Artist and co-writer J. H. Williams III and writer W. Haden Blackman left, Blackman wrote at his blog, because:
Unfortunately, in recent months, DC has asked us to alter or completely discard many long-standing storylines in ways that we feel compromise the character and the series. We were told to ditch plans for Killer Croc’s origins; forced to drastically alter the original ending of our current arc, which would have defined Batwoman’s heroic future in bold new ways; and, most crushingly, prohibited from ever showing Kate and Maggie actually getting married.
Williams tweeted that this “was never put to us as being anti-gay marriage” (thanks, GeeksOut), but at geek gal site The Mary Sue, Susana Polo hits the nail on the head with her analysis of why DC Comics’ decision still matters:
Now, we all know that inside of comics, almost nobody gets a stable relationship, but given the context of the kinds of stories that are told about gay characters, and that have been told about gay characters for years, it is insensitive to simply view “postponing, denying or destroying a marriage between gay characters” to have precisely the same narrative weight as “postponing, denying or destroying a marriage between straight characters.” And that’s without even considering the real life struggle of real people to have their right to marry recognized by the society around them.
I’d add that this shouldn’t mean that every gay character should marry — not every gay person in reality wants to — but when they set up a relationship to the point of an engagement, when both characters want to marry, then Polo’s observation applies.
Maybe Williams and Blackman will start their own title starring a lesbian superhero couple and their brood of superkids, kind of like The Fosters meets The Incredibles. Hey, I can dream. . . .
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