Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Batman, brave and the bold, Comics, dc, entertainment, liam sharp, wonder woman

Liam Sharp Addresses Batman/Wonder Woman Team-Up Haters

Published Sun, 28 Jan 2018 17:28:18 -0600

With the recent run on Wonder Woman, Liam Sharp started getting the level of attention he rightly deserves. He is an incredibly talented artist and one of the nicest people in the industry. With the end of the Wonder Woman run, he was put on a new series that would include Wonder Woman and Batman, and Sharp would be writing and drawing. The Brave and the Bold starts up next month, and it mixes Wonder Woman's Amazonian mythology with the legends of Irish and Celtic gods. It picks up where his run with Greg Rucka left off.

Well, what sounds like a pretty amazing series to some seems to be less so to others. Sharp took to Facebook just a little while ago to address the hate he's been receiving about the new series.

There's a lot of people hating on me for writing and drawing a series that teams Batman with Wonder Woman. Some of the hate is from people who ship Wonder Woman and Superman. Some is from people who wrongly think I'm splitting up Diana and Steve – I'm not. I wouldn't. Some is from people who think Diana shouldn't be with any man at all, because it's a male objectification trope. I was called out for mentioning that there would be a nod to the Batman Wonder Woman shippers, which drove some people nuts. I was told I support cheating on your partner for suggesting it's possible to have many relationships before you meet the one you truly love and marry. That things happen, and people drift apart, and people make mistakes. That there is room to explore many such relationships in melodramas. Apparently this is not true for some.

These things are the kind of moment that drive you away from interacting online. It's increasingly hard to be there for fans in a positive way because of this. And it's too easy to say ignore the trolls. By doing that we have all allowed this kind of behavior to flourish.

I've been off social media, except for the odd art post, for weeks – and it has been bliss. And I've produced the best work I've ever done. I popped back on to give my new series a bit of a boost and show some new art – I was excited! – and I just got jumped on and battered. Twitter, in particular, is quickly vanishing into my rear view mirror. It's just not worth it. I spend seven days a week, often 12 hours a day, trying to make beautiful, entertaining stories with characters I love and respect. That's what we all do. Stories should move people, and sometimes sadden, and even sometimes anger, otherwise it would be very dull indeed in storyland!

All these characters reset. They all return to whatever version we each love most. Times change, our idea of what is right changes, and so does our sense of ethical responsibility. We grow. We will, of course, also make some mistakes and break a few eggs along the way. That should be permissible too. How else do we learn if we don't take risks? What great things were ever achieved without boldness, fearlessness or taking a chance?

And yes – it does get to you. When you work hard and care it's impossible not to be dispirited. It takes the joy out of it, starts you second guessing, and doubting. Doubting is the enemy of creativity. So again, I stand by my decision to (mostly) stay away from social media, except to post a picture now and again. But as I found out, even that can be enough to start a storm.

A series that has yet to even see print has some readers hating on the creator. Chasing him away from social media. Why? In an era of reboots and restarts, people are getting upset over a solicitation for a series? If seeing Batman and Wonder Woman together isn't your thing… don't buy it. There are other Wonder Woman comics, other Batman comics. This one will last six issues. But to take the time to hate on the creator before the book is even published — is that where we're at now?

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