Comics Alliance is reporting that Greg Rucka has written his last pages for DC Comics for the foreseeable future, and that his work on Batwoman is now a thing of the past, according to remarks he made at his Wondercon panel today. This confirms the worrisome rumors that began circulating in the wake of J.H. Williams' comments about the book to Ron during our recent Emerald City video.
A full transcript will be online later this weekend, but it seems that while Rucka still had a few more plans for Batwoman, including reuniting with Williams to tell the origin story of Alice, a variety of moves within DC editorial made telling that story within the pages of Detective Comics impossible.
Rucka is not doing the frequent "big name creator" move of simply switching from Shirts to Skins and writing for Marvel again. He is instead apparently going to focus on telling the creator-owned stories he wants to tell, including his Queen and Country novel. If there is a bright side to this otherwise abysmal news, it is that; many of us here at iFanboy have been big fans of both Queen and Country and Rucka's more recent Stumptown, and if this gives him the chance to put those books (or books like them) out more frequently then I for one am all for it.
Nonetheless, this is quite a blow to those of us who were enthusiastic fans of Rucka's recent DC work. Other than Green Lantern, the few DC books that have gotten their hooks into me and never let go have been Gotham Central and Rucka's Detective. His absence will be painfully felt.
This morning, on Twitter, Rucka commented:
To all who sent kind words: thank you! No bad blood w/ DC; just time to move on.
UPDATE:
Over on his blog, JH Williams III, the artist on the Detective Run, commented:
As of this weekend Greg Rucka, who I’ve enjoyed working with very much, has announced his intentions to leave DC Comics, and in turn leave Batwoman behind. I was afraid something like this was going to occur but held out hope that it wouldn’t happen. That DC and Greg could come to some sort of agreement, apparently not going to happen. So what does this mean for Batwoman and the project I’ve spent a decent amount of time and thought on? I don’t know. I do know that DC is firmly committed to this character from what I here from them. So where does all of this leave us? I believe DC will want the character to continue somehow. In what form? I’m not sure, but she’ll be back, I’m sure of it. This character has too much potential to just go by the wayside. So we should be hearing some sort of news at the appropriate time I assume.
In the meantime I’ve had to take on some other work while all of this is coming down around me. These consist of several covers and some smaller story projects. I’m doing variant covers for American Vampire, Tom Strong, Batman Beyond, Wonder Woman, and DC Legacies. I’m also working on one of the DC Legacies co-features, a story based on the original Seven Soldiers Of Victory and is written by Len Wein, I’m about half done with it. The mentioned above variant cover for DC legacies is for this story. The other thing I’m working on is another issue of Jonah Hex, which I’ve been itching to do ever since the first one I did that came out last year. I love this book! So I’m thrilled to be doing another issue Justin and Jimmy and I’ll be providing the cover to that as well.
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Well, crap.
One million sad faces. 🙁
I do love Stumptown but I really wanted that Rucka/JHW3 Batwoman ongoing.
I guess I’ll have to read Queen and Country now.
No…no…NO!!!
Well, That just sucks balls. I wonder if they are still going to do the Batwoman Series. It’s hard to see someone else writing her. I am not saying I wouldn’t read it, but it would just feel odd with out him. On a happier note, we will be getting more of his creator own stuff.
Aw poop, Rucka got me into Batwoman and Renee Montoya back in 52. And him taking on the same characters through Final Crisis Revelations and Detective Comics was real nice to see – it assured us we’d have the same proper voice and direction for those characters. Now I don’t know what to think..,
More Stumptown, yay! No Detective, nay.
Damn!
Batwoman was becoming one of my few beloved DC characters.
Greg Rucka is a writer who I will read anything he does unconditionally. He was a big factor in me getting into DC titles, as I only used to read things that he and Johns wrote. Its a real shame that he’s leaving, as he wrote some great stories for this company, and I wonder what the extended future holds for him.
There’s so much about the Batwoman character I should hate, but Greg Rucka made me like her. When I got back into comics, I was turned on to Rucka thanks to the platitudes of iFanboy. I guess it’s time to go buy some Queen & Country.
Since I don’t know all the details, I shouldn’t complain so vocally, but what the hell is DC editorial thinking? They got a hit book on their hands and then they make it so the guy can’t write it? This news is especially hard to take after the news that they’re still letting Frank Miller write Batman. Is there no justice?
