Tynion Leaving Batman and Joker

[Hypo]

A Whole New Era

But in the midst of all of that, I was trying to make one of the most difficult decisions of my professional life. DC had presented me with a three-year renewal of my exclusive contract, with the intent of me working on Batman for the bulk of that time. I was grateful of the offer, but I couldn’t help but look at the success of my original, creator owned titles and wonder if it was the right choice.

And then I received another contract. The best I’ve ever been given in a decade as a professional comic book writer. A grant from Substack to create a new slate of original comic book properties directly on their platform, that my co-creators and I would own completely, with Substack taking none of the intellectual property rights, or even the publishing rights.

Given my bandwidth, I knew I could only pick one of two contracts sitting in front of me.

Which is a lot of preamble to say that I am going to be leaving BATMAN with Issue #117 in November, and THE JOKER with Issue #14 next April, with no immediate plans to write any other superhero comics in the near future.

[Hypo]

Going to leave quite a hole to fill - place your bets on who's taking over.

Short term probably not great for the line, going to be quite a few plot threads left dangling I think.

[MajorHoy]

Please don't let Bendis be the next Batman writer!

[Vordan]

Beat me! Mods please lock or delete my other thread.

I speculated that either Tom Taylor or John Ridley will get the book now. Taylor if they want to keep Bruce since he can write Bruce well and he’s the other golden boy besides Tynion. Ridley if they actually seriously want Jace to be Batman for a bit like Jon taking over Superman.

[Hypo]

For those who don't know what substack is: https://www.comicsbeat.com/substack-...-nick-spencer/

[Morgoth]

I doubt it's Ridley, since Jace ongoing literally just started, and also, well, let's be honest, no way Bruce is losing main title. My bet is Taylor.
But it's really shocking.

[MajorHoy]

Substack seems to be grabbing quite a few name comic book talents: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/b...mic-books.html

Comic Book Writers and Artists Follow Other Creators to Substack

A group of creators will publish new comic book stories, essays and how-to guides on the platform as a way to connect directly with fans.


In recent years, dozens of top journalists, historians and essayists have tried their luck as solo practitioners on Substack, the digital newsletter platform that has built an audience of more than 500,000 subscribers since it started in 2017. Now, a number of comic book creators have decided to do the same.

Nick Spencer, a comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Entertainment, was the liaison between Substack and a group of creators who, starting Monday, will publish new comic book stories, essays and how-to guides on the platform.

He said he approached Chris Best, a Substack founder, with the idea last year, when the pandemic was keeping many fans out of the comic book shops and the creators were looking for new ways to connect with readers.

The initial lineup includes comic-centric newsletters from Saladin Ahmed, Jonathan Hickman, Molly Ostertag, Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV, with other writers and artists to be announced.

I'm not sure how many would be going the same root as Tynion and totally dropping any current work on major titles from DC or Marvel.

[Vordan]

Please don't let Bendis be the next Batman writer!

I hope it is Bendis and I hope he brings Maleev. Even if you didn’t like his Superman/other DC work, all of his Batman stories so far have been getting positive reception, and Bendis will 100% bring killer artists and focus on classic Batman Rogues. I’d like him to do a proper run on Batman before he is done at DC. If he sucks you’ve got 19 other Batman books to compensate lol.

[hairys]

I'm okay with this because besides his 'Tec run, I didn't really like his stuff. Will I like the next writer to come along? Probably not (that's just the state of DC and Marvel these days) but I'm okay with rolling the dice to see who pops up.

[Morgoth]

Bendis is not the worst case scenario, since he handles street level characters way better, I would say someone like Batman or Green Arrow is perfect for him. Just keep Damian away from Bendis, and it's going to be fine. I doubt it's him, though.

[MajorHoy]

Bendis is not the worst case scenario, since he handles street level characters way better, I would say someone like Batman or Green Arrow is perfect for him. Just keep Damian away from him, and it's going to be fine. I doubt it's him, though.

I keep hearing people say that, but every time I read any Bendis "dialogue" I throw up my hands and refuse to buy anything that his name on it as "writer".

And the little bits I've read by him featuring Green Arrow that are in previews don't exactly make me want to see any more!

[Hypo]

I don't want Bendis, while Batman: Universe was great but everything else he's done at DC has fallen hard into the Bendis tropes that I don't find appealing - give me some new blood please.

[HsssH]

Tynion leaving DC is best DC related news I have read this year probably.

[Morgoth]

I would like to see Priest or Lemire writing main book, but, yeah, I know it's highly unlikely.

[hairys]

I would like to see Priest or Lemire writing main book, but, yeah, I know it's highly unlikely.

Yeah, I would love Priest but that's not happening.

While I'm not in love with him, I could see Zdarsky as an acceptable, more-likely-than-Priest option.