Things That Suck: JH Williams III Leaves Batwoman

JH Williams III Leaving Batwoman

Announces via Twitter that Issue #24 Will Be His Last

This really sucks.  This week, J.H. Williams III announced via Twitter that he would be leaving Batwoman, a character he has been involved with since she had her first solo adventures in Detective Comics in 2009.  Williams cited a DC editorial mandate forbidding him from marrying the title character to her police detective girlfriend.  Williams was quick to point out that DC wasn't against gay marriage, just marriage in general.  Apparently, since they re-launched their entire line with the "new 52" two years ago, marriage between characters has been a no-go, which raises the question, why approve the engagement storyline in the first place?

Since the New 52 launch, strict editorial guidelines and restrictions have caused a high turnover of creators who have been very vocal about their distaste for these guidelines and restrictions.  George Pérez, Rob Liefeld, and Gail Simone have all left their or threatened to leave their DC books because of the stranglehold that DC editorial seems to have on the creative process.

At Baltimore Comic Con, DC co- publisher, Dan DiDio, spoke out on the Batwoman marriage controversy.  "Heroes shouldn't have happy personal lives," DiDio said.  "They are committed to being that person and committed to defending others at the sacrifice of their own personal interests."  DiDio went on to address the Bat Family's personal lives specifically saying, "People in the Bat Family, their personal lives basically suck.  It's wonderful that they try to establish personal lives, but it's equally important that they set them aside.  That is our mandate, that is our edict and that is our stand."

This is sort of similar to the reasoning that Marvel gave when they decided to wish Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane out of existence.  It's also what television writers say when they are talking about bringing "will they/won't they" couples together.  That they become less interesting when they are together.  This just smacks of laziness to me.  I don't think it has anything to do with relatability.  If the team on the title are good at what they do, it shouldn't matter if the characters are married or single, they should still be able to churn out compelling, relatable super hero stories.

I was hoping this was going to turn out to be a Gail Simone situation.  A few months ago, there were rumors that Gail was leaving "Batgirl" and maybe DC altogether.  This turned out to be short lived as it was almost immediately confirmed that she would be remaining on the title.  Alas, it doesn't look like this will be the case with "Batwoman" since a new writer was announced at Baltimore.  A silver lining in this dark cloud is that the new writer is Marc Andreyko.  Marc has a strong track record writing three dimensional female characters, being co-creator of Kate Spencer aka Manhunter, and writing a critically acclaimed run on the series.  There has been no announcement on who will be taking over art duties.  They have huge shoes to fill.

What do you guys think of this news?  Were you as heartbroken as I was?  Do you prefer your super heroes attached or unattached?  Does it matter at all?  Let me know in the comments.