![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Rage. Hate. Email.
Basically, Willingham posted over here, regarding the reaction to Batman 644, in a post that makes me hate him as a person, as well as a writer.
You can contact DCU through this page, so I sent a letter to them.
Regarding Batman 644, Bill Willingham said: "Here's something you readers need to realize: Though we generally hope readers will like our stories, hating them is almost as good. Hating them so much that yours is the one book everyone is talking about now -- well that's golden. One can't hate without passion and involvement. The one reaction we most fear is indifference.
Yes, I'm a little put out by the (at least three and counting) reputedly male readers who posted testimony that they wept after reading this issue (one claiming it was for the loss of innocence). Not that I believe they actually did. But I'm still from an early enough American generation to find men claiming to act like overly dramatic little girls just a little bit cringe-making.
And of course there were scores of those claiming that this incident was the last straw and they're giving up my books, or the Bat books, or all comic books, forever. Here's a splash of water for everyone who ever has or ever will make such an hysterical claim on a message board: We never believe you. If you're the type to indulge in "how dare they do that!" we know you'll always be back for further outrages. Those addicted to indignation need constant indignation feeding.
But, that aside, all is good. Feel free to blame me for ruining Batman. I could claim that editorial mandates were in force here and thereby split the blame a bit, but I think this time I won't. I willingly took the job, and I'm too greedy to want to share the credit this time.
How do you like them apples?"
http://fabletown.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5902#5902
So, first set of questions:
How can you have someone writing for you who honestly seems to hold people in contempt for caring about the storyline? For being upset that a character who for thirty years has been a pacifist, has never been shown otherwise, essentially commits homicide in order to make a point to Batman?
The thing is, fans don't, actually, keep reading comics that we hate, especially when written by people that seem to hold us in contempt. We drop them. We read comics for the characters, and when those are lost...
Well, it's why I can't read Robin. If I want to read Robin, I'll read him in Titans or Nightwing as maybe having a Robin that's recogniseable. If I want to stay being interested in that character, I have to avoid everything that Willingham's writing him in. Essentially, my interest in Tim is what stops me buying Robin, that I actually care about his character and his characterisation means I won't be buying Robin as long as Willingham's writing it.
Characters change, but that change has to be, well, in character. Otherwise it doesn't work-- this is fiction. Character is all we have, and when you break that -not change, but break- then you break the story. It stops working. Even acting out of character has to be in character -the Batman of Formerly Known as the Justice League is acting out of character compared to most other titles, but it works because it's an in character ooc, Batman showing parts of his personality we see bits of elsewhere, but he usually keeps hidden. It's still him, not someone else in a Batman suit.
Characters change with writers as well, Dixon's Nightwing and Devin Grayson's are not identical, but they're both still recogniseable as the same character under different circumstances, different stresses, which is good, because I read Nightwing for, well, Nightwing. Not, as fond as I am, for Devin Grayson or Chuck Dixon.
But I'm sure you know this, which is why it makes it even more bizarre that you allow writing like this.
So I guess my main question is why you allow writing like this from someone who's shown that they don't care about characterisation?
Honestly, I don't know if they even read the letters. Given Willingham's comments, it seems unlikely, but I like to believe that the rest of DC staff are better people than him.
You can contact DCU through this page, so I sent a letter to them.
Regarding Batman 644, Bill Willingham said: "Here's something you readers need to realize: Though we generally hope readers will like our stories, hating them is almost as good. Hating them so much that yours is the one book everyone is talking about now -- well that's golden. One can't hate without passion and involvement. The one reaction we most fear is indifference.
Yes, I'm a little put out by the (at least three and counting) reputedly male readers who posted testimony that they wept after reading this issue (one claiming it was for the loss of innocence). Not that I believe they actually did. But I'm still from an early enough American generation to find men claiming to act like overly dramatic little girls just a little bit cringe-making.
And of course there were scores of those claiming that this incident was the last straw and they're giving up my books, or the Bat books, or all comic books, forever. Here's a splash of water for everyone who ever has or ever will make such an hysterical claim on a message board: We never believe you. If you're the type to indulge in "how dare they do that!" we know you'll always be back for further outrages. Those addicted to indignation need constant indignation feeding.
But, that aside, all is good. Feel free to blame me for ruining Batman. I could claim that editorial mandates were in force here and thereby split the blame a bit, but I think this time I won't. I willingly took the job, and I'm too greedy to want to share the credit this time.
How do you like them apples?"
http://fabletown.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5902#5902
So, first set of questions:
How can you have someone writing for you who honestly seems to hold people in contempt for caring about the storyline? For being upset that a character who for thirty years has been a pacifist, has never been shown otherwise, essentially commits homicide in order to make a point to Batman?
The thing is, fans don't, actually, keep reading comics that we hate, especially when written by people that seem to hold us in contempt. We drop them. We read comics for the characters, and when those are lost...
Well, it's why I can't read Robin. If I want to read Robin, I'll read him in Titans or Nightwing as maybe having a Robin that's recogniseable. If I want to stay being interested in that character, I have to avoid everything that Willingham's writing him in. Essentially, my interest in Tim is what stops me buying Robin, that I actually care about his character and his characterisation means I won't be buying Robin as long as Willingham's writing it.
Characters change, but that change has to be, well, in character. Otherwise it doesn't work-- this is fiction. Character is all we have, and when you break that -not change, but break- then you break the story. It stops working. Even acting out of character has to be in character -the Batman of Formerly Known as the Justice League is acting out of character compared to most other titles, but it works because it's an in character ooc, Batman showing parts of his personality we see bits of elsewhere, but he usually keeps hidden. It's still him, not someone else in a Batman suit.
Characters change with writers as well, Dixon's Nightwing and Devin Grayson's are not identical, but they're both still recogniseable as the same character under different circumstances, different stresses, which is good, because I read Nightwing for, well, Nightwing. Not, as fond as I am, for Devin Grayson or Chuck Dixon.
But I'm sure you know this, which is why it makes it even more bizarre that you allow writing like this.
So I guess my main question is why you allow writing like this from someone who's shown that they don't care about characterisation?
Honestly, I don't know if they even read the letters. Given Willingham's comments, it seems unlikely, but I like to believe that the rest of DC staff are better people than him.
no subject
I mean, god forbid we *care* about the characters we read about. We should spend our money so we can be casually distinterested.
*seething, seething hatred*
no subject
Even just emailing in, linking to that and asking why you have someone like that writing for DCU, for one of the key characters in it...