Artwork by Tony S. Daniel and Tomeu Morey.

By Alex Batts — In celebration of Saturday’s Batman Day, DC Comics announced the next creative team for its flagship Batman comic. Writer James Tynion IV, artist Tony S. Daniel, inker Danny Miki, and colorist Tomeu Morey will be stepping on board with Batman #86 in January 2020. We’ve known for a while that a new creative team would be coming, and the Internet has run wild with speculation, but now that we’ve got confirmation, I think it’s time to take a closer look at these creators, specifically focus on prior experience writing Batman stories.

If any (or all) of these names sound familiar, it’s because they’re some of the biggest (and best at what they do) in superhero comics. These four are all also not new to Batman. Tynion started as a scribe underneath Scott Snyder during the New 52 era, helping with the writing for a lot of the massive Batman: Eternal storyline. Eventually, he also penned the sequel series Batman & Robin: Eternal, which released in the fall of 2015. He wrote the final issue of the New 52 Batman series, which was Batman #52, of course.

After DC’s Rebirth relaunch, Tynion made an even bigger name for himself in Gotham City by helming what has now become a fan favorite run on Detective Comics, spanning from issue #934 to #981. Tynion’s work on that book involved a large cast of Bat-characters and many memorable arcs. Tynion was also one of the writers selected to have a story in the landmark Detective Comics #1000. Currently, Tynion is writing the critically-acclaimed Justice League: Dark comic, which launched as a part of the New Justice initiative in June 2018. In other words, Tynion has a very impressive resume within DC Comics so far, one that often has involved telling great stories with the Caped Crusader.

The next two creators go hand in hand, artist Tony S. Daniel and colorist Tomeu Morey. Daniel has been drawing The Dark Knight for well over a decade, first providing art for Batman #670 way back in the fall of 2007. Since then he’s worked on a plethora of Batman titles and is responsible for so many iconic Batman images. He’s the artist behind Grant Morrison’s epic Batman: R.I.P. story arc. He wrote and drew the Battle for the Cowl series, was the artist on Detective Comics for a while at the start of the New 52, and has been a frequent collaborator of Tom King during King’s work on Batman.

Tomeu Morey has also been involved with the World’s Greatest Detective for a while, providing colors for Daniel’s pencils during the New 52 Detective Comics series and has since worked frequently with Daniel. Morey has been the one to color Daniel’s work throughout King’s run on Batman, and the pair have a proven track record of working exceptionally well together. Besides working with Daniel, Morey also provides colors for Clay Mann’s art, and the results there have been just as gorgeous. Morey is simply one of the best colorists in the business.

The final member of the art team is inker Danny Miki. Miki is an industry veteran who has worked on way too many famous titles to list here. His first work on Batman was for The Batman Chronicles #9 all the way back in January 1997. He’s probably most famous for his work during Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s run on Batman, during which he came on with issue #19 and finished out the run. Miki also provided inks several times during New 52 Detective Comics, Batman/Superman and a variety of other titles. He worked on All-Star Batman with Snyder, providing inks for John Romita Jr., and he has also collaborated with David Finch and Tony Daniel during King’s run on the main Batman title. So, like the rest of the creative team, Miki is no stranger to Batman and has a long resume of incredible work.

All in all, this is a stacked creative team, especially when it comes to telling stories with Batman. From the official press release and the creator’s reactions on Twitter, you can feel their excitement to be working on the main Batman title starting in 2020. They’ve more than proven they all know how to handle the Caped Crusader individually and putting them together seems like a perfect recipe for success. I myself am extremely excited to see what they have in store and am sure many fans are going to be happy with what they bring to the table.

Alex Batts is from Texas. A lifelong comic book enthusiast and movie lover, if he’s not talking about comics, he’s probably not talking. You can find him on Twitter by following @BatmanFiles