Actually, I think this is good news. Rucka’s best writing is usually not superhero related stories.
Yes, Gotham Central was fantastic, as was his run on Checkmate and Detective Comics. But his stories are always about characters – super powers are never the main focus.
If I had to choose between reading another Criminal story or another Batwoman story – I’d easily go with Criminal.
This is such a double edge sword. One the one hand, great that he’s getting to do what he wants, look forward to see what he does in that world. But man I was loving what he had been doing at DC. Lucky for me, I personally have plenty of Rucka DC work I haven’t read, and now will. If I haven’t seen it, it’s new to me!
Good luck Rucka, we’ll be here reading your stuff.
I am actually excited. I think queen & country is my favorite comic of all tine, and the novels were great too, so more q&c? Ok in my book!
Aww man he was a major part of DC’s new mount rushmore with Johns, Morrison and Robinson.
you can’t really blame DC for not wanting rucka and williams to fuck around for 2 years to produce 8 issues.
i just started with the last arc. man this sucks.
booooooooooo!
this is sad news.
I hope that this means that we’ll get more Stumptown.
I took time off from the internet and I hear two terrible things:
A) Miller and Lee are continuing All Star Batman and Robin…..somewhat.
B) This news.
Horrible news to hear, and I can’t believe this is happening. Granted it’s great to know he’s gonna do more creative owned work. But Rucka and DC go together like…..well just good comic books. Hopefully one day he’ll return, I’m sure he will.
Jeez, I saw him signing at the DC booth just hours ago!
ummmmm LATE APRIL FOOLS JOKE?!!??! PLEASE?!?!?
Also, i thought they were already working on batwoman, is that coming out at all?
DC seems to be attempting with all their might to fuck themselves. I say this as a lifelong DC supporter, WTF are y’all doing?
Well….. That just plain sucks. Where is my pint of Ben and Jerry’s when I need it? 🙁
DC is hurt bad by this.
He will write for Marvel in about 1 year. Marvel wins!
Wow. That’s a shock. Detective has been a stellar book with Rucka driving it. Gonna be sad to see it end.
I wonder what this means for the Batwoman/The Question issue of Detective Comics due in July…
But…………..Alice!!!!!!!!!!
There’s alot of books like this b Rucka, like his Wonder Woman, where he never really gets to finish his story. I’m sad to see him leave because now it seems like all we have is half of the over arching Batwoman story. Sigh.
This is bloody awful news. While his out and out superhero stuff doesn’t always work for me, this man has written a lot of the very best Bat-books in the last 10-15 years. What makes it worse is that it means the Batwoman saga remains essentially unfinished. My understanding was that he and JH had about a years worth of stories to tell on Detective, but that got rejigged to allow them to move to the ongoing series. Whatever DC did here, it was a big goddamn mistake….devastated.
That sucks for all the people who are loving what Rucka is doing over at DC. it’s good news for people who would rather get more Queen and Country. I love Rucka, but I’m more likely to read his non-Batwoman stuff. I would he write what he wants than fight with editorial and put out something his heart isnit in.
I try to think of what writer/character could work for Detective now, but everything points back to Rucka; who else could really write Batwoman, The Question, or any kind of crime/detective story at DC at the moment? This was Rucka’s niche.
Shame. The book was just breaking out of the "just another Batman book" stigma, too.
Weird how similar Batwoman and Spider-Woman are. Both had big time creators working on them. Both had been teased for years. Both got delayed years. Both came out around the same time. Both were canceled after 7 issues.
Gutted!
All the rubbish DC puts out month after month and they can’t get this title to work. We’ve seen multiple artists draw impressive Batwoman stories, so the book could survive without JHW3, though his work has the best.
Losing Rucka means losing the driving force. No origin of Alice…boo!!!!
Now I am interested as the June solicits teased Batwoman would be back in July…who the hell is writing that!
I’ll buy whatever Rucka’s working on. Can’t say the same for Detective.
@edward
I would happily wait 2 years for more Batwoman from Rucka and Williams. I was a Marvel Zombie until I saw the first splash page from Batwoman on the internet. I bought a DC book regularly for the last 10 months thanks to it. (Jock was an inspired choice to replace him, and Cameron Stewart on Batman and Robin looked great as well).
