The next Batman will be black, DC Comics has announced

The son of Lucious Fox will become the Batman of the future

The next person to pick up the cowl of Batman in the comic books will black, DC Comics has announced. The new series, set in a future Gotham City where Batman is dead and superheroes are outlawed, with see the son of Bruce Wayne’s business manager Lucius Fox take up the identity of the Dark Knight. Tim Fox will take on the evil Magistrate, who has taken over Gotham City. It will be written by John Ridley, the screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave, and feature art by Nick Derington and Laura Braga. The Oscar-winning writer said that he was most excited for his two sons to read it. "They appreciate the things that I do. They’re happy for me. They’re great supporters. But they would much rather see Black Panther than 12 Years a Slave, let’s be honest," Ridley previously said in an interview with the New York Times. "So to be able to write the next Batman, for them to know that this next Batman is going to be black, everybody else on the planet can hate it, have a problem with it, denigrate it, but I have my audience and they already love it." The new Batman will be introduced as part of DC Comic's Future State event, with characters taking the roles of the company's most iconic superheroes. The four-issue series Future State: The Next Batman will be published in January. In 2009, DC introduced Calvin Ellis, an alternate-universe African-American Superman who was also President of the United States in his reality. Writer and co-creator Grant Morrison later confirmed that Ellis was of course inspired by Barack Obama. In 2001, Spider-Man co-creator and Marvel legend Stan Lee wrote a series of one-off re-imaginings of classic DC characters. His take on Batman the African American Wayne Williams, drawn by veteran artist Joe Kubert.