Dynasty: A Batman Tale Introduction

Dynasty: A Batman Tale is a work of Fan Fiction. As the author of this story, I must disclose no association with DC Comics. Batman is a creation of Bob Kane and Bill Finger.

Seven years ago, I suddenly had an idea for a Batman story. I was fascinated with the dichotomy between Bruce Wayne and Batman and the philosophy for not killing in the latter. I envisioned how I wanted the story to end, I just had to come up with the rest. I imagined a finite story encompassing the reimagined origins of certain characters in the Dark Knight’s mythology. ( I most certainly took a number of liberties ) Taking inspiration from Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, I wanted to set this story in a reality based environment, hence no superpowers. Giving the story a mature tone was important as well, there is adult language and violent content, so reader discretion is advised.

I also drew inspiration from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, in the way he authored each book’s chapters through a particular character’s point of view. Dynasty conveys the saga of Batman and Joker through the eyes of the supporting characters.

I wasn’t sure what to do with my story since it was Fan Fiction. I figured publishing and profiting from it was impossible because these are DC characters and obviously not my own. I just wanted people to read it, so I did the logical thing, I stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it for years.

Fast forward to now 2021. I don’t need to tell you about the year and a half we’ve had. Hopefully the world will go back to normal soon, but during this time, I found Vocal, and saw it as an opportunity to find readers, so I opened the drawer and after a thorough reading, I realized Dynasty was incomplete. As it turned out, the years away from the story allowed me to return with fresh eyes and rewrite and edit a tale that I am proud of.

When I first initially finished writing, (We’ll call it the vomit) draft, I was hosting a live show broadcast on Facebook called “The Meathead Show” where I interviewed a number of people from many different industries. Hold on, let me back up a minute and give you a quick bio.

I had spent 15 years on the radio, ten of which were spent hosting a daily morning show, but like all things, that career came to an end and I decided to go back to school to become a Public Speaking, Communications professor. (As of this writing, I’m gearing up for Graduate School) However, a friend started a video studio (Canoodle Studios) capable of broadcasting live and offered me a show. Boom! Now we’re caught up.

On this live video Facebook show, I spoke with comic artist John Broglia, and I essentially tried to pitch him my Batman story. I say try, because I didn’t want to give too much away. It’s for the reader to discover, but having this story in a graphic novel format is something I’d love to pursue, the visuals I pictured as I wrote, I think (could be biased) would be wicked awesome, but I digress. Speaking with John, he gave me some first class advice, that naturally I didn’t take at the time. He said, “Don’t do Batman. Create your own original character.” Problem was I had already written the story, and stories are meant to be shared and read or told. So good news is after so many years, I have taken John’s advice and am currently working on a few original character driven ideas and hope to have you read them instead of throwing them in another drawer.

Funny side note, as I was writing Dynasty, it was originally titled Endgame, (years before Marvel‘s Avenger film) but I was soon to find out that acclaimed comic writer Scott Snyder was just about to release his latest Batman title, you guessed it, Endgame! Blessing in disguise, looking back at the essence of my story and the lifetime it spans, it wasn’t an Endgame it was about Dynasty.

There are 25 parts including the prologue and epilogues.

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