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Post by C_Miller on Feb 1, 2013 2:17:40 GMT -5
Okay all, I am very sad to say that I will be dropping Batman & Robin effective immediately.
This is something that I've had in the back of my mind for a long while. Pretty much since I first began to write the first issue, I wasn't really feeling it. Going into the draft, I wasn't sure who was going to write what and I felt some type of pressure to write one of DC's flagship characters and Batman was the only one that I thought I could do something with. It turns out I was wrong. Every time I went to write, I just ended up frustrated and quit after a few minutes. Unfortunately that led to me needing an extension every month.
So in talking with my fellow admins, I found out that Batman was the one title that buck really wanted to write it, so rather than drop it out right, I will be transferring the title to buck directly. This way, the book remains written by an admin. Unfortunately to do so, he will be dropping Hawkman. But, it seems like we will now all be writing what we want to write.
Which, comes to the next part of this. I think everyone should have this ability, not just admins. If any of you aren't feeling your title and are not in continuity yet. Feel free to switch it up right now for a one time only penalty free offer. I don't want this to be a regular thing, but I think we're young enough to where it won't make a difference.
So yeah. Buck will make his formal claim in the February claim thread and I will make my new claim there as well.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2013 23:11:52 GMT -5
Okay all, I am very sad to say that I will be dropping Batman & Robin effective immediately. This is something that I've had in the back of my mind for a long while. Pretty much since I first began to write the first issue, I wasn't really feeling it. Going into the draft, I wasn't sure who was going to write what and I felt some type of pressure to write one of DC's flagship characters and Batman was the only one that I thought I could do something with. It turns out I was wrong. Every time I went to write, I just ended up frustrated and quit after a few minutes. Unfortunately that led to me needing an extension every month. So in talking with my fellow admins, I found out that Batman was the one title that buck really wanted to write it, so rather than drop it out right, I will be transferring the title to buck directly. This way, the book remains written by an admin. Unfortunately to do so, he will be dropping Hawkman. But, it seems like we will now all be writing what we want to write. Which, comes to the next part of this. I think everyone should have this ability, not just admins. If any of you aren't feeling your title and are not in continuity yet. Feel free to switch it up right now for a one time only penalty free offer. I don't want this to be a regular thing, but I think we're young enough to where it won't make a difference. So yeah. Buck will make his formal claim in the February claim thread and I will make my new claim there as well. Just to clarify this point for our newer members (i.e. those who weren't around before the reboot) since Miller seems to have forgotten the rules changed when we rebooted and there is no more "in continuity" distinction in the rules anymore-he means "and have not yet posted six issues of a title." We used to wait six issues before a title was "in continuity" but that was not included in the rules this time around. All titles are "in continuity" from issue #1, which is why we tried doing the "This month in the UDCU" thread that kind of fizzled. The title in continuity is a vestige of the way things used to be, and its kind of a habit for us old timers to think in those terms, even if they are not actually relevant any more  For those of you who knew, this sorry for wasting your time. Carry on now, nothing more to see here... -M |
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Post by Stardrifter on Feb 1, 2013 23:29:57 GMT -5
I'm not so sure I like the backstage wheeling and dealing implications here, to be honest. On the one hand, I can appreciate the desire to be able to hand off your claims to someone else since they are, in fact, your claims.
On the other hand...I dunno. I feel like Batman is such a big property and maybe it should have been made available to others? I dunno. I'm torn to be honest, just wanted to give voice to that in case others felt the same.
One thing I'm certain about, though, is the statement that this way Batman is still being written by an admin, seemed kind of pompous. Was it meant to assuage our fears that Batman would be ruined if not written by an admin? Is Batman such an intricate and complex subject that only an admin can write it? I dunno. Rubbed me the wrong way.
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Post by Ultimate Silentking on Feb 1, 2013 23:42:46 GMT -5
Yeah, I didn't get that last statement (The one about how Batman will still be written by an admin) either.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2013 0:08:16 GMT -5
I certainly understand the concerns voiced by Star and S.K., but I am going to let Chris respond as to his intent behind his words, because I don't know what he was thinking to be honest. I think it was more poor choice of words than malicious (or egotistical) intent-I know Miller struggled with the title from day one, and I know buck was considering a Gotham based title before the draft (a version of Gotham Central) but eventually went with Hawkman instead.
