Now this is an interesting concept; bring Stan Lee and give him the DC characters to develop in the way that only Stan lee can do, and to boot allow top artists to collaborate with Stan in his re-invention of the main DC characters.
Starting with Batman we see a cross of Marvel's Spider-man and DC's Batman with the magic art of Joe Kubert. The magic of Joe Kubert is needed to give us a great Batman that will standout in our memories as we read the story of an alternate origin to the Batman character.
To have made Bruce an African-American adds a diverse perspective, which takes the transformation of boy to man to superhero take place in an environment unfortunately not alien to the African-American experience, much like it would Canadian Natives if the story had to take place in Canada, due to the overwhelming over representation of this minority group in the penal system. Stan is making a social comments in having Batman be of this minority group; a brave an commendable move from his part.