comickal: ... well, hell
DC seems to be having itself a month, doesn't it? And not necessarily in the good way, either. Simone moves off Wonder Woman (though to reboot Birds of Prey, which many will think a worthwhile exchange -- having never read the latter, I can't say); Palmiotti, Gray and Conner leave Power Girl in June, and now this.
Greg Rucka Finished At DC, Off Batwoman [Wondercon]
Apr 2nd 2010
By: David Brothers (comicsalliance.com)
During his spotlight panel at Wondercon, moderated by our own Laura Hudson, Greg Rucka dropped a bombshell. He has been out of exclusive with DC Comics for three years, despite spending those three years working exclusively with DC, and his time with them is over. He just turned in the last of his DC work for the foreseeable future, and his time with Kate Kane is done. He reiterated his love for the character, saying that walking away from her was an incredibly hard decision to make, but one that was necessary....
The Complete Greg Rucka Wondercon Panel Transcript [Wondercon]
Apr 5th 2010
By: Laura Hudson (comicsalliance.com)
[...]LH: I solicited questions from Twitter, and they overwhelmingly asked the same question: What's happening with "Batwoman"?
GR: I don't know. I finished my last of my DC work yesterday, and I'm not currently doing anything for DC right now. I love the character; I would love to continue working with the character, but at the same time I'm sort of needing to step back from my DC work in general. I suspect that we'll come back to her at some point. I don't know if that's going to be something that Jim and I do together. I am not sure what Jim's plans are. I want to keep working with him, and I believe that's mutual. There is more to tell. There's a whole five-part story broken down that is really the last of -- "Elegy" was supposed to be four issues; there were supposed to be three issues that were "Go," and then there was a five-part story that Jim and I had, but because of a variety of things in-house at DC, we were moved out of "Detecitve [Comics]" and we couldn't tell the story there. So there's a concluding story that's basically Alice's origin story. It's what happened to Elizabeth. I don't know if we'll ever get to do it. I have been around in this industry long enough to never say never....
Nothing More, Nothing Less (gregrucka.com)
April 3rd, 2010
[...] So, if you’re a fan of my work in the field of comics, you’ve most likely heard the news that I’m no longer doing work for DC. I’m told that speculation is flying fast and furious as to why this is, and apparently, even despite my on-the-record comments, it continues.
There is no drama here, folks. It is as it appears. I’m stepping away from DC to pursue different opportunities. Nothing more nefarious than that. Nothing less sinister. Time is a commodity that is as precious to me as it is rare, and there’s simply not enough of it....
According to a tag at the end of a piece at blog@Newsarama, DC says that while they'd like Rucka to continue to write the character, they're not planning to shelve the series that they had talked about. (Though, once again, it's worth noting that the series -- or miniseries; that was never clear either -- hadn't had a release date even before Rucka decided to concentrate on his other work.)
Assuming that DC is being up-front and truly is planning to go ahead with the character, it's going to be interesting to see what happens now. If I understand the structure of how things were to happen, Batwoman was supposed to move out of Detective ... well, now, actually, with the last issue of "The Cutter", which shipped last week. We were supposed to start a new ongoing/miniseries that would be the origin story of Alice/Beth -- what happened after she was kidnapped. Renee Montoya as the Question was supposed to take over Detective for a few issues to close out the human trafficking arc that she's investigating; it wasn't clear from what I'd seen whether Batwoman would become a B-feature for the length of that run, but it sounded more like she would simply not appear at all. I'm guessing those issues have been written and possibly illustrated at this point, since otherwise it would leave Detective stranded without any content for possibly several months to come.
My guess -- and, of course, it's only a guess -- is that assuming what I understand of the schedule to be accurate, instead of moving Batwoman to her own title and picking up on the origin of Beth, they may leave Kate/Batwoman where she is, and find a new writer to pick up on the rather startling last page of the last issue of Detective. For that matter, without getting into Alice/Beth's origin, they can get into what the Religion of Crime will think when they discover that Kate's made the acquaintance of a Lazarus pool; I should think that would get certain knickers in a complete twist.
