Not that I’ve ever read any of Willingham’s books, though I’m sure that in all due fairness, he’s got some good stuff. But after learning of the I’d say that any chances of my supporting his writing are now officially terminal. And let me make this clear, that I don’t have any restrictions on spoilers when examining a bad story like this, which is why, as reveals, this is exactly why I have no faith from here onwards in Mr. Willingham as a writer:

Batman arrives in Africa, at a “Doctors Without Borders” medical camp, and enters the tent of Leslie Thompkins. Batman asks Thompkins why she withheld treatment from Stephanie Brown, letting her die. She explains that she intended it to act as a warning to others tempted to live the superhero life. She says that she’s ready to die but too cowardly to do it herself, handing Batman a gun, who refuses to shoot. He tells her that he’s provided all the pertinent evidence to the authorities, who will be looking for her. He warns he never to practice medicine, or return to America, or to contact him again.

What’s most facinating about the abominated reveal here is that it gives us yet another case of a woman murdering another woman, as was the case presented in Identity Crisis. That is, in simple detail, a form of misogyny, ditto the way that she offers Batman the possibility of shooting her, which is chillingly reminicient of the part in IC #7 where Jean Loring invited Ray Palmer to hit her.

And the part about Thompkins willing to die but being too cowardly to commit suicide is just plain silly.

Willingham even tries to argue in his defence on this here from Fabletown, and oh my, what a shameful display we seem to have here:

Yes, deliberately withholding treatment, except in the context of a legitimate triage decision, is quite the unequivocal violation of the Hippocratic oath. In a court of law one could reasonably expect to be found guilty of murder.

Seems like Leslie snapped. Seems like Batman doesn’t like her much anymore (though he still couldn’t bring himself to be the one who brought her in).

After this issue came out, I took a rare tour of other message boards to try to gauge what the general reaction might be. As expected, it was overwhelmingly negative, with lots of “how dare Willingham do this!” What I didn’t expect is how much message traffic this book would generate. Message boards that might have one or two regulars post every few days, or so, suddenly exploded with five and six pages of new messages per day.

Here’s something you readers need to realize: Though we generally hope readers will like our stories, hating them is almost as good. Hating them so much that yours is the one book everyone is talking about now — well that’s golden. One can’t hate without passion and involvement. The one reaction we most fear is indifference.

Yes, I’m a little put out by the (at least three and counting) reputedly male readers who posted testimony that they wept after reading this issue (one claiming it was for the loss of innocence). Not that I believe they actually did. But I’m still from an early enough American generation to find men claiming to act like overly dramatic little girls just a little bit cringe-making.

And of course there were scores of those claiming that this incident was the last straw and they’re giving up my books, or the Bat books, or all comic books, forever. Here’s a splash of water for everyone who ever has or ever will make such an hysterical claim on a message board: We never believe you. If you’re the type to indulge in “how dare they do that!” we know you’ll always be back for further outrages. Those addicted to indignation need constant indignation feeding.

But, that aside, all is good. Feel free to blame me for ruining Batman. I could claim that editorial mandates were in force here and thereby split the blame a bit, but I think this time I won’t. I willingly took the job, and I’m too greedy to want to share the credit this time.

How do you like them apples?

Ahem. Kindly cut the crap about the apples please; it’s not funny. Nor is insulting the audience no matter what they decide in regards to keeping on with the books/writers in question or not. And while editorial madates were probably in force there, that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t have avoided being as tasteless as he was when putting together this horrorfest, or even turning down the assignment altogether.

I haven’t read any of Willingham’s books, if at all, and this certainly doesn’t - and won’t - whet my appetite for any more that he does. Anyone who just goes along and mindlessly resorts to insulting the audience as Mr. Willingham does so blatantly here is not someone whom I find worthy of plunking my hard-earned money down for.

It looks like manga is certainly trying to make it at the movies now, perhaps more so than Princess Mononoke during the late 90s. Either way, manga is becoming quite the thing lately with the younger generation.

(via the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel) writes about a new 12-part maxi-series from DC called simply “Justice”. One odd thing about it is that it appears to be a bi-monthly, a rarity in this day and age.

reviews the Grant Morrison penned Zatanna #3, and points out how it seems to be a possible form of criticism of Identity Crisis.

Now that’s all fine and well, and the first issue features something like that too, but, when you take into account how Morrison himself did a few of the things that IC advocated when writing New X-Men (which has returned to sans-adjective since), by de-facto killing off Jean Grey in the umpteenth Phoenix regurgitation, it doesn’t come off as convincing enough.