If the option was wait a year for the next story, or have it passed off to a less talented artist and and less interested writer, then DC were better off waiting. This book was bringing them a lot of good press, and I’m sure sales for Detective were better then when it was just another batman book. My lcs isn’t even getting any issues of Detective next month. I was going to order July’s as it teased the return on Batwoman, now it will depend on the talent involved. Jock or Stewart, could get me interested, but I’m gonna need to see a good writer as well.
DC editorial staff has gone crazy. First "Cry for Justice", now this! BOO!
Really mixed news. I’ve loved Rucka’s DC work. But all the independent work he’ll be doing sure is a great silver lining.
It isn’t such bad news if we get more independent comics work from the man (Stumptown being indescribably late at the moment!) If it exclusively means novels, I’m not so excited. I read a couple of his KOdiak novels and the first Queen and Country and they’re decent enough, but it’s mainly about reading what happens to Tara. As a spy novelist, there are far better authors out there (possibly a controversial statement I know!), but as a writer of spy and crime comics, the only person who is on a par with him at present is his old partner in crime Ed Brubaker.
This is awful news. As I mentioned else, yeah I’m getting out of monthly comics (except Morrison’s Batman)…but I was looking forward to popping back in to pick up what I THOUGHT was going to be Rucka and JH’s reuninion arc in Detective this summer.
My only question is: If Rucka’s not writing, then WTF has JH Williams been spending his time drawing over the past months since he finished the "GO" arc? Because we all THOUGHT he was drawing Rucka’s next Batwoman story. I mean, is that just wasted material now? Will someone else script the completed artwork?!
This is a horrible development because Rucka was doing such a good job on Kate Kane, really turning her into a very unique and memorable character. I realize that he couldn’t have forseen whatever development has caused him to leave DC, but as a reader it just makes you look back and think "Gee I wish he wouldn’t’ve taken THIS LONG to tell Kate’s origin." I mean, overall, yeah it was solid, but he waited so long to tell the "GO" story, then put in this filler "Cutter" story, and we still don’t know what the deal with Alice was. It’s like imagining if Morrison got pulled off of the Bat-titles before telling us more about Dr. Hurt, y’know? It’s just frustrating.
Either way, this is a big loss for DC and for readers. I had various problems with Rucka’s writing as far as plotting, but in terms of characterization, he was just doing stellar, stellar stuff.
I’m really disappointed we won’t see more of Rucka with Batwoman, but I’m excited for what’s he got coming next. As a writer, he always seems to knock it out of the park. Also, I can’t wait for that next Queen and Country novel. Those books are so good.
Damn, this is bad news. As much as I love QUEEN AND COUNTRY and Rucka’s other solo work, I just adored those oh-so-few issues of Batwoman in DETECTIVE.
Come on, WonderCon! Get some good news released already!
JH Williams talked about what he was working on, and some things he couldn’t talk about in our Emerald City show from a couple weeks ago.
Done with DC. Cannot take their corporate BS anymore. The best comic they’ve released in years and they cower due to fear of a title with a gay lead.
Meanwhile, garbage like Azrael and REBELS that no one buys continues and Judd Winick gets more work.
Anything that looks good from DC in the future I’ll just "find" online. But they’ve received their last penny from me.
Shame, too. Was looking forward to BOP. But that’s why bittorrent exists, now doesn’t it?
I hate to break it to people, and don’t get me wrong, I love Greg Rucka’s work SO much, but he can be a bit hard headed I think. This isn’t the first time he’s clashed with corporations, so it may not all fall on the shoulders of DC. Mostly, sure…
So you’re willing to steal what they publish but not pay for it? Way to stand up for your rights.
Josh, if you’re truly concerned about morality, drop the straw man act and ask Rucka or DC directly why the only lead comic character who is gay has such a hard time getting approved for a monthly book despite acclaim, sales and awards.
The fact no one will discuss what really happened proves something stinks.
This piece of news could be karma’s reaction to ifanboy’s cruel April Fool’s joke.
It probably had more to do with sales than anything, and I’d put that on the public. Frankly, i was shocked they did it for as long as they did.
And, I plan on it, by the way.
