New writer for BATMAN announced! And it's... oh crap.

[thehefner.insanejournal.com]

Good news, everyone! Judd Winnick is off BATMAN! Thank god! Now, who are they getting to replace him... w...?

Tony Daniel. Tony frickin' Daniel.





After taking a few months off after Battle for the Cowl, Tony Daniel is coming back to Gotham City, replacing both Judd Winick and Mark Bagley on the title to write and draw a six-issue arc beginning in October. This, according to DC’s blog, The Source. As previously announced, Bagley will move to Justice League of America with writer James Robinson.

Daniel told The Source: “It’s a very exciting time right now. I’ve done my research, I’ve chosen my players, and I’ve outlined six months worth of story and I’m in the scripting phase of my first issue. We’ll be seeing the return of some once-familiar faces, faces, I can say, who are not so friendly to Gotham. I’ll be introducing a new character to the city of Gotham. There are also a few surprises in store that I hope will get people excited. “


AUGH.

But honestly, the main reason I'm posting this is to share my WTF-ness over this image:





God, I'd thought--I'd truly hoped--that the initial image of Harvey looking like the world's most deranged male Harley Quinn cosplayer was just an idea that would never come to pass after we didn't see anything of it in the misbegotten tripe that was BATTLE FOR THE COWL. But dear lord, he's actually doing it, and it's dumber than I could have imagined.

I know some people like Daniel's art, but I absolutely loathe it. He just strikes me as the epitome of mediocre 90's Image-style leftovers, and he was the single greatest factor keeping me from getting any enjoyment out of Morrison's BATMAN run. If they'd gotten Quitely, or someone like J.H. Williams III or Simone Bianchi--y'know, an actual artist!--I actually might have dug it. Now, I'd actually prefer Winnick's writing, which I never thought I'd say.

Comments

[batcookies.insanejournal.com]

DC's doing its darnedest to make me drop all things Bat. I'm down to just the Dini books now.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm just getting into graphic novels and I'm already on the outs with this. My god, it's the stuff thats keeping the medium down.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

looks far superior to Quietly's to me. He always makes people heads look like they're squishy pumpkins with veins.

[thehefner.insanejournal.com]

I'll take even Quitely's most grotesque work over this spectacular mediocrity, which I find worse than actually being outright bad.

[sleepymax.insanejournal.com]

I wish they'd just keep Bagley on art. Daniel's art is so boring and generic and his writing isn't much better.

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

That first image? Batman's using the power of crotch-fu!

Still, Harvey as Bats? WHY, DAMMIT, WHY?

GODDAMNIT DIDIO

[thehefner.insanejournal.com]

Look, I'd actually be all up for Harvey being Batman for a bit. I'm still pissed at FACE THE FACE for wasting the brilliant potential of having Harvey be the vigilante protector of Gotham. Like Jason's Red Hood, he'd be the wild card character that neither the heroes nor villains would trust! Tons of potential!

But this...? No. Dear lord, no, this is doing it wrong wrong WRONG.

[jedd_the_jedi.insanejournal.com]

Tony Daniel's work is barely passable to me. Still, I prefer it to the art of the other "Daniel", Scott McDaniel. Ugh, is his work the definition of deformed or what?

[thehefner.insanejournal.com]

I can easily understand why anyone would dislike McDaniel's work, yet I appreciate how unique it is, so kinetic and full of life. Like I said above, I'd take even the most grotesque and deformed and outright-bad art over bland, lifeless, mediocre work like Tony Daniel's. I can understand why people like his work in the same way as I can understand why people like Greg Land. It's shiny... so long as you don't mind the soullessness.

Actually, you remind me, there's an issue of DETECTIVE COMICS written by Brubaker and drawn by McDaniel that I need to post here. It'll cleanse the palate rather nicely, particularly with how it involves Harvey...

[gargoylekitty.insanejournal.com]

I swear, it's like DC is trying to help me save money or something.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

I was very upset by this also. I really dislike Tony Daniel's art as well, and do not enjoy his writing.

At any rate, I think now they must be only 3 Batmans away from someone donning the rainbow Batman costume (http://pics.livejournal.com/the_dark_cat/pic/00052p68).