That’s certainly why, if I am to read this Seven Soldiers miniseries, it’s not gonna be because Morrison is the writer, that’s for sure.

staffer Devon Sanders offers a good reason why we should support the return of William Messner-Loebs to the scene by trying out Green Arrow:

While these Messner-Loebs crafted comic stories are some of the more unique in comics, they pale in comparison to the uniqueness of this man’s current situation. The past four years have seen him cope with a life of near Job-ian scale. He has seen a comics market shift not allowing for his talent, resulting in the loss of the home he and his wife shared. His wife suffers with numerous medical problems and they have no health insurance to speak of. When word of his plight reached people willing to help, The Messner-Loebs’ received enough money to purchase a mobile home in 2002, one they unknowingly bought infested with mold, one the seller was unwilling to take it back. To make matters even worse, months later, thieves made off with it.

The part I highlighted is the what really draws my attention: that Messner-Loebs has been pushed out of any real jobs simply because he’s not hot enough, not enough to compete with a Winick or a Johns or a Rucka, and thanks to this, he’s ended up suffering a horrible experience with poverty.

So that’s one definite reason why I’d strongly recommend helping him out by buying his current work on Green Arrow’s second volume. Here’s to hoping he’ll be able to succeed now!

with the overrated (IMO anyway) Judd Winick on IGN’s comics section, I must say, I was very underwhelmed.

For example, he says:

“I kept bringing up that Jim Starlin was able to accomplish so much in one of the first graphic novels which was The Death of Captain Marvel. I didn’t know anything about Captain Marvel when I read that, but it was on the stands. I didn’t know anything about the character, but I read that and it all held up. And by the end of the book you cared about this character and when he died it meant something. And that’s what we thought about when we did Countdown, because a lot of people don’t give a rat’s ass about Blue Beetle. Let’s have them fall in love with this guy over 60 pages and at the end when he dies it will mean something, it won’t just be killing off a random character. ‘Cause everybody in the room actually liked Blue Beetle.

We all threw around names of characters who would be the one to carry the story, knowing it’s going to end with their demise. That’s important that there’s someone who discovers everything and dies for it. And in the very short list we kept coming back to Blue Beetle. And everyone in the room said, “I could do a great Blue Beetle series.” And that’s why he has to go, because he’s actually the one who means something. And now he’s gone and eleven years from now someone will bring him back and we’ll be angry men about that. It’s generational.”

Gee, sounds awfully sugarcoated to me (not to mention that he actually sounds opposed to potential success). Mainly because, while Mar-Vell of the Kree never managed to gain full-fledged popularity in his time, he most certainly wasn’t being killed off solely as a publicity stunt that was meant to lead into and market more books, the purpose of Infinite Crisis right now.

And if the rest of the editorial staff at DC could really write a good book with Ted Kord and make him popular with the audience, well then, isn’t that why killing him off is a cheap shot? Rather than to develop the character and realize potential, they sacrifice him as a pawn in a sales stunt instead. I’m sorry, that’s just simply no excuse.

Hence, that is exactly why Winick’s argument here fails.

I indicate semi-exclusive because it enables him to continue writing the new Supergirl series at the same time,

Marvel Comics has just announced that writer Jeph Loeb is exclusive to the House of Ideas. The writer is working on an unnamed project with Joe Maduriera. He told attendants at the Cup of Joe panel that his contract allows him to continue his work on the DC series, Supergirl.

that the Pulse also conducted with Loeb recently too.

Remember when Hal Jordan came back to life, only to be killed off shortly afterwards, in The Final Night crossover back in 1996? Well, reading on Howling Curmudgeons, I was reminded of that, when thinking of how both Jean Loring and Max Lord were apparently brought back into view in the DCU just so that they could be used as plot devices, and then killed off, in both the series/miniseries in which they were appearing. Or so it seems.

Now is that creative writing?

IMO, the answer is simply - no.

What an amazing surprise, mostly because it’s been done quietly. William Messner-Loebs, who wrote for the Flash and Wonder Woman years ago, is now being assigned as the writer for Green Arrow’s second volume! His name appears on the right side below the issue month (via on the Comics Continuum):

I’m certainly glad that finally, Messner-Loebs is being given something to help him out of the horrible financial situation he got into a few years ago, because DC and Marvel wouldn’t hire him anymore, due to his not being “hot” anymore. Which is not just baloney, but one of the biggest problems with today’s industry - that it relies very heavily on who’s “hot” and just how well they’ll sell with whomever is left, and put the drawing of new readers on a lower level of importance.

With any luck, maybe this’ll help to change things for the better.