A quick look at the sales indicates that Detective had been dropping off in sales pretty spectacularly, and while I loved it (more than you can imagine), the buying public isn’t all that drawn to either Rucka’s name or Batwoman as a character. Even Williams is someone critics love, but he doesn’t move books like Bryan Hitch. He probably didn’t want to accept whatever their plan was after moving Kate out of Detective proper. If it’s bigotry, then it’s inherent bigotry in the minds of readers, which is a stretch. Check out this drop:
06/2009: Detective Comics #854 — 72,808 (-30.1%) [79,573]
07/2009: Detective Comics #855 — 61,205 (-15.9%)
08/2009: Detective Comics #856 — 58,859 (- 3.8%)
09/2009: Detective Comics #857 — 57,063 (- 3.1%)
10/2009: Detective Comics #858 — 58,599 (+ 2.7%)
11/2009: Detective Comics #859 — 54,392 (- 7.2%)
12/2009: Detective Comics #860 — 52,295 (- 3.9%)
01/2010: Detective Comics #861 — 45,937 (-12.2%)
And let’s be honest, at this point we have absolutely no idea if it has anything to do with the character’s sexuality. After all, her sexuality hasn’t been much of a secret to the buying public for several years…I’m not sure that can really be the reason at this stage in the game.
The damn sales only dropped because my damn car is broken and I can’t get to my damn LCS. If I had just bought those damn issues!!!!!!!!!!!! DAMMIT!!!!
At least we don’t have to worry about Rucka going to Marvel.
I’ve never read any of his work as a Marvel man. But me and Prax we’re talking about it last night and we just don’t see him as a Marvel guy. Granted he seemed to do a ‘great’ revamp of the Wolverine title. Never read it though, so I can’t say for sure.
This is pretty much the opposite of the news I wanted to hear.
To put a good spin on it, it’s a good motivation to catch up on Queen & Country and Rucka’s novels.
It’s totally understandable that DC is going to do what they are going to do to sell books, but from a personal point of view, this drops my own interest in DC Comics close to zero. We’ll see how long Batgirl sticks around.
My gut feeling is that Rucka has too many BIG stories in his head to work on other companies properties… at least continually. The whole Detective run was AWESOME, but it really does seem, at some level, to read as a story that was originally planned for some other character at some other time, and it was ‘adapted’ to fit DC. Not a bash in ANY way. The resulting combo of story and art stands on it’s own as as fantastic.
I am excited about his new stuff.
This is very dissapointing. Truly great art is often not appreciated at the time of its creation.
Meanwhile, the "mere" 45,000 copies Detective sold in January – when Jock took over art – is more than four times what REBELS sells.
Sales have nothing to do with this.
Batwoman has been notoriously delayed over and over again and it’s been well documented the trepidation DC felt at a gay character headlining a book.
Now that Dc Comics is DC Entertainment, it’s no surpriser that the corporate fear has increased.
If it were just sales, they’d say, "It didn’t sell well enough."
They don’t say anything. Everything is vague. Because they’re sacred sh!tless to say why.
F you DC.
it’s been well documented the trepidation DC felt at a gay character headlining a book.
Really?
I can’t believe that thinking like this still exists today.
When I hear about people being ‘cautious’ or ‘concerned’ or ‘worried’ about a character’s whatever racial, sexual, or otherwise orientation, I always feel like I just heard the latest movie is out on BetaMax.
"They still make them?!"
Unoob:
Turn on the news and look at your average Tea Party protest. That type of thinking and much, much worse thrives today.
And in the halls of DC Entertainment.
@Mpierce Want to link to some of this well documented homophobia from DC? I’d be curious to read it.
Also it’s ridiculous to compare Detective Comics to REBELS, it and Action Comics are DC’s first tier of titles whereas REBELS is one of the fun 3rd tier books. They need those top books to sell better to keep the fun 3rd tier books around.
I’m a little upset by this news.
There was a time that I used to read Wonder Woman. Then DC took Rucka off and relaunched the title with a TV guy. That one still hurts. Now this!?!?
I know about the monthly sales of Batwoman in ‘Tec. They’re rather average. This summer a deluxe hc of this run is going to make a killing for DC during awards season. This’ll more than make up for those average numbers. I am certain of it.
I need that Alice origin story. I NEED it.
What awful news.
@TheNextChampion: Rucka’s run on Wolverine is still my favorite set of Wolverine stories. I’d love for him to do some more, but Aaron’s doing such a great job right now.
