It's been a long time since I've last posted, I know. I should be better about this. And I intend to be.
But this is news that I simply can't ignore.
This morning, Comic Book Resources reported that Greg Rucka has turned in his last work for DC Comics and, in effect, has left the company, which has gone through many changes in recent months.
Comics Alliance has Greg Rucka stating that he left to write stories that he wanted to write again rather than "getting complacent at DC" (that is not Rucka’s quote, but a quote from CA writer David Brothers) which certainly means that there was SOMETHING going on behind the scenes that we don't know about.
This is saddening news on a number of fronts, not just because of the fact that this throws the future of Batwoman into limbo, but because of the fact that he was one of the few writers in DC's stable who could write fully realized, fully fleshed out characters who didn't stick to stereotypes of gender or sexual orientation. The only other writers who come even close to his level of creativity and writing, I think, are the indomitable Gail Simone, the amazing writing team that is Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, and the criminally underused Marc Andreyko. If you disagree with me, I urge you to pick up Gail's first run on Birds of Prey (issues 56-108), Gray & Palmiotti on both Hawkman and Power Girl, and Andreyko on Manhunter.
I don't know the particulars of why Rucka left DC Comics, but he certainly isn't the first writer to do so, and that makes me wonder just what is going on behind the scenes at DC. Sure, every company has their issues, but to lose someone who was on as high profile a book as Detective Comics was is just terrible. It really is, in many ways, the equivalent of Marvel having lost JMS, whose Spider-Man and Thor runs were new, original, and so well done.
I honestly wonder if this is due to the fact that Dan Didio and Geoff Johns had different plans for Kate Kane, and if they didn't mesh with what Rucka had planned? Maybe Grant Morrison is involved somehow. I do know that Didio is willing to let Morrison do whatever he wants in DC's playground, which is cause for worry really, because while he has some great concepts, he doesn't quite have a great follow-through. Amazing foreplay, confusing sex - and Morrison did use Batwoman in his Batman and Robin run a couple of months ago. Not very well, in my opinion, but he did. Or perhaps, as most people are pointing out, its because DC is terrified of having a solo book starring a woman who is decidedly and proudly a homosexual woman.
The latter idea, honestly, is sad in this day and age, when Marvel has a book headlined by a character who is of the homosexual persuasion (when it suits him), and celebrities all over the world are either coming out of the closet - or supporting those who are openly and proudly gay. (Granted, then again, not everyone is so open minded these days.)
Part of what kills me the most about this is how well Rucka had realized Kate Kane's world, and how differently he had handled the subject matter of a woman who wore the Bat and who was, coincidentally, a lesbian. Despite coming from money, Kate Kane was not a Bruce Wayne knock-off, and despite being a tough woman in a bat costume, she was not a Huntress knock-off. Batwoman was very much her own person, and she was only just developing. The kicker is that we also just got Bette Kane back into action as Flamebird, and it looked like she was FINALLY going to get the respect that she so deserves. Bette is a character who has existed for years, and yet she's almost always just been played off as a joke of some sort, and here was a writer who would have developed Bette Kane into a hero, into a fully realized character. This is something that the fans of the character will likely never be able to see again, and that's just tragic.
At the end of the day, though, this is just bad news for DC. Greg Rucka has been one of the writers involved with Kate Kane all the way from her being in 52 back in 2006, down to now. That's a long time for a character to have spent with a character, and I'm sure that there were many stories that Rucka had to tell with Kate.
Stories which now may never see the light of day.
If I were DC, I'd be scrambling for a way to get him back - or perhaps try putting another competent writer on the project, like Simone, Gray & Palmiotti, or Andreyko, because right now, DC is at high risk for really messing up an amazing, original take on a character. Not that they didn’t do the same thing with Peter David and Supergirl back in 2003 (and really, look how well that turned out).
Or maybe DC’s decided that everything should be Silver Age again. After all, Barry Allen and Shiera Saunders are both back. Why not retcon Kate Kane into being a straight woman? Or just do away with Kate altogether and turn Barbara Gordon into Batwoman? While I’d rather DC did neither of those things, I can certainly see them doing it, what with their mentality of “everything silver age is new again”. And that just disappoints me, because I was hoping that they’d be more innovative than that.
Then again, it’s not like DC Comics was ever called “the House of Ideas.”
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