Misty, water-colored memories of 'Batman: Hush'

It's far too soon for a Batman: Hush retrospective, you say? Not so, says UGO.com, which looks back at DC Comics' Big Event of 2003. Included are reviews of the two collected volumes, an annotated guide, and an interview with writer Jeph Loeb:

UGO: A few years ago, there was a television series called Murder One, in which a mystery was spread over an entire season. Though I can't be sure, I'll go to my grave convinced the writers changed their minds about who they would have the killer turn out to be in mid-season. This may be asking you to give away some writing secrets, but with an epic like Hush, spread over twelve months, did it unfold exactly as planned from day one? Or did you tweak it as it went?

Jeph: A lot of it I couldn't tweak, because the pages were drawn, inked and lettered. For me, that's fairly frustrating because I like to see where the story goes with the reader and find new ways to explore endings. But, despite anyone's supposition, the end of Hush was done before we started. It's in the original proposal. The same holds true for Long Halloween and Dark Victory. Whenever anybody takes on a yearlong story, you run the risk that the readership is going to abandon you, but you can't stop! I trusted Jim and he trusted me. We're thrilled it worked out as well as it did.