I was at the panel and while he did say he was done for now he wouldn’t say that the stories would never be told again. He also mentioned that he and JH are talking about some other projects they might do and probably the thing that had me most excited: American Soldier. Which would be an epic story following a family tree and the people that fought in all of america’s wars starting with the revolutionary war and ending with present day. While the batwoman news is sad he sounded extremely optimistic about his future plans and said he isn’t quiting comics
I think everybody realized at the time that DC moved Batwoman to the role of ‘lead character’ that it was a risk — I think I complimented them on taking the risk at the time — and the nature of a risk is that it might not pay off. Critically, this one mostly did; commercially, it looks like not. It’s disappointing, but we did get an uninterrupted run of awesome comics out of it.
Also, wasn’t there a big deal about Rucka quitting DC a few years ago, after 52 finished? This isn’t unprecedented. Whether he’ll be back this time or make a go of it just with his creator-owned books, best of luck to him.
Rucka will do great work wherever he ends up. Personally, I’m more concerned about whether we’ll see more of Batwoman now that he’s laid the groundwork. I though Morrison used her well in Batman & Robin, and I’d hate to see the character just disappear.
Well that sucks. Hopefully we get more queen and country though.
a Rucka written SHIELD series would kick ass
@Mpierce
Your logic fails you, because even if Rucka leaves, the Batwoman character will still be around, people will still want to write her, and she will still be gay. It’s not like when Rucka leaves, she will suddenly flip sides.
Hey all, guess what we’re not turning this into a political discussion! Check the Terms of Service.
@comicBOOKchris
You forget the most likely option.
She’s put on a shelf, forgotten (i.e., prevented from being used by DC editors because she has "teh gay"), randomly appears in the background of a fight scene in some Bat book event to in a pandering attempt to show she’s viable and eventually killed off in "Final Crisis of the Pink Lanterns" crossover.
My money goes there.
The is DC we’re talking about.
You also need to remember that while Detective Comics might’ve sold better then REBELS or Azazael, those writer/artists don’t get the sort of paychecks I’m willing to bet Rucka and Williams merit either.
@SmokMnky – Rucka and Williams will be working together, and on an indy book? I’m more then okay with their Detective run ending if that’s the case.
@MPierce – OK, you made your point, but you’ve got to accept that some might disagree with you. Keep it civil, or I make with the delete-y.
@Mpierce – You are ascribing so much motive to hypothetical actions. Unless you work in the DC offices, I can’t imagine you actually having enough information to be able to make those calls accurately.
That’s all I’m going to say on the matter, though.
I do think this top-tier/midtier/niche conversation raises an interesting question of whether Batwoman, a weak character for a top-tier book, could work as a successful midtier book. As great as Rucka is, I like to daydream that there’s an up-and-coming writer/artist team that could make a go of a Batwoman book, based on the strong foundation Rucka’s already built. Now the whole idea of a successful midtier/niche book may be a pipe dream based on what we’ve seen with ‘Power Girl’ and with ‘SWORD’ over at Marvel. But it’s interesting to think about.
There is absolute truth to the idea that characters who are women, characters who are gay, and characters who are even just unknown, don’t really sell mainstream superhero comics. That doesn’t make the pubishers Nazis. It’s not network prime time selling material. Yet.
Am I missing something here? Seems like so many are blaming DC for Rucka wanting to do his own work. DC doesn’t own their writers. We are lucky Rucka is still into comics at all . . . he could easily go back to novels or screenwriting.
But I must admit, I’ve been dropping many DC titles lately due to the writing . . .
Look all we know is he was moved off Detective Comics due to some in-house reasons and wanted to go back to "telling the stories he wants to tell." I doubt sales was why they were moved off Detective, it probably had to do with the Return of Bruce, and maybe they wanted him to write tie-ins. It seems more like a JMS-esque "You want me to what? Screw you I’m out" rather than a "We hate gays!" I mean, hasn’t DC made a big deal about the character since 52? If they were going to be homophobic wouldn’t they have been back then?
well…nuts…well at the very least I may not have to wait that much longer for a new stumptown. But I was really looking forward to a batwoman book.
@Josh
No. It just makes them cowards.
Which in some ways is worse.
I think that notion is ridiculous, and getting near just trolling. But like I said, you made your point, and the horse has been beaten within an inch of its life now.
@OttoBott
It doesn’t take a sleuth to figure it out.
It took four years for Batowoman to get a solo story told. There have been many accounts – easily found online – that there was great trepidation about the controversy a gay Bat character would cause.
The character finally gets a story, is critically acclaimed, award-winning snd embraced by fandom.
Rucka announces a solo book is happening back in December. Three months later, the book – and Rucka – are gone.
