Diggle and Fialkov Leave Action Comics and Green Lantern Corps

Each DC book published today had an exclusive preview for “Action Comics #19,” the first issue of writer Andy Diggle and artist Tony S. Daniel. This creative team was supposed to start their run with issue #18, but Grant Morrison, the previous writer, had one last issue he wanted to do. Therefore they were pushed back to issue #19. But a correction is needed, because Diggle announced via Twitter today that he will no longer write the book saying only that his departure was for “professional reasons.” A representative of DC, Alex Segura, confirmed that Tony Daniel will expand his role as an artist to include the writing duties “for the remainder of the arc.”

Diggle’s exact words on twitter were, “Sadly, I’ve decided to walk away from Action Comics for professional reasons.” We do not know exactly what those professional reasons are, but this does continue DC’s pattern of losing writers before even one issue of their run has hit the shelves of the comic stores. This is somewhat reminiscent of when George Perez left Superman after only six issues.

But Diggle isn’t the only one leaving his book before really starting.

Joshua Fialkov has recently been the solicited writer for Green Lantern Corps and Red Lanterns, taking over from Peter Tomasi and Peter Milligan, respectively. But it seems that he too has followed Diggle’s example, leaving both books. In a post to his personal blog, Josh notes: “There were editorial decisions about the direction of the book that conflicted with the story I was hired to tell, and I felt that it was better to let DC tell their story the way they want.”

In response to this decision, Alex Segura broke the news that Van Jensen would write the Green Lantern Corps book with co-plotting assistance from Robert Venditti, the writer taking over Green Lantern after Geoff Johns wraps up his epic Green Lantern run with the end of Wrath of the First Lantern. Taking over Red Lanterns would be one Charles Soule, who makes his DC debut in the post-Scott Snyder Swamp Thing title with issue #19.

The departures of these writers seem similar, especially given how close together the announcements came. It is unknown exactly what reasons led to this, but it is clear DC editorial has different directions for the books. Perhaps these new writers will fit DC’s plans better.

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Never without his notepad, pen, and hyper-active imagination, Nathan Nance is a News Reporter for Capeless Crusader, amateur comics writer, and connoisseur of all things mysterious, intriguing, and superhero-related. His favorite DC character is Tim Drake, aka Red Robin. In Marvel, Gambit. He can be found buried in comic back-issues or at nate.nance15@gmail.com