Earlier this week the news came out that The Movement would be ending with May’s recently solicited twelfth issue. First announced back in January of 2013 alongside the also now cancelled Green Team: Teen Trillionaires, which ended its eight-issue run last month, both books were meant to convey different sides of the Occupy movement with the The Movement representing the 99% and The Green Team representing the 1%. Despite being advertised as politically driven books based on the idea of money, neither book adhered to that standard and instead went about their own way, gaining a small but devout fan base along the way. The problem was that they just weren’t selling, with The Movement and The Green Team both selling under 20k (the threshold for cancellation among the big two) early into their runs.
With the weekly series Batman: Eternal and Future’s End debuting in the next few months, some titles had to go. The Movement joins the aforementioned Green Team as well as Suicide Squad, Stormwatch, Nightwing, Justice League of America, Superman Unchained and Teen Titans (thus ending the Young Justice line in The New 52) as series that are coming an end.
On the topic of The Movement’s cancellation, Gail Simone took to her Tumblr account to deliver this message:
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.
What are your thoughts on The Movement coming to an end? Did you read the title? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