But wait. DC published Batwoman stories in Detective. That proves they’re diverse!
What’s changed since those stories began publishing? DC Comics became DC Entertainment, with a much more critical corporate eye on such inconveniences as characters having "teh gay."
I admire Rucka for having the character and dignity to walk away from this situation. I despise DC.
Meanwhile, hit books with straight white guys like "Jonah Hex" continue to burn up the sales charts.
Bravo.
I am as bummed as everyone else, but more Queen & Country on the horrizon excites me.
I wasn’t aware that Jonah Hex was burning up any sales charts, I thought that was one of those doomed "Critical Darling" type books that sells terribly. Shows what I know…
Having just finished reading "A Gentleman’s Game", I can say that I’m very excited to hear that more Queen and Country novels are on the way. As a huge fan of Mr. Rucka’s DC work, I can also say that I am very disappointed. It appears the glass is exactly half….
I was hoping to read his Batwoman run when it eventually hit paperback, which obviously would be a while from now, still might, but it is sucky that he won’t finish is story. It is also sucky that we’ll never see a Question series now, not that we were going to, but there was still hope. Still, if we get more Stumptown and Q&C, I’m happy with that. Speaking of Stumptown, did he mention why there’s a delay on the last two issues of the first arc? Because he went on and on how they were done so that what happened to Q&C wouldn’t happen here, and yet here we are, 3 months since the last issue. I understand things happen, but it would be nice to know what’s going on after he made such a big deal over how they were holding off releasing issue 1 so that there wouldn’t be delays.
Playing Monday morning quarterback isn’t usually my thing, but could the sales on DETECTIVE be partially due to the fact that it 1) Didn’t tie into BLACKEST NIGHT in any way and 2) Didn’t tie into the overall new continuity of the Batman universe? It seems to be open knowledge that tying books into each other, and into big events, raises the sales. Does consciously leaving books out of specific continuity hurt sales?
Either way, I’m happy that at least we have the stories that we do. Like I said earlier, I really enjoyed them and wish the best for Rucka in the future.
Detective sales fell – rather dramatically – because Batman wasn’t in them. Batman sells books. Batwoman? Enh, not so much. It was a fine story with beautiful art but that’s not what the Wednesday crew down at Larry’s Comics wants. They want their [Bruce Wayne] Batman (and Superman in the Superman books, too). "A cowardly and superstitious lot" they are.
And ditto on @CGPO. Where IS Stumptown, anyway? Any news out of the Oni panel/booth on that?
If only I bought a million copies of Rucka’s Detective none of this would had happen. Therefore, I would like to apologize to everyone.
Damn it all to hell!
If this means more Queen & Country and Stumptown this is a bitter-sweet moment. To be honest though I am not gonna hold my breath on those books coming out with any regularity.
P.S. I agree with RobAbsten, if you guys can squeeze any info out of the Oni people on Stumptown during the cons that would be great.
@RobAbsten and Spoons: CBR has posted a summary of Rucka’s panel. Stumptown #3 will be out at the beginning of May with #4 to come out a month later. Than a few months break before #5. No word on why though.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=25542
@Josh I think the horse is long dead.
I think the venow towards dc is a bit much. I have a feeling that the plummeting sales may have led to dc wanting more input which led rucka to bow out. As I said before if I get more Tara out of this I am thrilled.
That’s too bad… I was just starting to like the series, too. However, Stumptown and Queen and Country are both great, so if I get more of those I’m a happy camper.
Oh crap… he’s off of the main book next month? Daaamn… that was fast. Who’s David Hine?
@mpierce
I do know that DC is firmly committed to this character from what I here from them. -Jhw3
there convo is done
@CGPO : Thanks for the link!
This was a good book. Sad to see it go.
@GCPO Sweet, I knew the iFanbase would come through. Now how ’bout a sandwich?
That’s terrible news, Rucka’s and Williams Detective run was so great. Hopefully this might mean Rucka will return to Queen and Country the comic as well, or even better a new series.
( Also new Tom Strong? )
So Detective Comics is the reason for the delay of Stumptown… uh huh.
April Fool’s?
Wait, JH is doing Tom Strong stuff? There’s going to be new Tom Strong stuff?
@Heroville~ Yes there is! I saw Chris Sprouse at the Mid-Ohio Con in October and he said he was finishing up the pencils on a new miniseries that is supposed to be out some time this year. He had a sketch book and it looked glorious!
