Posts Tagged ‘Greg Rucka’

Dexedrine C. Parios

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Art by Matthew Southworth

Dexedrine (AKA Dex) Parios is the owner and sole employee of Stumptown Investigations based in Portland, OR. Dex is cocky, self-assured, kind-hearted yet cynical and brash, “no bullshit” bullshitter with a penchant for her ’64 Mustang convertible and bad habit of gambling, or at least lacking the good sense to know when to quit. The true love of her life is her younger brother Ansel whom she appears to be raising by herself, sometimes relying on the help of a young man named Grey who’s clearly infatuated with her, though she keeps him at a distance romantically. Dex appears to be of Native American descent.

In old parlance, Dex is quite a “card”. While it seems she has most people wrapped around her finger, one person with a strong dislike for her is Police Captain Volk. From dialog it’s implied that Dex had an affair with Volk’s wife which resulted in the end of his marriage. While Dex is on the receiving end of sexual advances from another woman in the first story arc and enjoys them, she also makes passes at a male doctor who tends to her after being abducted and shot (she was wearing a kevlar vest).

Rucka’s affinity for crime themed work and strong female characters is well known. Despite significant differences between Dex and Renée Montoya, I can’t help but wonder if this direction might have been applied to Montoya if the character hadn’t been transformed in to the Question.

© and ® Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth. All rights reserved. Published by Oni Press.

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Rucka Departs Batwoman

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Update Rucka has commented on his site that his motivation for departure is simply to concentrate on his other, creator-owned projects. Good enough for me. His writing on Batwoman will still be missed, but such is life. A writer can’t be happy if he or she feels a stronger compulsion to write another story while chaining themselves to something else.

Unless you’ve spent the last 48 hours completely immersed in the real world (in which case I admire you), you’ve read the good news about writer Greg Rucka focusing on a few projects like Stumptown and a Queen & Country novel and looking forward to a second series with an arc drawn by the talented Nicola Scott. It’s been a few years since Oni published the last issue of Queen and I’ve missed it. With only two issues to date the writing and art on Stumptown have completely drawn me into that world.

The bad news is Greg Rucka and DC have parted, and the future of the acclaimed Batwoman feature is unknown as it languishes now in publisher limbo. Rucka commented that it was agonizing to walk away from Batwoman but has yet and likely will not publicly comment on behind-the-scenes circumstances. Whatever precipitated the decision may never be known though I’ll guess it happened a few months ago, giving DC enough time to bring Marc Guggenheim on Action (assuming Rucka wasn’t stepping back already). Collaborator J. H. Wiliams alluded to a snafu at Emerald City Comic Con as well as some kind of disagreement between DC and Rucka on his blog.

Meanwhile, Newsarama has posted the following comment from DC Senior Story Editor Ian Sattler and Geoff Johns (presumably speaking as Chief Creative Officer).

[DC Senior Story Editor Ian] Sattler: “We have plans for Batwoman.”
[DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff] Johns: “We want Greg (Rucka) to write it, but he’s focusing on his career right now.”
Sattler: “There’s no shelving.”

The question in my mind now becomes how strongly DC wants Rucka (and Williams) to continue on Batwoman? Do the quartet of Diane Nelson, Didio, Johns, and Jim Lee do whatever it takes to woo back Rucka. In my opinion the answer is an unqualified yes. As a publishing company, DC is the sum of its intellectual properties, the characters we love as fans. However, any publisher is foolish to discount the influence of writers and artists in bringing interest and excitement to its stable of characters. Case in point: a yellow and red clad Batwoman, a campy beard for Batman post Frederic Wertham who was transformed into a compelling (and lesbian) character in her own right in the capable hands of two talented people whose work received a GLAAD award. [Disclosure: Rucka and Williams unreservedly got my vote in the award.]

DC is tarnished until such a time that amends are made and Rucka and Williams return to work on Batwoman.

Comics Alliance first posted the news here

CBR and J. H. Williams

Visit Greg Rucka’s website

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Maggie Sawyer

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Art by J H Williams III

Maggie began her career in Star City, and was married to Captain Jim Sawyer (Superman #15). After their marriage dissolved, Maggie moved east to Metropolis’ Police Department. Because of her performance in helping stop an Apokolips agent named Kalibak rampaging in Metropolis, Dan Turpin recommended she lead the S.C.U. She was promoted to Inspector after Doomsday destroyed Metropolis (Adventures of Superman  #505). Barrage is a particular enemy of hers, since he blames her for the loss of his arm. She was a good friend of Lois Lane, who once trained with the SCU. Maggie has a daughter, Jamie, whom Superman rescued from the evil Skyhook.

In her personal life, Maggie was in a relationship with Toby Raines, a reporter for a rival newspaper in Metropolis. In Detective Comics #764 writer Greg Rucka transplants Maggie from Metropolis and its Special Crimes Unit to Gotham City to replace Lt. Harvey Bullock who’s resigned. Maggie is shown unloading boxes into a new apartment while talking with her lover, Toby, who is still in Metropolis. By the end of the story, Toby tells Maggie that she’ll be delayed at joining her in Gotham because a gallery had just given her a full exhibition.

Sawyer’s character appeared in the ensemble cast of Gotham Central where she became police captain. She interacted several times with Renée Montoya , then a detective, before the series ended as Montoya’s alcoholism caused the breakup of her relationship with Dee Hernandez and resignation from the force. Sawyer checked in on Montoya a couple times during her transformation from former police detective and alcoholic into the Question.

Sawyer’s most recent appearance is in Detective #856. She’s working security (though dressed in a man’s tux) at a Gotham social event and decides to approach Kate (Batwoman) Kane, also wearing a tux, to ask for a dance. In the small talk that follows, we learn that Maggie and Toby have recently ended their long distance relationship, leaving Sawyer free to lavish attention on Kate.

Maggie Sawyer was created by John Byrne and first appeared in Superman #4, vol 2, which was printed a year or so before the Comics Code Authority dropped its prohibition against LGBT characters.

© and ® of DC Comics. Used without permission.

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