Well, ever really meaning since the last weird DC announcement.
So, yesterday we ran the story (as well as others) that Kevin Maguire, fan-favorite and announced series artist of “Justice League 3000” had been fired. But it’s OK, because he already has other offers (or so his interactions with Brian Bendis on Twitter would insinuate). Not only that, but Maguire released a statement on his Facebook saying that he has other offers from DC of all places, so the bridge isn’t burned.
So, ok, that’s good.
But then DC announced today, “exclusively to Newsarama,” that the new artist of the series would be Howard Porter. Makes sense to a degree; Porter was the one doing the character designs for the book and it would be rather natural for him to make the transition onto a Justice League book having redefined the team with Grant Morrison on “JLA.”
Where it gets weird, though, is that this Exclusive Announcement includes two things:
1. It notes that rather than comment on the situation and what happened, DC gave Newsarama the reveal — which basically insinuates something along the lines of “Stop asking, just take this and be happy.” No inherent disrespect to Newsarama or Chris Arrant intended, but that kind of gift-wrapped exclusive item just reeks of deflection on the companies part. And it is weird.
2. It includes this statement from Keith Giffen, which reads:
“The guy who nailed the character designs on the interior of the book? The guy who teamed with Grant Morrison to make JLA a hit? This is what they call a no-brainer,” series co-writer Keith Giffen said in a exclusive statement to Newsarama. “Welcome aboard Howard. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful collaboration.”
That’s a bit weird too, right? At least in the sense that Maguire’s body barely being cold after being fired and Giffen basically delivering the most realpolitik statement of excitement. Because I’m sure Giffen, among every fan excited for the book, realized that the hype for the series was based around the team: himself, DeMatteis and Maguire. Porter is great, don’t get me wrong, but that statement barely reads even remotely sincere.
I, like probably a few others out there, only had tertial interest in the series based on the involvement of the creators. Do we need a “Justice League 3000”? Mm, probably not; but I would also say we don’t need half of the books DC is trying to get away with in Villain’s Month — yet there are still a few decent creative teams in there. For a lot of readers (and by that I mean “a lot of readers who also read online critiques like this one”), the teams that DC is working with is the only selling point to the books — the characters have all become barely recognizable that we just hope we can get a good story. “3000” isn’t appealing until you look at who is writing and illustrating it, and then you can get excited.
When DC treats their creatives so poorly, though, it’s tough to be excited anymore. In fact, it’s really just depressing to own a Superman t-shirt at that point.
“Justice League 3000” #1 will be released in December. Maybe.
