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Judd Winick Is Next Out the Door

I will, someday, get to write an article about a comic writer deciding to actually write a DC Comic. But chances are I'll soon have to write about that writer walking out too.

Hot on the heels of Rob Liefeld's rude departure, Judd Winick is now known to also be leaving DC Comics. His run on Catwoman has already ended, I believe. And Ann Nocenti stands ready to take that series over. Rumor has it he was offered Green Arrow, which reeks a bit of desperation on DC's part. They must not have much faith in their New 52 version of Oliver Queen if they were reaching out to a writer who already had a long and relatively successful run with him. Needless to say, Winick apparently turned that offer down. Now, he has made it clear that his run on Batwing, his sole remaining DC series, will be coming to an end.

Winick has kept his message on this short and sweet, saying he is proud of his work on Batwing and his leaving is "simply a time issue." As this news has just broken, there is no word on who will be continuing the series after him.

Bow-chicka-Batman!A time issue or not, DC"s loss of Winick adds fuel to the fire heating up all the discussion lately about DC's editorial misconduct and apparent inability to hold onto writers. This may be nowhere near the dramatic and angry departures of a few other writers, but Winick is saying he would be prefer to spend his time working elsewhere for whatever the reason. Frankly, I think Winick may be DC's biggest loss of late. Not only were Batwing and Catwoman relative successes for DC's New 52, Winick was the writer of several past popular DC projects ranging from the Outsiders relaunch to Justice League: Generation Lost. This time, DC has lost a writer with a recent proven track record on their properties.

Well, okay. There's Grant Morrison too.

Winick was behind one of the more high profile controversies of the New 52 relaunch with his highly sexualized storytelling in Catwoman. It sparked quite of bit of angry debate over the depictions of women in comics and the appropriateness of sex in superhero comics. However, this was not the first controversy related to him when it came to the New 52. Back when it was just a series of announced titles and creative teams, there was a more low-key outcry when it came to the titles he was announced to be writing. It was nothing against Catwoman or Batwing. It had everything to do with Justice League International and Red Hood and the Outlaws. With Justice League: Generation Lost and the resurrection of Jason Todd, Winick was behind the momentum that gave DC reason to even launch both of these titles. He set up a Justice League International series during Brightest Day, and he is regarded as the definitive Jason Todd writer. Yet, he somehow was not writing either book. This frustrated many fans and could very well have been signs of the first cracks between Winick and DC.

For my part, Batwing is one of my favorite DC books and is my favorite of the Batman franchise. So I'll be taking this loss as hard as I'm already taking Ed Brubaker leaving Winter Soldier.

On top of that, I lost a bet.

My money was on Peter Milligan being the next to walk off.

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