Today, “Batwoman” #24 hits stands everywhere and marks the final issue of JH Williams III and W. Haden Blackman’s run on the title, as previously announced. Or, to an extent anyway, as the team planned to leave at issue #26 and were booted off two issues earlier to be replaced at #25 by Marc Andreyko and Jeremy Haun.
In terms of how it all played out, you’d imagine that part of this was just DC employing schoolyard tactics (the bully beating you up harder because you told an adult about your problems) instead of letting their creators do what they are comfortable and/or happy with. But, well. Here we are.
Of course, for those of you who are fans of the Williams/Blackman run on the series — like I’d imagine most of you are — there’s an obvious level of anti-climax here as their story was never allowed to actually get where it was going. “Batwoman” #26 is a good issue, but it’s a good issue within its run; as a finale, it barely registers as anything more than a lost chance — and I don’t mean that as an insult to the creative team, who didn’t even realize their story wouldn’t reach the point they were trying to bring it to. If you care more about the character then I guess all is fine, but otherwise, the issue leaves a lot to be desired from what you’d expect not only in follow-up issues but general business practices.
And as such, Williams writes with a heavy heart about all that might have been:
What saddens me about it is that our issue 26 two months from now would have ended in a place that would serve as an adequate end cap to our run in a lot of ways. We knew how we were going to wrap things by issue 26, and felt we would have done so in a satisfying manner, or so we hoped. There was SO much stuff going to happen, some crazy reveals, the reveal of Bones’ past, just how he connects to Kate and Beth Kane, and a confrontation with Jacob Kane and his Murder Of Crows. Batwoman having the final throw-down with Batman. We were going to give large plot points on how Beth became Alice. Bette Kane a.k.a. Hawkfire shocked and horrified by something Alice/Beth does during the rescue mission. Ultimately bring the entire family to some form of a beginning to heal, and how Maggie would fit into all of this. Chase, seeing the horrors of what Director Bones is doing, was going to cause her to make a radical decision that would forever change her life. This was all set up after altering a major plot point to suit DC’s needs. We would’ve been able to end our run at good spot for the next creative team. But that must only be happening in some parallel world. So the first 7 issues of this fourth arc will leave the story in a sort of limbo and not fully resolved, at least by us.
All of this may be covered in some form, and you’d imagine that things like the history of Bones and what happened to Alice/Beth has to at some point discussed. But, no matter what Andreyko and Haun do following-up this run (which, granted, could be incredible; I’m a fan of both their work), the title now has this unfortunate taint to it due to the less-than-amicable exit of the initial creative team.
(The second, mind you, as Amy Reeder walked off the book initially, and part of the reason to buy the book initially was a mix and match of Amy’s art with J3’s. Thankfully, now we have “Rocket Girl!”)
It’s a grand shame, really. This isn’t the first time runs have been cut short and it won’t be the last time. From DC, I’m actually reminded of the final issue of Bryan Q. Miller’s “Batgirl” and James Robinson’s “JLA”, which both went through what could’ve been months of stories in the span of a few pages. Both were sad and wishful, with a dashed sense of hope present in each. “Batwoman” doesn’t even get that.
Continued belowWhat comes next? I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me all about it, because I won’t be reading.
I look forward to the future endeavors of the “Batwoman” creative team, particularly J3’s work on “Sandman” and wherever else his artwork may pop-up. And as for Kate, I think Williams said it best:
I guess we have to say goodbye to Batwoman for real now. We love you Kate.
