8 Times Marvel And DC Screwed Over Comic Book Creators

6. DC Editorial Wouldn't Let Batwoman Get Married

One of the greatest comics of the last decade was W. Haden Blackman and J. H. Williams III's Batwoman. It was the strongest of all the New 52 Bat-books and possessed real value in terms of representation, with series protagonist Kate Kane - the titular Batwoman - also being an out lesbian.

Blackman and Williams' comic never downplayed Kate's sexuality, and decided to make GCPD cop Maggie Sawyer a romantic lead. The two fall in love and, by the end of the series, Kate even proposes. Things looked set for another famous comic book wedding, but - wouldn't you know it - DC scuppered the creators' plans and effectively forced them out of their own comic. The story was never finished, and if you pick up those Batwoman trades today, they still end on a cliffhanger.

The reasoning behind DC's decision to forbid Kate and Maggy's marriage was down to the belief that superheroes just shouldn't be able to get married, because they all always have miserable personal lives and the risk posed by crimefighting is too great. No, seriously, this is was the explanation that Dan DiDio gave in the wake of the fallout. (Via THR.)

"If you look at every one of the characters in the Batman family, their personal lives kind of suck… Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, and Kathy Kane — it’s wonderful that they try to establish personal lives, but it’s also just as important that they put it aside as they know what they are accomplishing as the hero takes precedence over everything else. That is our mandate, that is our edict, that is our stand with our characters."

Yeah... as if we had to wonder why DC rebooted twice in ten years.