The Movement Axed By DC Comics

Issue #12 of the politically-oriented DC Comics series will be its last.

It’s had a good run, but like most good things, it couldn’t last. The Movement, DC Comics’ attempt to grapple directly with the current political climate, has been cancelled. Co-creator Gail Simone broke the news yesterday on her personal tumblr that DC has opted to discontinue the series after the upcoming publication of it twelfth issue. Three issues remain before it completes its run.

Launched in May, 2013 as part of DC’s ongoing New 52 reboot, The Movement was expressly imagined as a reflection of current political conflicts. Inspired in part by the Occupy Wall Street movement, it features strong themes of social justice, with a super-team made up of members of the DC universe’s 99% battling corruption, social injustice and even sexual abuse in fictional Coral City.

Simone, who created the series with artist Freddie E. Williams II, is an old hand at exploring political overtones in comics. In 1998, she cofounded Women in Refrigerators, a site devoted to discussing the disproportionate use of female comics characters as plot devices via death, injury or depowering. She broke into mainstream comics during the 00s, and in addition to The Movement, has written for DC’s Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman, among many other credits.

Simone isn’t angry about the series’ cancellation, thanking DC for its support and acknowledging that low sales were to blame. She expressed hope, however, that if sales don’t decline further with this announcement, DC may opt to make use of the team or its characters in some form in the future. (Readers: Go help make that happen. The series is pretty great.)

Here is Simone’s full statement:

Okay, so this is sad, but the Movement is ending with issue 12.

Unfortunately, this book just never found a big enough audience. The people who loved it, loved it hard, but that number was too small.

I am bummed about it, we wanted to do a book that didn’t read or look like anything else out there, and I think we accomplished that. I take the responsibility, I think it took a little while for people to really adopt the characters, which was a conscious choice but also a risky one in this very cautious market where people have to be extra careful of which books they choose.

Whenever a book is cancelled, people often get mad at the publisher-it’s understandable, but in this case, we received nothing but support from DC. They knew it was a dicey prospect, a book not set in Gotham or Metropolis with no known heroes, and an unusual core theme. They knew it was a bit risky commercially and they did it anyway, and they let us run out to twelve issues to finish it properly, when almost any other publisher would have cut it earlier on.

I have a bunch of people to thank. First, everyone at DC, but Dan Didio especially. Dan championed this book and it wouldn’t have happened without him. He said it was time we had a book like this, and he believed in us and was a cheerleader for the book all along. Jim Lee also had kind things to say, and that means a lot.

Second, I have to thank the people who inspired some of the characters…Jay Justice was a big inspiration for Virtue, I saw her cosplay Batgirl and I just wanted to WRITE that so badly that I made a character so I kinda could. Also, thanks to Jill Pantozzi and Al Davison for help with Vengeance Moth, so that her being in a wheelchair wasn’t simply a surface detail, but MOSTLY to the great B.A., who was my biggest inspiration and supporter on this character and who looks exactly like VM and makes me smile all the time.

I want to thank our spectacular editing team. I do not have enough good things to say about these guys, Joey Cavalieri and Kyle Andrukiewicz. They are the kind of editors you dream of getting but rarely actually get. They cared about the book, they cared about the readers and they cared about the characters. I know it’s hard to imagine but that is actually considered a little old-fashioned in some places. They were always 100% supportive and never changed anything except for the better. If you see a book with their name on it, you want it, it is guaranteed to be good.

The biggest thanks has to go to the art team, with colorist Chris Sotomayor and most especially, Freddie WIlliams II. I have rarely worked with an artist so dedicated, so creative and so rewarding to collaborate with.. Freddie is the reason the characters looked so amazing and unique, he designed them all (except for Tremor, who he adapted). If you want Burden’s jacket or Tremor’s cloak, it’s because of Freddie. If you recognize the characters, if you fell in love with them, it’s because of Freddie. Freddie, you amaze me and thank you, thank you, thank you, for always doing such amazing work even with a pain-in-the-butt writer like me. You are the best. And Chris, your colors made everything better, you paint emotion like no one else. THANK YOU.

I have to save the corniest, but truest thank you for the audience. I know this book wasn’t for everyone, but a lot of you stuck with us and tried to spread the good word and you made every issue worthwhile. Because of you guys, it was worth all the hard work. Thank you so much for the reviews, fanart, fanfic, cosplay, and lovely comments. They warmed our hearts over and over again.

This is the end of this book, hopefully it won’t be the end for the characters…several of them have been popular with readers and creators, and maybe we will see them again.

There are still three more issues, and they are CORKERS. Please stick with us until the end, you will be glad you did, and if we keep the numbers the same without going down after the announcement, it makes it much more likely that the Movement will appear somewhere else, hopefully somewhere awesome.

Mouse, Virtue, Katharsis, Tremor, Burden, Rainmaker and Vengeance Moth thank you all so, so much!

Source: Bleeding Cool