Last week, fans were stunned when Eisner Award winning writers J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman announced that they were not only walking off their title ‘Batwoman’ but away from DC as a company, citing last-minute editorial interference. DC wanted the ending of their current story line altered and have shelved the pair’s last two issues, including the next to last which was 100% complete. One of the biggest cuts they wanted was the wedding of Batwoman, Kate Kane and her fiancee Maggie Sawyer.
Fans and blogs immediately jumped to the conclusion that the move was spurred out of homophobia. (The book has won two GLAAD Media Awards for Best Comic Book.) But DC, specifically publisher Dan DiDio, took to Twitter in an attempt to spin things in favor of the company. Specifically, it was declared that DC wasn’t opposed to gay marriage for its characters, it was opposed to marriage period. (Bleeding Cool reports that over the weekend, it was declared that Aquaman and Mera were no longer married and never were, despite constant references to her being his Queen.)
@cjt0805 actually we hope the team change can bring renewed energy to the series. Thanks, DD
— dan didio (@dandidio1) September 6, 2013
@KevinBauer0 @DCComics @JimLee given the longevity of our characters we can’t progress in real time, its the same with all our series. — dan didio (@dandidio1) September 6, 2013
The weekend was packed with tweets attempting to deflect blame from DC and to diminish the loss of the two award-winning writers. Weakening DiDio’s claims of support for the character was his appearance at Baltimore Comic-Con where he attempted to defend what happened, while never referring to Batwoman by her correct name, constantly calling her “Kathy” Kane, the 1950s Batwoman. Here are some examples of the rampant spin-doctoring DiDio attempted over the weekend:
@DaneHellyer @JHWilliamsIII Eisner or not, we need the books to be exciting, entertaining, and part of a shared universe.
— dan didio (@dandidio1) September 6, 2013
@RyanHigginsRyan A solid two year run plus sounds stable to me and change is good to bring renewed energy.
— dan didio (@dandidio1) September 6, 2013
@DaneHellyer @JHWilliamsIII and we have supported Batwoman since her introduction in 2006 and will continue to do so. Best, DD
— dan didio (@dandidio1) September 6, 2013
So is this normal growth for the book? Or yet another case of DC and Warner Brothers making things so stifling for its creators that they take a hike?
Gay writer Marc Andreyko takes over writing chores with issue #25. The writer previously wrote the female driven ‘Manhunter’ title. Jeremy Haun will illustrate that issue, but it’s not clear if he will be drawing any subsequent issues.
Will you give Andreyko and Haun’s book a shot? Or are you done with ‘Batwoman’? Or even DC as a company? Or do you feel this is the nature of comics? Comment below.
