Friday, February 22, 2008

Checkmate in Check



Recently soliciations over at DC comics is making news out of an underappreciated title. Checkmate is a beautiful DC series written by Greg Rucka and, more recently, Eric Trautmann about the multi-operational UN agency that keeps the DC universe "safe" well under a slightly more legal form than the vigilante stuff of Batman and the like. This series, much like many by Greg Rucka, has been vastly underappreciated and unloved when it should be one of the top selling titles. It reminds me of Rucka and Brubakers earlier piece of perfection, Gotham Central, which was also a title that deserved far more recognition than it recieved.
Sometime ago Greg Rucka decided that issue #25 would be the last set of pages in his tenure for Checkmate. Now normally DC would go about the BS process of cancelling the series. Thankfully they chose not to do this and Greg pushed to let Eric Trautmann take over the series. Over at his blog, Eric even claims he was offered AND accepted the position of taking over Checkmate with issue #26.
Well here is the part that made the news and upset many. DC recently released their May solicitations and under Checkmate #26, there is no Rucka, there is no Trautmann, there is only Bruce Jones. Now I have no problem with Bruce Jones, but I also have no love for Bruce Jones, the guy writes very similiar to the way Chuck Austen did and because of that, nothing stands out. Bruce Jones is very much like a filler writer, he writes stories that seem to just do a circle, nothing standing out and nothing of note being accomplished. You can't hate that, but its ignorable and not something you particularly like.
So my question is how much longer will Checkmate remain this amazingly under-rated comic series? Will it end with Rucka and Trautmann's departure in issue #25? Maybe Bruce Jones will pull an ace out of his sleeve and finally find a book he was just made for on Checkmate...I find that as unlikely as the majority of you, but never say never.
Still, lets end on this note, a question aimed at DC. Why not Eric Trautmann? has he not proved himself well enough on Checkmate? Did Rucka's recommendation mean nothing? Or is Bruce Jones just racking up favours under the desks of DC offices?

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