[telwyrd.insanejournal.com]

Isn't this issue part of the 4-part story currently written by Judd Winnick?

And uhm...iliketonydaniel'sart.

[thehefner.insanejournal.com]

Maybe so, but either way, this ain't good news.

B-but it's... it's so soulless! Shiny, but soulless!

[daggerpen.insanejournal.com]

... you've got to be fucking kidding me.

You know, I was actually kind of looking forward to Winnick returning, because at least he got Jason, which is better than the recent crap, but now... gah. I am filled with an unholy rage at this.

What the Hell, DC? I've already dropped all the Bat books. Do you want me to just boycott you entirely now?

[starwolf_oakley.insanejournal.com]

Tony Daniel. Who had a powerless Bart Allen shout "I AM THE FLASH!" while being beaten to death, so Inertia could taunt "He screamed like a little bitch!"

Of course, Daniel also drew a power page of Robin learning about Bart's death and just slumping to the floor.

[rbenchley.insanejournal.com]

Daniel penciled the issue, but Marc Guggenheim was the writer on that issue.

[kingrockwell]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
This is worse than finding out after the fact that Rucka had a signing in Dallas the same week I was there. :(

[oddpuppets.insanejournal.com]

Can anyone explain to me WHY?

BftC, as far as I know, was a critical failure. I am not sure about the sales, but all the sites I read panned the shit, and rightfully so. Daniel's interviews, especially those where he tried to remove the gray-spectrum morality, have only further disheartened me. (As many have stated, if you are going to have gray morality at all in the DCU, it better fucking well be in the Batman mythos - because there's always been a strong vein running through Batman's history. Seriously! HE'S A VIGILANTE WHO USED TO BE HUNTED BY THE POLICE. There's no cutting the shades of gray in Gotham)

His art is distinctly uninteresting and borderline horrible, and his first writing venture was a critical flop, so why, whywhywhy, is he given the chance to write on one of DC's premier books? I understand that DC editorial/management might be grooming him for top-tier status (ha.ha.ha.) but they surely must understand that he has to start from the ground up, like everyone else. Putting him on as class a book as Batman can only hurt, both him and us.

I just don't understand.

[daggerpen.insanejournal.com]

Motto.

[regnet.insanejournal.com]

I ACCIDENTALLY the entire seventy-year-old batman franchise. Oh noez. :|

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

I look at Daniel as I looked at Porter on JLA: I can see why people like it, but for me it's all too much Shiny-slick. Not to mention the eye isn't really drawn dramatically to anything. I would prefer Kubert's unspectacular but solid art to this.

As I've said before, I don't know how much of it is the fault of his inkers.

[nymphgalatea.insanejournal.com]

Porters' art on JLA was fugly (and the inking/colouring has aged rather badly on the older issues), but the man could draw the hell out of a fight scene. There was a sense of dynamism and strength and speed to his characters that Daniel simply can't produce. All his characters are stiff and posed, like mannequins.

[toasty_fresh.insanejournal.com]

My reaction:
(http://s481.photobucket.com/albums/rr174/toasty-fresh/?action=view&current=g2.gif)

Also:
I know some people like Daniel's art, but I absolutely loathe it. He just strikes me as the epitome of mediocre 90's Image-style leftovers, and he was the single greatest factor keeping me from getting any enjoyment out of Morrison's BATMAN run.

PREACH

[daggerpen.insanejournal.com]

I know, right? It's like DC doesn't WANT us to read anymore Batman.

I don't suppose you'd happen to know where I could write/email to bitch to the powers that be about this?

[ladymirth.insanejournal.com]

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! *cries*

Just when I thought Batman might stop completely sucking for a while. The only Bat-title I'm enjoying right now is Red Robin. As long as none of this man's dementia spill over to that book, I'm just going to ignore it all.

Seriously.

[lacunatattoo.insanejournal.com]

I actually was good with the first issue of the new Batman. It seemed like, I don't know, an actual story. In other words, a fresh departure from BFTC.

Red Robin, as much as people loathe the costume and the history of that identity, is looking to be incredibly interesting, and Yost is so far one issue deep in GOODness.

