"First you ground him, then you abandon him?"

J. Michael Straczynski is a writer I respect.

I first discovered his strangely spelled name when I decided to jump into Amazing Spider-Man, albeit at the worst possible time: One More Day. Although the execution of that story was atrocious, and it’s end result was rather demeaning to the character of Spidey, I appreciated the thought that went into all the dialogue, and the emotional weight that each sentence was given.

About a year later, I decided to go back and try and collect every single issue of Amazing that he had penned. This was just after I had managed to track down all 61 issues of Geoff Johns’ initial Flash run, so I figured the 74-issue Straczynski run of ASM wouldn’t prove too difficult. After a lucky eBay win and a couple of chance encounters at conventions, as well as scouring the back-issue boxes at work, I managed to track them all down and read them. Other than the travesty of One More Day, the run was unique, rather progressive and innovative, and overall well-crafted. Similarly, his run on Thor helped introduce me to that character, and was probably a better read than his ASM run for many reasons.

When Straczynski jumped ship to DC about 18 months ago, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that his favorite super hero was in my top 2: Superman. My eventual hopes once I heard this news were happily realized not long after, when Straczynski was announced to be the new “shepherd” of the Man of Steel with a new, original graphic novel in an alternate earth coming out, as well as ol’ JMS tackling the main Superman title in the DC Universe-proper.

Although some people seem to be perplexed by the current Grounded arc in Superman, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. It seems like America as a whole hasn’t appreciated Superman as a cultural icon since the late seventies and very early eighties (Not surprisingly, right before Superman III hit theaters), and on some level, Grounded is taking that to task by trying to restore Superman to his rightful place as the quintessential American hero.

Although Straczynski has a reputation for lateness and we’ve already seen a fill-in issue for Grounded, I’ve kept with it and took solace in the fact that the complete story by Straczynski would be in the same vein as his good issues of Spider-Man and Thor, runs that he stuck with even when delays hinted otherwise.

Then, Superman: Earth One hit and did a complete blitz into the original graphic novel market. Now, as I noted in my Comics Place review of that book (which you can read HERE), I enjoyed it. However, I also enjoyed it under the pretense that it wouldn’t affect the Grounded story or the monthly Superman title.

Well, as reported by a shitload of comics outlets, that’s exactly what’s happened. Due to the “overwhelming” response of Earth One, Straczynski is leaving the main Superman title in the hands of another writer to complete his story, and focusing on graphic novels because JMS believes that they are the future of this medium. Because of this,

J. Michael Straczynski is a writer I’m pissed at.

Finish. What. You. Start. I wanted to see your full realization of this story. Granted, the new writer may be fantastic, but it will still feel like you are deserting a project that you started, and as a reader and a fan, that is frustrating to me. If Superman truly is your favorite comic book character, don’t abandon the legacy character for the emo/hipster version that you created. The Man of Steel has called and you answered, and it would be nice if you had the complete story under your belt before handing the reins off to someone else.

We were lead to believe that Grounded was but the first story in a years-long run of your Superman, and now you’re going off of monthly comics entirely in some chase for the “future” of the medium. Samaritan X is intriguing to me, and I’m sure I’ll get Earth One Volume 2 when it comes out, but when you signed on for Grounded and your arc in Wonder Woman, you should remain committed to it.

Have we not learned enough from the delayed mess that The Twelve has become? You say that minis are the future, but how can we be confident in this belief of yours if you can’t finish one?

Mr. Straczynski, you’ve always been able to have work that resonates with me on some level, as with many fans. And you agreed to take the Last Son of Krypton on this journey across America. Superman deserves better, but more importantly, your fans deserve better.