It really is sad to hear Rucka leaving DC, I’ve LOVED his Detective run. On the bright side, I am eagerly awaiting more Queen and Country. Damn that is a good book be it in comics form or novel form.
This news seriously sucks…. well…. the good news is that there’ll be more Queen & Country to go on the shelf next to the 9 books I already have :/
Was really getting into the Batwoman story too….. I can’t imagine anyone else writing her properly…. and different art?! Yikes HELP!
Scratch that…. 8 books
I have read any of Rucka’s indie work but have enjoyed his run on Detective. I bet he goes to Marvel or back to DC sooner than later. I’d love to see what he would do with Marvel characters. I bet he would be awesome on a Heroes for Hire book.
Got that White Out flick F U money I guess and can go off and do things he really enjoys. Good for him.
Just makes me sad.
Sounds to me like JHW3 doesn’t want to stop drawing the book. Thats a bit of good news.
Hey JHW3,
How about it? Take a stab at doing all of this. Batman: Snow anyone? Maybe even Rucka can ghost script from your plot?
…Still been a sad day for me.
On CBR.com, Williams sorta indicated that it’s a DC/Rucka problem and not that the company is afraid to publish a Batwoman comic.
I didn’t think that was the problem anyways, I’d imagine it was always creative differences. I hope somehow we see more Batwoman in some use in the future. Maybe Grant Morrison can use her again? His take on her for ‘Batman and Robin’ was pretty damn good.
I have a quick question. Do you guys think that they will still make the Batwomen series without him or will they just kill it?
@SamIAm: I would say they will either:
A) Kill it entirely
B) Continue to use her in Detective Comics
It probably all depends on what DC decides to do once Bruce Wayne returns really. I mean he’s gonna have to be put somewhere when that mini ends.
That’s true. It would be a little odd if he wasn’t in Detective Comics once he comes back. She could written has a second feature like the question was.
This is all speculation on my part but I’m wondering based on the way he talked about it if DC wasn’t trying to force him into writing detective for the Bruce Wayne return crossover and he wanted to finish more of Kate’s story or this Alice plot he had. It was just something that came to me after seeing him at the panel and hearing him talk. He also really doesn’t like the direction they are or did try to take the WW movie script
I guess this all boils down to the fact that rucka just can’t do both created owned work and company stuff. If I could only choose one, I’m not sure which I would choose, but gotta give the man his props for sticking to his guns
Yea, I am disappointed. Ever go back and read a comic you enjoyed many years ago but find out it doesn’t hold up in the least? That’s Rucka’s previous run on Detective for me. (Gotham Central was and is still great). I really enjoyed his current run.
I’ll give his WW another go.
I’m just rambling
<< Just realized I wrote "Criminal" instead of "Town & Country" — mixing Brubaker with Rucka — just gonna go into a fetal position for awhile . . . >>
@heroville: It’s not relevant to the main thread, but in answer to your query, Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom is listed in the previews for June shipping titles, written by Peter Hogan and drawn by Chris Sprouse…sweet.
First Chuck Dixon, now Greg Rucka? Is this just the nature of the business with artistic creators? No. It must be something sinister! DC fired Dixon because he’s anti-gay, fired Rucka because he’s pro-gay, and hired JMS because he’s gay-nuetral. Or maybe DC is stockpiling writers on a remote island and replacing them with Geoff-Johns-bots.
QUESTION:
I just went onto amazon and saw a bunch of Rucka’s Queen and Country stuff- some graphic, some not. Any suggestions on where to start?
Definitive Edition Vol 1
Gee, so many things I wanna say here. Is there a place we can take this where we can speak freely without disrupting the site?
I love seeing people say things like "it has been well documented on the internet" without providing links. It also makes me laugh that someone thinks that Jonah Hex is "burning up the charts." What Josh said is completely true, non-white non-male characters are a hard sell, but to accuse a company of being homophobic or racist without proof is ridiculous.
Whoever gave up comics for lent, this is the best "Welcome back to comics" present ever. You know, if your into bondage or whatnot.
why? this is wrong. How is he gong to tease us wtih Alice’s origin? I want to see that drawn by JH Williams and written by Rucka. I dont thnink it has to do with sales but I have no idea what the problem could be. This really sucks for me… I love Willams and Ruckas Batwoman 🙁
Did D.C. produce any Alice or Batgirl t-shirts?
