Welcome to From the Batman News Desk, a new series of op-eds and articles covering various aspects of Batman history. Each week one of the Batman News writers will share their thoughts on Batman characters and concepts across comics, film, television, and more.
Twenty-five years ago, a one-shot Batman story came out off the tail end of the No Man’s Land epic. Written by Christopher Priest, illustrated by Shawn Martinbrough, inked by Martinbrough and John Lowe, colored by Ben Dimagmaliw, and lettered by John Costanza, Batman: The Hill has quietly become one of the more influential Batman stories from the turn of the 21st Century.
With a focus on the titular Gotham neighborhood the Hill, the story finds Batman and Commissioner Gordon trying to protect a part of the city where the citizens feel overlooked and unwanted… and sadly, they may be right. With an influence on Batman Begins and a newfound prominence in modern comics, The Hill was grounded and real, in more ways than one.
To commemorate the comic’s anniversary, we had the distinct pleasure of speaking with editor Joseph Illidge about the story and his illustrious career in the comics industry. Jackson will be back next week with the next installment of his “Batman on Trial” series, so enjoy this special installment of From The Batman News Desk.
Batman News: How did you come to work as an editor at DC, and on the Bat-books in particular?
Joseph Illidge: My first tour of duty in DC Editorial was a three-month stint as an Assistant Editor through a temp agency. I worked on a variety of books, from Green Lantern to Chase to Resurrection Man. During that time, I developed relationships throughout all of Editorial and gained a reputation for having great organizational skills and a collaborative attitude.
About six months after that temp run ended, Scott Peterson, the #2 guy in Batman Editorial, announced that he was leaving DC Comics, so the Bat crew needed more support, and specifically an Associate Editor.
Editor Jordan Gorfinkel offered me the job on behalf of the team, and it was the opportunity of a lifetime, so I said “Yes” and leaped into Gotham!
BN: You’ve said you inherited this story from Gorfinkel. How did that come about, and how did it originate with him?
JI: Jordan was the acquiring editor for Batman: The Hill, meaning he brought it to the company and got it approved, and took it through to the black and white art stage. I became aware of the book before I joined Batman Editorial, so it was on my radar.
During the middle of the year-long Batman: No Man’s Land event, Jordan decided to leave the 9-to-5 of Gotham City life to pursue writing full time, so in addition to inheriting the Birds of Prey title, Batman: The Hill became my responsibility.
The larger story is that due to Batman: No Man’s Land changing the status quo of Gotham City, various stories were rendered obsolete due to story content and were shelved, never to see publication.
BN: So did The Hill have to be reworked in any way, to escape obsolescence?
JI: Batman: The Hill was going to be one of the casualties, but I had an emotional connection to the story. I knew it was an important book with the potential for long-ranging impact on the mythology of Gotham and our understanding of Batman in general, so I pulled the book out of purgatory, brought letterer John Costanza and colorist Ben Dimagmaliw on board, had the cover colored and worked with the art department to give the book a title treatment, and pushed it through to completion as part of the year 2000’s publication schedule.
Turns out the story’s ultimate core idea of personal civic responsibility in the face of malevolent power would be explored further in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins film five years later, so I feel that Batman: The Hill was ahead of the curve in that respect. The idea of a never-ending war on crime can only go so far without an evergreen theme within the mythology, and civic responsibility never goes out of style.
BN: Was it always intended as a one-shot?
JI: Yes, Batman: The Hill was always slated by DC Comics as a one-shot story, and the Bat Department did a number of those, including Batman: Bullock’s Law, which was my first project when I joined Batman Editorial.
BN: The book has quite a creative team, most of whom continue to make waves in comics today. How did you bring them together?
JI: Jordan brought Priest, Martinbrough, and co-inker John Lowe on board. I brought Costanza and Dimagmaliw. It was a team effort in front of and behind the scenes.
BN: What was it like working with Denny O’Neil? Did you have to abide by particular editorial constraints, or were you given more freedom since this wasn’t one of the monthly ongoings?
JI: Working with Denny was a masterclass every day when it came to story, editing scripts, and talking with writers to collaboratively make the stories top-level. For the two of us, he gave me total freedom when it came to picking the visual team: penciler, inker, colorist, letterer. So I worked with him on script editing and continuity, and had editorial autonomy in recruiting the artists and letterers for titles ranging from Detective Comics to Batman: Gotham Knights.
We were both quite happy with the results! Getting to work with artistic talents like John Watkiss (RIP), Will Rosado, and Phil Hester helped make that run of Detective Comics a beloved era of Batman to this very day, which is pretty heartwarming.
BN: Throughout the 90s, Batman was treated more like an urban legend or a hoax as opposed to an actual presence in Gotham. At least in part, that’s how Priest approached him in The Hill as well. Did that status quo change the direction of the story at any point, or was it there from the beginning?
JI: It’s interesting because both Batman: The Hill and Batman: No Man’s Land converged on this idea thematically in different ways. In Batman: No Man’s Land, the legend had to be recreated and Batman needed to be seen by enough people so that he was as tangible as his enemies, whereas in Batman: The Hill, the absence of Batman’s legend in the neighborhood of The Hill meant its inhabitants either became self-reliant or succumbed to the power of other legends, like the ultimate crimelord in town. A crimelord without a codename or a costume, but with the influence and insidious menace of a Joker or a Penguin.
BN: Around the time The Hill was published, Shawn Martinbrough was also the penciler on Detective Comics. The coloring there was a beautiful, striking minimalist style using a tricolor palette. Benedict Dimagmaliw’s colors were no less impressive, if not a more traditional style. Do you recall if pairing Martinbrough with a different colorist was a deliberate choice to differentiate this book from Detective?