I am bummed because with Hawkman getting dropped I can't get my Hawkman fix anywhere since the New52 has screwed the character so badly, and because some worldbuilding I was going to include in Planetary riffing off of what buck had planned in Hawkman 2 and 3 is shot to hell.
Even knowing Chris was struggling with B&R, it came as a surprise to me when I talked to buck and he and Chris had talked about handing over the reigns of Batman. My concerns was that if they were going to switch without penalty, then everyone should have the same chance, which is why Miller included that in the post. I honestly didn't think about the other implications of the transition. I think the desire was to make sure Batman was not going to lie fallow, that the site needed an active Bat-title as an anchor, and since Buck had been wanting to do a Bat-title for a while, it was an easy, if unorthodox transition.
Anything beyond that, Miller or buck will have to respond to because that was essentially the extent of my involvement-it's happening, ok, makes sure everyone has the chance for the same-and oh when the dust settles I will update the ACL with all the changes.
-M
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Post by unchartedfan1 on Feb 2, 2013 1:36:15 GMT -5
I have to be with Star on this one. The Batman property is so huge that a backdoor deal to exchange it just seems wrong. I know that if you had announced it like anyone else on the site would've announced it being dropped, I would've jumped (if I didn't already Superman, that is).
As for any concerns of us needing an active bat-anchor...I don't think that'd be a problem with the pure magnitude of the character.
In short, I don't think this backdoor deal would've flown with tne admins if normal members had done it, and I don't think it's fair now.
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Post by C_Miller on Feb 2, 2013 4:18:08 GMT -5
Mezzaro, we would absolutely be open to other writers who approached us with a similar proposal. We are too small of a community not to do everything in our power to help writers find a place that they are happy with there contribution to the site. In the beginning of the site a lot of stuff such as this happened as people found there comfort zones writing. For instance when Buck fell behind on Checkmate I wrote a fill in arc for him to give him some room to breathe. There's really no way to prove that we'd handled it the same if another writer approached us under similar circumstances, but I can promise you that we would have.
As for written by an admin, perhaps I worded it wrong. I'm not really concerned about the quality of writing (even though I know Buck will knock it out of the park), but the fact that I don't want Batman to fall into another state of flux. The first iteration of this site had a lot of issues with the icons. Batman had its issues from day one, Superman was well written then dropped and then was destroyed beyond repair by its next writer, the Green Lantern mythos was spotty at best with the writer appearing and disappearing seemingly at random and Aquaman was practically cursed.On the old iteration of the site we only had three reliable writers. Jackalope who seems happy with his own title now, superecwfan1 who's no longer with us and Buck who had explicitly expressed interest to me at one point. Buck will not let this title go by the wayside and he will write it until the site falls apart. That's what we need on UDC's biggest icon. If I dropped it, who knows what could have happened, especially being DC's biggest icon. Tons of people would jump at the chance to write the character and maybe some of them would do a good job, but the average member of this site doesn't last more than a couple of months. I didn't want to gamble at that.
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Post by DiscipleofBob on Feb 2, 2013 11:16:14 GMT -5
I have to be with Star on this one. The Batman property is so huge that a backdoor deal to exchange it just seems wrong. I know that if you had announced it like anyone else on the site would've announced it being dropped, I would've jumped (if I didn't already Superman, that is). As for any concerns of us needing an active bat-anchor...I don't think that'd be a problem with the pure magnitude of the character. In short, I don't think this backdoor deal would've flown with tne admins if normal members had done it, and I don't think it's fair now. Honestly, I don't see this as a backroom deal, and not sure how anyone got that impression. I don't see why a similar proposal couldn't be done between other members either. Yeah, Batman is a big name, but this really doesn't change anything or deprive anyone of anything. This doesn't really change anything. Buck could have picked up Batman at the beginning of the draft. Everyone else already got their choice of picks from the draft. I don't see how this steps on anyone's toes. |
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Post by Drake on Feb 2, 2013 11:58:25 GMT -5
I understand everyone's opinions on the subject. I do agree that it felt like a back room deal, but it doesn't really matter. I don't see anyone complaining about the title they got, so who cares? Buck's got Batman, so what if it wasn't offered to everyone else. It's going to be good and consistent and that's all we should really care about.
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Post by Ultimate Silentking on Feb 2, 2013 13:17:11 GMT -5
I was just saying that I didn't like the way Miller phrased that sentence. I knew he wasn't doing wrong. But he could have worded his sentence better.
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