Recently this morning a news pretty much shock the internet when Bleedingcool breakout the news that Gail Simone was out of the Batgirl book, which she later confirmed, and the news quickly spread to all other important comic news sites, IGN, Newsarama, CBR, and sadly no Comicvine XD
I wont hide the fact that I have detested Gail's work in this title since the beginning, the new Barbara Gordon just doesnt work for me at all and i will not hide the fact that this news fills me with an euphoric state of happiness cause it really opens the possibility that the book might become readable
agree or disagree in that regard, i really dont care, but it is very curious the way that the entire situation happen
This is Rare
this is a very out of the ordinary situation that has never happen in DC Before in recent times, at least since Dwayne Mcduffie was fired from JLA years ago
so, what happen?
before on this week Bleedingcool reported the rumor that she was off the title, Gail later responding that "she didnt left the title"
then we heard that a fill in writer is going to be doing chps 17 and 18, this one would not be a big surprice or a big news except for the fact that solicitations for issue 17 are already out and showing Gail as the writer
and now she informs us that since wednesday she was inform that she was nolonger in the book
This is high unusual because even if she was fired in regular circumstances she can still being given a notice, telling her what will be her last issue, lets remember, comics get produced with several months behind them, which means that by this week Gail Simone should already had have the scripts for chps 17-18-19 and maybe even 20 already prepared to be drawn edited or even released, it is work produced that will never see the light of day
so whatever happen, this wasnt expected at all
which brings 2 pieces to the puzzle
First DC's Exclusivity contract with Gail Simone expired exactly this week
for those who dont understand the idea of the contract, is just like any other contract but it gives certain job security to writers cause if a writer is fired with no fair justification otherwise the person in question have more options open to him/her
and second is the new editor of Batgirl Brian Cunningham, the guy who allegedly fired Gail
Lets be fair, Brian didnt fired Gail, he is the new editor, which to me means that the other editor was taken out of Batgirl just like Gail Simone was, Brian is just the replacement and the messenger
UPDATE
This is something that Gail said in her board
Originally Posted by Gail Simone on her board
The rumor is true, my new editor fired me on Wednesday. It was a crappy day.
I tried to save it, it seemed to me to be an easily fixable situation.
Not sure what my plans are, my email box is thankfully cool of interesting offers. And several DC higher-ups and reached
out with kind notes of support.
Thats definitely interesting
So it boil down to this
DC or someone at DC no longer wanted Gail to write Batgirl, for what reason?
for whatever that reason was, It is not good enough to fire her before her contract expires, but it is more than enough to fire her and end her run 1 issue too soon, after the contract expired, pretty much they didnt want to wait until her contract was over to fire her
there is a rumor going on with some of her twitter feeds which imply that the editorial wanted to do something violent in the book and Gail didnt wanted to follow up, theories imply crippling Barbara again, killing/maiming/crippling her roommate, among others
There is no way this is true.
Why would it be a problem to Gail Simone to cripple/maim/kill a character in this book, Batgirl after all has been a very violent book, last issue had Barbara's mother losing a finger. we get characters who are physically or mentally tortured, this would not make sense
and if DC wants to go back to Oracle, it would be a matter of methodology and not willing to do it from behalf of Gail since we know she loves oracle
Finally there is one last theory which is the Origin of Nu-Batgirl, or how she fixed her spine
Gail said that she wanted to tell the story of her recovery from the second arc, and it was pushed again, and again, until finally she said that it was going to happen after the current DoTF wraps up.
That sounds suspicious dont you think, maybe DC disagreed with the way that Gail wanted to do this and she was pressure to postpone it until her contract was over
The end of Gail's run ends up with a short run With a lot of holes and paths that are planted and lead absolutely nowhere
the story that Gail wanted to tell will be unfinished, whatever was the plan of Knightfall and the Batgirl goons, the secret behind her mother disappearance, the reason why she quit being batgirl for the first time.
Even the arc of James Jr is up to disclosure
Generally in this kind of cases it is too late to change, so it is possible that issues 17-18 will deal with James Jr, with the plot made by Gail Simone, but written by someone else, it is the same thing that happen with the Liefeld titles when he left suddenly
but thats what makes this case so strange, what could had possibly happen that forced DC to kick out Gail
Theories?
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