JI: Yes, it was Shawn’s work on Batman: The Hill that I took to Denny and the higher-ups in DC Editorial to get him on board as the new monthly artist of Greg Rucka’s Detective Comics run, and there was a clear need from the point of view of Art Director Mark Chiarello to have the series be a crime noir book more akin to French graphic novels. It was in 1999 that Jim Lee sold Wildstorm Studios and the Wildstorm Universe of characters to DC Comics, so Mark used the opportunity to envision Detective Comics as a minimal-color palette series. Mark and I chose the colors for each story arc or single issue, and worked closely with the colorists at Wildstorm to give Detective Comics its distinctive style within the Batman line of books and DC’s superhero line in general.
BN: Much of the story’s impact comes from the fact that, aside from Batman, Gordon, and Alfred, the featured characters are normal Gotham citizens. Was this always the plan? Were there ever discussions to include any “name” villains and other recognizable characters?
JI: The Hill was a neighborhood that resembled the real world more closely than the rest of Gotham, so the story of Batman: The Hill had to be devoid of recognizable costumed villains to stand out thematically from the usual Batman stories.
BN: Considering how relevant this story has remained over the years, is there anything you would change if it were published today?
JI: Comic books are like Jenga. Change one element, and you put the entire construct in peril. The formula of creativity and timing of Batman: The Hill makes it a one-of-a-kind book, so I wouldn’t change a thing.
BN: What went into developing a new side of Gotham that had never been seen before? Was there anything specific you wanted to highlight as central to The Hill's identity?
JI: Christopher Priest can speak to this on the micro level. From my standpoint, what’s central to The Hill’s identity in the story is how the psychological malaise of The Hill’s desensitized populace made it easy for one strong personality to reign supreme and unchallenged. Demetrius Korlee was the voice of God, both benevolent and wrathful. A combination of Senator Clay Davis and crimelord Marlo Stanfield from HBO’s The Wire.
BN: How did the work environments at Milestone and DC compare back in the day?
JI: Both work environments were amazingly collaborative, as Milestone’s Co-Founder and E-I-C Dwayne McDuffie and Batman Group Editor Denny O’Neil invited group involvement from their editors while giving us room to shepherd our books creatively.
I think DC Comics was more like being on The Justice Society, with everyone as part of a huge Masonic lodge of workers with different perspectives, whereas Milestone was more like the X-Men as crusaders who could just as easily play baseball together as we could fight The Sentinels.
BN: How about today, with Milestone characters having a large presence in DC’s lineup?
JI: It was great for me as a writer to use Superman’s enemy, Brainiac, as the catalyst for Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet, to show how someone from the DCU could become the bogeyman of Milestone’s Dakotaverse of heroes.
Seeing baby Icon land in the DC Universe in 1839 on the pages of New History of the DC Universe was quite the thrill. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s ahead for this fusion of both worlds.
BN: In addition to The Hill, you were on the editorial staff for quite a few Bat-family titles. Do you have any stories or anecdotes you'd like to share about those experiences?
JI: Gosh, too many.
For example, I became the Associate Editor on Catwoman during a 3-part storyline with The Joker. Pages came in during my first two weeks on the job, and the colorist made the Joker’s lips blue.
I grew up on a good dose of Batman and knew The Joker’s lips were red, but since I was the new guy, I didn’t want to contradict the colorist, figuring there was a story reason for the change.
Well, that led to a heated email from someone in the art department to Batman Editorial, exclaiming that the pages went to a proof stage at the printer and DC would have to pay extra money to get that fixed and who, oh who was responsible for this insane blunder.
I could feel the anvil fall in my stomach and my Bat-status going into the toilet in real time, but Jordan Gorfinkel took the bullet for me with the art department, which is one of the reasons we’re friends to this day.
It was on that day I realized Batman, Gotham City, and all the related characters were Intellectual Properties with rules that were sacrosanct.
Another time, I’ll tell you how my unwavering defense of Batman as intellectual property led to two issues of Grant Morrison’s Justice League getting changed in the stories.
BN: Oh, I’ll definitely hold you to that. In the meantime, do you have any upcoming projects you can tease?
JI: In addition to Bloodletter, the Spawn Universe series I’m co-writing with Tim Seeley for Todd McFarlane Productions and Image Comics, and a new creator-owned series coming from a Top 5 comic book publisher in 2026, my big project these days is my production and creative services company, Illuminous.
Illuminous provides editorial services to clients, companies, and creators looking to introduce their original ideas to the world as comic books and graphic novels with longform potential. Being able to use my decades of expertise working on high-profile IP from Batman to Heavy Metal and offer creators the opportunity to ignite their IP with the highest standards of character development, worldbuilding, and brand management is the promise.
Comics needs more longform stories with formidability, so we can get the next Invincible, Something Is Killing The Children, and Iyanu, Child of Wonder from bright minds out there looking for Batman-level creative guidance.
BN: In regards to The Hill, what do you hope readers take away from the story, thematically speaking?
JI: Don’t look for someone else to save you. The hero you’re looking for to change the world? That person’s in your mirror.
BN: Is there anything else you’d like to share, before we go?
JI: The same way the idea of found family is at the core of the Batman mythos, it’s at the core of comics and our community.
We’re all crusaders of the artform and the stories.
BN: Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions, Joseph.
JI: You’re welcome, and thanks for having me!
You can read Batman: The Hill on DC Universe Infinite, or by searching back issue collections at local comic shops.
