman characters have been a staple of Whedon’s oeuvre from the very beginning – at SDCC he called Buffy “the beating heart” of everything he does (via io9). If anyone can bring Victorian-era, lady Batman to captivating life, it’s Whedon… and with his days at Marvel possibly behind him – he’s vague about what else he’s working on – we might see a live-action Twist down the line, should the property take off.
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Joss Whedon’s Twist will be published by Dark Horse Comics.