Did anyone actually read the entire article?
This morning, on Twitter, Rucka commented:
To all who sent kind words: thank you! No bad blood w/ DC; just time to move on.
He didn’t say anything about having a problem with DC
I think we’re all over looking one VERY important detial here. And that is that JHWIII will be doing another JONAH HEX!!!!!!!! To quote Geoff Johns" "AWW YEAAH!!"
Anybody remember Wildcats Version 3.0? Same damn thing! Those incomplete stories are so damn frustrating
@Josh – Thanks for posting those figures. I had no idea the book was loosing sales like that. Based on internet reaction I would’ve thought they were going up. I guess it’s another example of the internet not being a microcosm of the real world.
There are a lot things independent of Rucka and JHWIII’s work that could have detracted from sales.
1. No Batman: I know the title is "Detective Comics," but the fact that Batman has been the star for almost 60 years leads people to have certain expectations. Why read Detective if it’s just a bat imposter?
2. Bat family fatigue: Gotham has so many costumed crime fighters (including another Batgirl, or an old one come back, or however you want to describe her), that readers couldn’t understand how the crime rate is actually anything more than 0% or why Gotham needs another bat-inspired crime fighter. I’m not saying this is a fact; just a supposition on my part.
3. Batwoman? For real?: In tandem with #2, I personally didn’t like the idea of some random woman donning a bat suit and fighting crime. I thought it was cheap, generic, and uninspired. But Rucka and JHWIII managed to keep me interested, and they sold me once they showed how she became Batwoman. (Her father made her train for a few years first.) I always hated how anyone in Gotham can just don a domino mask and suddenly fight on Batman’s level. Perhaps readers who never stuck around for an explanation would have stayed had it come sooner.
4. $3.99: I think this is a big one. Why pay $3.99 for a book who’s main character you only view as a placeholder until the real character comes back? Top that off with a back-up that wasn’t the greatest in the world, and that could be a reason for dropping it. If I want an affordable Batman, there are other comics out there from Batman Confidential to even the two minis by Kevin Smith. As much as some people liked Rucka and JHWIII, it may have been hard paying 3.99 when all they get is backup story that didn’t interest and a main character they only begrudgingly liked.
I don’t know if they above actually impacted sales, but no matter how good it was, if people wanted Batman and just viewed the Batwoman character as a fill-in until Bruce, or even Dick, came back, I can see why the sales would have dropped like that.
People blaming it on the sexuality of the main character have their heads up their asses. Yes, the book sells a lot more than REBELS, but Bedard gets paid a fraction of Rucka, not to mention the production cost of each issue is 5 times that of Rebels. I doubt DC were even breaking even.
@muddi — Bedard gets paid a fraction of Rucka? Source?
Also curious why you think the production cost would be different.
Just anecdotally, I’d be surprised if Rucka didn’t have a higher page rate than Bedard. No, I don’t have proof, but, well, I’ve been around. Plus JH Williams ain’t cheap neither. Or Dave Stewart for that matter.
Wow. This really hits me in the gut. I can’t believe DC is shafting Batwoman like this (no matter what JH Williams says on his blog). You’d think she’s the new Aquaman or something.
@Josh – Just trying to point out that people often make very declaritive statements without facts. It tends to lead to arguments based on speculation, and… well, you’ve been around. 😉 That said, I do also suspect there’d be a difference, but I have no proof, and I think "a fraction" may be a *bit* of an overstatement, just as production costs being "5 times" more.
Briefly: I sat down in the DC Q&A panel at Wondercon this weekend (honestly, I was pretty hung over from the Tiki Tour and needed a place to sit), and someone DID ask a question about Batwoman. Johns and the other panelists did say that she was "not being shelved" as a character. They didn’t say anything about a series, though. Just said, "she’ll continue to be an important part of the DCU. Take that for whatever it’s worth.
I blame all of this on the Kirkman Manifesto.
I do enjoy a good over-wraught poster thread.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the Batwoman run on Detective, but it’s never made sense to me why they took Batman (even the impostiBat) out of "his" book and created a new title for Dini & Batman when they were doing just fine in Detective. If you’re creating new titles willy-nilly anyway, just make a Batwoman book and go to town.
I am sad to see Rucka go, but I do look forward to the strong possibility of more Queen & Country, as others have said. It’d be cool to get some Rucka Daredevil, too, though he said he’s not going to Marvel,