Who wrote the novelization? I know a couple people who write tie-in work, and some of them are actually pretty talented. For a while, some of the major movie novelizations were getting writers like Joan Vinge and Elizabeth Hand and so on, so you can get very lucky indeed.

Holy shit, Steph.

I...you're serious?

But...that makes no sense. The...hell? I...what? I'm...huh? I'm pretty new to the 'verse, but still.

They couldn't leave well enough alone?

Quick note on Villains United, if anyone else is still reading: am I realy the only one whose guessed that the team of five "unknown villains" Luthor just recruited is the Justice League Elite? IJS.

See, I haven't read JLE, so, yes.

Yeah. They're only in one panel, really, but I took one look at the guy with the bow and arrow, and then the guy standing next to him who looked like a Flash rip-off, and the woman who was built like Vera Black, and figured they had to be the JLE. I'd imagine the other two were Dawn and Coldcast in disguise. I could be WAAAAY off base, but I don't think it's a coincidence that Catman sent that letter to Green Arrow in the first issue, that he's been mentioned several times, and then someone who resembles him shows up. Besides, going undercover as supervillains is totally their schtick.

And JLE was a lot of fun. I think you'd dig on Vera Black.

Who wrote the novelization?

It was Keith R. A. DeCandido.

The offending Batman #644 pages.

I got nothing. I cannot wank in the face of those panels. It makes no sense. Willingham, DC, whoever -- CRACK ADDLED.

eta: Willingham's response to the responses

Though we generally hope readers will like our stories, hating them is almost as good.

Huh. Here's Willingham's own post in reponse at Fabletown.com. He's a prick.

xpost.

*********

Yes, deliberately withholding treatment, except in the context of a legitimate triage decision, is quite the unequivocal violation of the Hippocratic oath. In a court of law one could reasonably expect to be found guilty of murder.

Seems like Leslie snapped. Seems like Batman doesn't like her much anymore (though he still couldn't bring himself to be the one who brought her in).

After this issue came out, I took a rare tour of other message boards to try to gauge what the general reaction might be. As expected, it was overwhelmingly negative, with lots of "how dare Willingham do this!" What I didn't expect is how much message traffic this book would generate. Message boards that might have one or two regulars post every few days, or so, suddenly exploded with five and six pages of new messages per day.

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?

Did this come out last week? If so, you need to whitefont the first two paragraphs, Hec.

Yes.