Ever wondered where on the Internet you could interrogate a comic book writer? Without having to wade through threads full on third grade level diatribes on the DC Boards?

Well, I’m here for you with my pitiful knowledge on the subject.

If you don’t know about Comic Bloc, a lot of professionals hang out there, including Geoff Johns, Gail Simone, Sean McKeever, J Torres and many, many more. Gail’s most often in the Wonder Woman section or the her own personal forum. That is correct, many creators have their own personal forums and can be contacted there. The list is: Geoff Johns, Ron Marz, Greg Rucka, James Robinson, Peter Tomasi, J Torres, Simone Bianchi, Leonard Kirk, Scott Kolins, Don Kramer, Rags Morales, Todd Nauck, Steve Sadowski, Gail Simone, Beau Smith, and Ethan Van Schiver.

The forum’s rather civil too, though I personally find most of the members constant “look on the bright side, suck up to everyone” attitude sickening after a while, but this is because I am an extremely cynical, surly and mean, young-girly robot.

Now, most of you probably know about this. But also be aware that there’s a Q & A thread for Sean McKeever about Teen Titans which he answers quite regularly here and one Fabian Nicieza also answers about Robin here. This thread is actually a knock off of a bigger one on the DC Boards, which is very interesting if you’re a fan of Robin.

This thread is available here.

I am a huge Spoiler fan so most all of my questions to Fabian Niciezea are about her and you’re just going to have to deal with that.

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CyberNev: Steph’s not going to become a villain is she? Sorry, I’m paranoid after what happened to Cassandra Cain and the “different role” thing has my mind jumping to conclusions.

Fabian Nicieza: Define villain? No. She won’t be a villain or go through what Batgirl did. She will be forced into a role that places a lot of pressure on her relationship with Tim. Or, better said, sometimes love just isn’t enough…

CN: Will her former Robin-hood ever be mentioned or play into anything?

FN: I don’t know what you mean by that.

CN: By my question I meant if the fact she was formerly Robin would be important in any way to upcoming storylines, since you mentioned you saw all the Robins as a tapestry?

FN: Oh, okay. Got it. No, Steph’s time as Robin won’t play an integral part in the storyline approach, since she will be more comfortable with the role of Spoiler, which I tend to take literally.

Warning: SPOILERS for Robin #177. And yes, I see the pun.

CN: Fabian, is there a reason Steph picked Scarab (Who is Scarab, you ask?) to hire for a yet-to-be-revealed-task and not another person? Will we see some more talking between those two?

FN: Who says she only picked Scarab?

CN: Will Steph show up in the next issue? Is she in all issues you’ve written?

FN: Yes and yes.

CN: Will Tim and Steph ever get to talk like she wants? And are there reasons why she didn’t tell him she wasn’t dead you’re planning on revealing?

FN: I think the Robin/Spoiler special covered all that nicely. I’d rather deal with the ramifications of those decisions.

CN: Does Stephanie get to get in a fight with anyone?

FN: : A little, then maybe a lot.

CN: I guess the $5,000 Steph stole from the Penguin? Was the Robin-a-rang she left one of her old ones?

FN: We’ll find out.

CN: And final question: Where do you see her skill level (in martial arts) as of right now? Has she trained to be better than before she “died”?

FN: I don’t play “level of skill” games, since too many readers want to impose numerical absolutes and dictate storytelling based on those parameters. She is certainly more skilled than she was before her training as Robin, but no where near as skilled as Tim, Jason, Nightwing, Batgirl, Huntress, etc.

Man, you Spoiler nuts are a small, but loyal bunch… makes it hard to juggle a title where half the readers can’t stand a main character and the other half would jump off a bridge for her…

Hard — but fun!

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Fabian Nicieza is a douche, that DC hired to ruin Robin –Slugtron

That’s all I have on the subject…for now. I end the article with this advice: never surrender… your fan entitlement!

(Editors note: Unfortunately, the Spoiler in Robin continuity doesn’t look as cool as the illustration by Joel Priddy I placed into the article above.  I was looking for a picture to place there, though, and his illustration really just leaped out at me.  Visit his site, you won’t be dissapointed.)