It looks like Neil Gaiman‘s young son might have inherited his his dad’s fertile imagination. Before he wrote an abundance of best-selling novels, such as Coraline and American Gods, Gaiman got his start with DC Comics, most famously creating The Sandman. The British author has also had a few dalliances with the Batman franchise over the years, too, notably writing Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, centering around the Dark Knight’s funeral.
Now, the celebrated writer has revealed the genuinely brilliant idea for a Batman villain that was just devised by his six-year-old son, Ash. Here’s the direct quote from his son that Gaiman shared on Twitter, much to the delight of his fans:
“Dadda. I just came up with a new Batman villain called Disagreeing Dave. He commits disagreement based crimes. Like if two jewellers are arguing he steals their jewels while they are distracted.”
And, yes, now we know Gaiman’s secret: he gets all of his ideas from his kid. The Simpsons was right.
Disagreeing Dave sounds like the best villain from the 1960s Batman show that we never got. In fact, Ash’s concept isn’t even that far off the actual antagonists that used to operate in the Silver Age. Rainbow Rider, for instance, has a similar ability to manipulate the emotions of others so that he can get away with his crimes. In fact, we’re going to need Matt Reeves to come up with a gritty spin on this character and work him into his plans for The Batman 2.
This isn’t the first time that Gaiman has shared his son’s attempts to beat his dad at his own game. Earlier this year, Gaiman took to Tumblr to post Ash’s story set in the Good Omens universe, in which David Tennant’s Crowley the demon gets up to some mischievous hi-jinks involving tricking his victims into falling into a mud pit. To be honest, we’ll be kind of disappointed if that doesn’t end up happening in GO season two.