Didio must have signed a contract with the devil, in blood, and I guess Satan owes TD a favor.

[trelas.insanejournal.com]

I'm actually a bit sad, because I liked Winick's first issue of his current run, thought it really worked on so many levels. Although it might only be a momentary switch between writers or then DC is trying to establish a rolling creative team for the title.

On the other hand, I didn't have that big of a problem with BftC, although his idea of removing the grey morality of Gotham is a bit troubling to me. It's been the central theme of so many great stories, how there are no easy solutions there, so to take it to the other direction is a bit weird.

[stig.insanejournal.com]

Besides, his blog gives me hope:

...this arc is six issues long so they've given me plenty of space to craft a story. A real, honest-to-goodness Batman story. ( I don't count BFTC because that wasn't really a Batman story at all, it was more of a multi-character event, told by three different characters, so you get it, it's not the same thing).

I've been allowed to come up with something on my own, from top to bottom, anything I wanted (not that they'd approve of anything but you know what I mean) and I'm happy to say they all agreed my plan for the next half year after Judd leaves will be the greatest thing since the internet was created. Just kidding.

What I can say is that I am a Batman fan through and through and I know what appeals to me as a Batman fan. I know what kinds of things make me excited about a Batman book and what intrigues me. So I'm very happy to get the chance to share that and to explore, and have the room to explore, what I believe makes a good Batman story.

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

this arc is six issues long

That's how long Nightwing: OYL was, right?

[thebigapricot.insanejournal.com]

Total Batdickery.

It's like DC did it just to get people to admit they like Winnick.

And now they'll probably put Winnick on something else that I wouldn't want him on. And DC's line on will be, "Oh but everyone was really sad when he left Batman."

I don't hate Tony Daniel's art. I don't particularly like it either. But his writing on Battle for the Cowl was three long months of wind sucking.

Oh no, do you think they are sending Winnick back to GA/BC? I guess anything would be better than Kreisberg.

[kagome654.insanejournal.com]

I was...looking forward to Winick on Batman and hate Tony Daniel's writing and art.

So it looks like Batman is leaving my pull list for the first time in ages. Screw it, I'm not putting up with this crap again.

At least I'm not paying for it. I may flip through it in the store

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

Same here.

[ian_karkull.insanejournal.com]

Hahahahaha!! Multiple Batmen? Check. Mediocre to terrible artwork? Check. Stupid and incomprehensible plot? Check and check!
In a few years, this entire era of Batman will have become just as infamous as the 90's Superman books.

Meanwhile, I'll be in my quiet, little corner, enjoying the hell out of the Rucka/WilliamsIII Detective Comics.

[daggerpen.insanejournal.com]

"In a few years, this entire era of Batman will have become just as infamous as the 90's Superman books."

I hope it does, and is just as totally retconned out of existence. Especially as relates to Jason- I mean, WTF, Daniel?

[menagerie.insanejournal.com]

I love the first cover. There's not nearly enough pouches or cross hatching or ExTREME inking to make it look that 90's to me.

[sailorlibra.insanejournal.com]

The motto of the story is "never wish for Winnick to leave a title." His replacement will always be a thousand times worse. (Kriesberg, anyone?)

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

That's a frighteningly good point. We got Dixon on Outsiders, Kreisberg on GA/BC, and now Daniel on Batman.

[janegray.insanejournal.com]

*Darth Vader*NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!*/Darth Vader*

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

I loved Winick's first issue, and I was greatly looking forward more.

Now I'm just hoping Tony Daniel stays far the hell away from Jason. I'd rather have him not write Dick, either, but Dick's well-established enough a character not to get RUINED FOREVER if a writer messes up. Jason? Has a bad track record with writers messing him up. And let's see what happened to Cass.

[daggerpen.insanejournal.com]

"Now I'm just hoping Tony Daniel stays far the hell away from Jason. I'd rather have him not write Dick, either, but Dick's well-established enough a character not to get RUINED FOREVER if a writer messes up. Jason? Has a bad track record with writers messing him up."

That is, almost word for word, exactly what I was thinking.