I do wonder who they'll get to write her. Rucka mentioned in the above-linked transcript that he'd wanted to create a character that anyone could write, that it wouldn't be so strongly linked to a single creator. To a certain extent, at least, he's succeeded; Morrison put her in Batman and Robin and it didn't feel as though she were a completely different character or anything like that. (Mind, there was the timeline and story-related question of just what the hell she was doing there in the first place, but that's somewhat beside the point.) That said, I can't imagine that Morrison would pick up yet one more thing; he's got Batman and Robin, plus he's essentially controlling the direction of the entire Bat section of the DCU. (Yes, I realize that there's an editor for that. Nonetheless, Batman and Robin is the lynchpin of just about everything Gotham-related except the forthcoming Birds of Prey -- which, oddly enough, will include the recently-resurrected Hawk and Dove, as well as Oracle (between this and Batgirl, she's going to be insanely busy) and which is tied to Brightest Day. (Speculation about Brightest Day being tied to The Return of Bruce Wayne aside.) Andreyko would do a good job with it, I think, although Batwoman is actually a darker title than Manhunter -- which, considering as Manhunter features one of the only two DCU heroes who will kill if she feels it necessary, is saying quite something. (The other one being, of course, Wonder Woman. I wonder if it says anything at all that the two heroes of the DCU who will kill are both women. Also, now that Manhunter is in Gotham, I'll bet that they're very careful not to have her go up against the Joker -- she wouldn't hesitate to put him down like a rabid dog. But I digress.)
I've seen a few people here and there baying "homophobia! DC is getting rid of the lesbians!" However, it's worth noting that, at least somewhat, whatever DC does with the characters is driven by the fact that they lost their writer. THAT said, DC seems oddly unprepared to replace him, or at least to announce who they're replacing him with.
In any event, it's going to be interesting to see what happens with Batwoman from here. If anything, of course.
This entry was originally posted at http://iainpj.dreamwidth.org/2145.html, where there are
comments.
Greg Rucka Finished At DC, Off Batwoman [Wondercon]
Apr 2nd 2010
By: David Brothers (comicsalliance.com)
During his spotlight panel at Wondercon, moderated by our own Laura Hudson, Greg Rucka dropped a bombshell. He has been out of exclusive with DC Comics for three years, despite spending those three years working exclusively with DC, and his time with them is over. He just turned in the last of his DC work for the foreseeable future, and his time with Kate Kane is done. He reiterated his love for the character, saying that walking away from her was an incredibly hard decision to make, but one that was necessary....
The Complete Greg Rucka Wondercon Panel Transcript [Wondercon]
Apr 5th 2010
By: Laura Hudson (comicsalliance.com)
[...]LH: I solicited questions from Twitter, and they overwhelmingly asked the same question: What's happening with "Batwoman"?
GR: I don't know. I finished my last of my DC work yesterday, and I'm not currently doing anything for DC right now. I love the character; I would love to continue working with the character, but at the same time I'm sort of needing to step back from my DC work in general. I suspect that we'll come back to her at some point. I don't know if that's going to be something that Jim and I do together. I am not sure what Jim's plans are. I want to keep working with him, and I believe that's mutual. There is more to tell. There's a whole five-part story broken down that is really the last of -- "Elegy" was supposed to be four issues; there were supposed to be three issues that were "Go," and then there was a five-part story that Jim and I had, but because of a variety of things in-house at DC, we were moved out of "Detecitve [Comics]" and we couldn't tell the story there. So there's a concluding story that's basically Alice's origin story. It's what happened to Elizabeth. I don't know if we'll ever get to do it. I have been around in this industry long enough to never say never....
