There was a whole lot of fangirl (and fanboy) fist-shaking going on last week when DC announced that it is delaying the release of Batwoman #1. Again. Batwoman’s solo title – the follow-up to the critically praised, GLAAD award-winning Batwoman: Elegy – was originally slated to hit shelves in February. It was pushed to April, and now DC is promising that it will be published, it really will, at some undeclared point in the future.
For a company that has a long track record of mishandling Batwoman, it was a pretty bleak announcement. First they lost Greg Rucka. Then the delays. I was really starting to wonder if they were committed to the project at all, but over the weekend the always classy J.H. Williams III took to his blog to try to ease his fans’ minds.
Well, its obvious to many that Batwoman’s release has been pushed back yet again. This was not our choice, and as to why, I’m not at liberty to really discuss. So the release may be farther away now, but be assured that work is still commencing. The upside to a later release means that gives us plenty of time to get a lot of issues done. Amy has turned in some variant cover work for the series and has shown us thumbnails for issue 6, looks really nice. So while I’m moving forward, she is too, we’ll have my arc done and hers well on it’s way to completion by the time this thing rolls out. The only real downside is that solicits were pulled on us twice, making readers heads spin, wish that didn’t happen, but it has, lets just make the best of it. I’m fast approaching the middle of issue 3’s interior art, Haden and I’ve started working on script for issue 8, the first five covers are done, and Dave has had issue 2 in his hands for his special magic touch.
Williams even went rogue and released the cover art for issue #3. “To keep spirits up,” he said.
(Click through to Williams’ blog to see the cover sketches. They’re pretty rad.)
It’s not a stretch to say that Batwoman #1 is the most anticipated title of 2011. Her run in Detective Comics last year was praised in every corner of comics fandom. The fact that she won over guys and gals alike, without any titillating lesbian nonsense from Rucka and Williams, is remarkable. They explored Kate Kane’s battle with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” with uncommon empathy and accuracy. So much so that Rachel Maddow praised the writers in her forward in Elegy.
If there’s any good news about this most recent delay, it’s that once Batwoman #1 rolls out, there won’t be any delay between issues, especially if Williams & Co. have an eight-issue cushion built up, which is what he seemed to indicate on his blog.
In the interest of awesomeness, I can wait a little longer. But if DC botches up this project for real, I will never forgive them.
How do you feel about DC delaying Batwoman #1 again?
