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. Rucka went on to say, "The goal when we set out writing Kate was to create a character who would endure. I really didn't want a flash in the pan. I wanted to make sure she had a strong origin. Any writer who read those seven issues would be able to write her, and would be able to write her quote unquote properly." He also revealed the original plan for his run with Kate Kane. Originally, "Elegy" was supposed to be 4 issues, "Go" 3 issues, and then a 5 part story with JH Williams III, his collaborator on "Detective Comics."
Due to a variety of things in-house at DC, they were moved off of "Detective Comics" and couldn't tell the story there. That story would have been Alice's origin story and would have wrapped up the run. "I don't know if I'll ever get to do it," he said, but said that he has "been around in this industry long enough to never say never." He made it clear that he isn't jumping ship to Marvel, choosing instead to focus on his "Queen & Country" novel and several other projects he has been wanting to do. One of the reasons he has backed away from DC was an encounter with his wife, noted writer Jen van Meter, where he realized that he "needs to [tell] the stories he wants to tell again," rather than getting complacent at DC. Check back later for a full transcript.
































Comments:
(34)Add a comment
Friday 02 April
By Tyler W
If this is a late April fools joke, it's not cool Comics Alliance...
Hasn't Williams said they were prepping a Batwoman series? I was looking forward to that. This is so disappointing. Though I guess it's good for my wallet.
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Saturday 03 April
By Laura Hudson
It's not a joke. I wish it were.
Friday 02 April
By TopJack
To say this is a disappointment is an understatement of grand proportions.
To say DC Comics are acting like fools is being diplomatic.
One of the most critically acclaimed runs on a character in recent memory, an award winner and beloved by fans – not to mention a great symbol of progress for diversity – and it's dropped, just like that.
Why is it that every time Batwoman is about to get her own book, something mysterious "happens" that prevents is from being realized?
It wouldn't have anything to do with her sexual orientation, would it? Nah, not at DC, I mean DC Entertainment, which would never whitewash their characters to avoid controversy while acting as if they have something to be ashamed of. That would never happen in corporate America, which always placed quality over profit and fights for integrity. It would never happen to a corporate monolith that suddenly took a renewed interest in the comic book division they've ignored for decades.
Perhaps when Rucka had the temerity in December to reveal Batwoman would be getting her own series it ticked off the powerful Diane Nelson, who can now crush any creator with her fist. How dare he!
Whatever the absurd reason, this is truly sad and few things in comics are actually "sad."
Meanwhile, Azrael is still being published.
Does anyone even read Azrael?
Bravo DC.
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Friday 02 April
By MPierce
In other news, loathed hack Judd Winick signs on to permanently bury the barely-selling "Power Girl" book.
Score two homeruns for the power trio of Didio, Johns and Lee. Great job guys! For an encore, why not break George Perez' fingers?
Way to go DC!
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Friday 02 April
By MPierce
In other news, loathsome hack Judd Winick is preparing to bury "Power Girl," Zatanna is getting a series no one wants and R.E.B.E.L.S. continues to be published even though no one reads it.
A grand slam for the power trio of Didio, Johns and Lee. Way to go guys! Why not break George Perez' fingers for an encore?
The new DC – it's worse than you can imagine.
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Friday 02 April
By MCollins
Dude...R.E.B.E.L.S is the best book at DC right now. Sales are ok in my area and everyone that reads it LOVES it. Detective sales are better, but only because of collection reasons. People that are buying it around here are always saying that they only buy for A. the art or B. for their collection.
Friday 02 April
By Richenbaum
REBELS is a great book...but sales are "ok in your area"? it sells about 11k copies a month. that's nowhere near good. the only reason it's not gone already is the 2 month artificial sales boost due to Blackest Night...and all the people that checked it out just for that have already dropped it again.
Sunday 04 April
By CHRIS
REBELS is an incredible comic. A more amped up and powerful version of Legion of Super-Heroes. Let's not just make a large swath over all of DC over this, BUT if Batwoman is being censored because of her being gay, this troublesome.
Saturday 03 April
By Matt T
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! In the limited time on the character, Rucka really made her his own (and with his track record of female characters, that's not a surprise). I would still be interested in a Batwoman on-going, but it just won't feel the same. Plus, if Rucka is no longer writing anything for DC this is a huge lose overall as he's one of the handful of creators that gets me interested in a title just because his name is attached.
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Saturday 03 April
By Nathan
Damn, I should have gone to that panel. But NO I had to pinch pennies and leave early to save on busfare
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