Tales of Dumbassery – No Wedding For Batwoman

Well, it’s that time again, folks, and this one hits pretty close to the chest for me. So, let’s once again open up…

Hey, remember the February 20th edition of What I Bought Today when I mentioned Batwoman proposing to Maggie Sawyer?… … …Nevermind, here’s my reaction…

“So that’s it for what I bought today, but there’s one other thing I thought I’d report, and that’s what happened in Batwoman #17…

“SQUEEE, a wedding!!!… … …*ahem* Anyway, that’s all from me.“

…Yeah, I squeed! What can I say? I’m a sucker for finding out people are getting married and being happy, especially in cases like superheroes that go through who knows how much angst and sadness in their lives. This was a positive note for Batwoman, and it’s what got me to keep a closer eye on what was going on.

So, what do I see on Twitter when I got up at an admittedly absurd time today? Lewis Lovhaug getting into an angry rant on Twitter because JH Williams III and Haden Blackman are leaving Batwoman, ending with Issue 26, because DC editorial decided at the last minute that there was not gonna be a wedding…At this point, I would normally have to warn that an angry rant was coming up, but honestly, I feel more sad and confused than angry, and most of what I could rant about, Linkara already covered. Instead, let’s dig out the brainy specs and cover a few points about why this decision by DC makes no sense.

First off, I should point out that DC has recently tweeted that their decision to not do the wedding had nothing to do with Batwoman’s sexual orientation…and in doing so, it’s thoroughly clear that they miss the point entirely as to why people are pissed off about this. I’m not saying that no one is accusing them of being homophobic or whatever, only that if there is anyone doing that, they’re wrong. If DC had a problem with Batwoman being gay, she never would’ve been gay in the first place. And guess what, people? The modern Batwoman has been gay since her first appearance in June 2006. On top of that, if they were ever gonna undo that, wouldn’t they have done it in The New 52? Plus, we’ve seen women get married in DC Comics before. Hell, Secret Six actually had THREE women get into a polygamous marriage… … …Long story. lol

So no, sorry to disappoint anybody, but DC did not do this because Batwoman’s a lesbian. No, the issue is actually much WORSE than that: DC doesn’t want their superheroes married. Period. The only heroes I can think of that are married right now are Aquaman and Animal Man, and even they have their families royally screwed around with on numerous occasions. Why is that? I DON’T KNOW! I don’t think anyone knows! The closest theory I can come to is the same as why Marvel Comics broke up the marriage of Spider-man and Mary Jane: They didn’t think Spider-man could still be an effective superhero while being tied down by anyone, and they didn’t want the reality of Peter Parker married to someone infecting the escapist fiction of him swinging around a city and fighting bad guys.

And if that’s the case, I have to ask DC to do us all a favour: STOP. MIMICKING. MARVEL. Stop doing things just because Marvel did them. They may put out great stories, but they’ve also put out their fair share of horrible stories too, and One More Day was one of ’em. You keep trying this, to mimic what Marvel does in an attempt to win some kinda war with them, instead of focusing on what’s wrong with your own product and trying to fix it. This is not helping your standings, DC, it’s HURTING it. And while Batwoman being gay may not have anything to do with why you decided against the marriage, it should’ve been a HUGE part of the reason to let it go through. You’ve actually won awards from organizations like the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for Batwoman. You would’ve benefited so much from this, especially given the fact that gay marriage is now legal in a crap-ton of countries, and a recent poll showed most of America was in favour of it too.

But hey, let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment and suggest that there was some reason beyond utter stupidity for undoing the plan to marry Batwoman and Maggie Sawyer. I dunno, maybe they’re planning to have her get together with someone else, or maybe Renee Montoya will finally come back and it’ll become a love triangle of some sort. Well, if that’s the case, then I have a question, and it’s one I actually posed to them on Twitter: If you were against the idea of the marriage to begin with, why would you clear it at all? Like, you realise this issue wouldn’t even exist if they were never engaged to begin with. You could just say they were living together. You could’ve worked something out with Williams and Blackman when it was first suggested, and say “We’re not sure we’re completely comfortable with the idea, but we really like your creativity on this book, so let’s see if maybe there’s something we can brainstorm together that we can all agree on”. This isn’t a hard thing to do.

So, now the question becomes, who is gonna be writing Batwoman starting with Issue 27? Frankly ,there’s only one person working for DC now that I can honestly see taking the reigns of this book with Williams and Blackman gone, and unless a miracle happens, she’s not getting it. And the sad thing is, no matter who it is, they’re pretty much screwed. Snyder, Johns, Rucka, Nocenti, could any of them do anything with this character that could possibly get fans interested in their run with the book? I honestly can’t think of anything. Plus, there’s the whole situation of Batwoman vs Batman and Batwoman being forced to work for the D.E.O. that I honestly feel hold the book down a bit, and I shudder to think that with Maggie gone (‘cuz let’s face it folks, that will probably be the end result, is Maggie either leaving Kate or getting killed somehow) that that’ll be the primary focus.

I honestly do not know where this series goes from here, other than what I just stated. And to be blunt, at this point, with people being as upset as they are over this, if I was running DC, I’d do ANYTHING to try and get Williams and Blackman back. Let them do the marriage. Let them do ANYTHING, if it meant putting the kibosh on the current outcry of pissed-off fans and trying to save this book. ‘Cuz if you think your readers’ input doesn’t matter, I wonder how much you think their money does.

Anyway, that’s my general take on the situation. Vote below if you think this was a good idea, leave comments, whatever. Hopefully, the next Tale of Dumbassery will be less painful than this for me. Ja né.

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