Background
At the time of publication, the 53 year old Andrew Vachss worked as an attorney, in New York City, specializing in child abuse cases and writing novels. The duality of Vachss's work as a lawyer prosecuting and defending real cases and as a crime fiction author exploring fictional criminals resulted in Vachss being compared to the Bruce Wayne/Batman character. Vachss's eighth novel, Footsteps of the Hawk, in the Burke series featuring a vigilante private investigator of child abuse cases, was released just two month before the publication of Batman: The Ultimate Evil. He had wanted to approach the topic of sex tourism in southeast Asia, but had been unable to find a way for the Burke character to go there; the Batman character offered the chance for him to write about the topic.
Vachss had previously worked with Dark Horse Comics to produce a ten-issue series (1992–1993) titled Hard Looks. Steve Korte of DC Comics's book division approached Vacchs with the possibility of a partnership. Vachss was hesitant about using creative property that belonged to someone else but recognized the opportunity to reach a new audience. He started writing the novel, on speculation, and DC Comics eventually agreed to the project, allowing Vachss to take some creative liberties.
Read more about this topic: Batman: The Ultimate Evil
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