Nothing More, Nothing Less (gregrucka.com)
April 3rd, 2010
[...] So, if you’re a fan of my work in the field of comics, you’ve most likely heard the news that I’m no longer doing work for DC. I’m told that speculation is flying fast and furious as to why this is, and apparently, even despite my on-the-record comments, it continues.
There is no drama here, folks. It is as it appears. I’m stepping away from DC to pursue different opportunities. Nothing more nefarious than that. Nothing less sinister. Time is a commodity that is as precious to me as it is rare, and there’s simply not enough of it....
According to a tag at the end of a piece at blog@Newsarama, DC says that while they'd like Rucka to continue to write the character, they're not planning to shelve the series that they had talked about. (Though, once again, it's worth noting that the series -- or miniseries; that was never clear either -- hadn't had a release date even before Rucka decided to concentrate on his other work.)
Assuming that DC is being up-front and truly is planning to go ahead with the character, it's going to be interesting to see what happens now. If I understand the structure of how things were to happen, Batwoman was supposed to move out of Detective ... well, now, actually, with the last issue of "The Cutter", which shipped last week. We were supposed to start a new ongoing/miniseries that would be the origin story of Alice/Beth -- what happened after she was kidnapped. Renee Montoya as the Question was supposed to take over Detective for a few issues to close out the human trafficking arc that she's investigating; it wasn't clear from what I'd seen whether Batwoman would become a B-feature for the length of that run, but it sounded more like she would simply not appear at all. I'm guessing those issues have been written and possibly illustrated at this point, since otherwise it would leave Detective stranded without any content for possibly several months to come.
My guess -- and, of course, it's only a guess -- is that assuming what I understand of the schedule to be accurate, instead of moving Batwoman to her own title and picking up on the origin of Beth, they may leave Kate/Batwoman where she is, and find a new writer to pick up on the rather startling last page of the last issue of Detective. For that matter, without getting into Alice/Beth's origin, they can get into what the Religion of Crime will think when they discover that Kate's made the acquaintance of a Lazarus pool; I should think that would get certain knickers in a complete twist.
I do wonder who they'll get to write her. Rucka mentioned in the above-linked transcript that he'd wanted to create a character that anyone could write, that it wouldn't be so strongly linked to a single creator. To a certain extent, at least, he's succeeded; Morrison put her in Batman and Robin and it didn't feel as though she were a completely different character or anything like that. (Mind, there was the timeline and story-related question of just what the hell she was doing there in the first place, but that's somewhat beside the point.) That said, I can't imagine that Morrison would pick up yet one more thing; he's got Batman and Robin, plus he's essentially controlling the direction of the entire Bat section of the DCU. (Yes, I realize that there's an editor for that. Nonetheless, Batman and Robin is the lynchpin of just about everything Gotham-related except the forthcoming Birds of Prey -- which, oddly enough, will include the recently-resurrected Hawk and Dove, as well as Oracle (between this and Batgirl, she's going to be insanely busy) and which is tied to Brightest Day. (Speculation about Brightest Day being tied to The Return of Bruce Wayne aside.) Andreyko would do a good job with it, I think, although Batwoman is actually a darker title than Manhunter -- which, considering as Manhunter features one of the only two DCU heroes who will kill if she feels it necessary, is saying quite something. (The other one being, of course, Wonder Woman. I wonder if it says anything at all that the two heroes of the DCU who will kill are both women. Also, now that Manhunter is in Gotham, I'll bet that they're very careful not to have her go up against the Joker -- she wouldn't hesitate to put him down like a rabid dog. But I digress.)
I've seen a few people here and there baying "homophobia! DC is getting rid of the lesbians!" However, it's worth noting that, at least somewhat, whatever DC does with the characters is driven by the fact that they lost their writer. THAT said, DC seems oddly unprepared to replace him, or at least to announce who they're replacing him with.
In any event, it's going to be interesting to see what happens with Batwoman from here. If anything, of course.
This entry was originally posted at http://iainpj.dreamwidth.org/2145.html, where there are
comments.