Monday, August 16, 2004

So that's how sausage is made: The only big "news" from WizardWorld Chicago was Brian Michael Bendis' questionable public announcement of Paul Levitz's private refusal to allow a Batman/Daredevil crossover (written, in part, by Bendis). As you've likely read elsewhere, it apparently has something to do with Levitz's professional problems with Joe Quesada.

Now, it seems, Bendis wishes he hadn't aired inter-company laundry:

"I regret the whole thing. Can’t say it any simpler that that. What I intended was to start a grass roots campaign to get the proposed Batman/ DD book off the ground, not to create a wrestle mania circus.

"I apologize to everyone involved at DC comics. It was wrong for me to try and do this without your involvement. My frustration with the current climate between the companies pushed me to make what I feel now was the wrong choice. ...

"... For the record, I do not know and had never met bob wayne from dc comics. I have never spoken with him on the phone. I was genuinely surprised by his involvement in my panel. and while I greatly admire his blunt honesty that day it did take the panel into places I would never have gone. Things were said in the debate that I was not going to say outloud and the tone of the panel, by the nature of crowd reaction turned very circus like. In fact, for those who know me, I am the polar opposite of a wrestling guy and have never pulled a stunt like that in my life. And I can almost guarantee that I never will again. ...

"... There was one thing in particular I said during the debate that I instantly wished I could take back. I wished I could grab the words out of the air and pull them back. And that was the line about dc being mad about joe’ kicking their ass every month.’ I truly regret saying that immature line. I am not a professional public speaker, in fact, I spend 99 percent on my life not speaking but writing. And my inexperience at public speaking is to blame."