Continuing a run of creative defections from DC after conflicts over editorial decisions, J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman are leaving Batwoman after #26.  The move was announced by identical posts on the creators’ Websites titled "With a Heavy Heart..." (Williams) and "Heartbroken" (Blackman). 

The post details how the team planned storylines many issues in advance (five story arcs at the outset), and were following those plans but last-minute changes demanded by their editor left them "frustrated and angry."

"Unfortunately, in recent months, DC has asked us to alter or completely discard many long-standing storylines in ways that we feel compromise the character and the series," they wrote.  "We were told to ditch plans for Killer Croc’s origins; forced to drastically alter the original ending of our current arc, which would have defined Batwoman’s heroic future in bold new ways; and, most crushingly, prohibited from ever showing Kate and Maggie actually getting married.  All of these editorial decisions came at the last minute, and always after a year or more of planning and plotting on our end."

They called Batwoman "a dream project for both of us" and are clearly unhappy at leaving the book, but feel they must.  "We can’t reliably do our best work if our plans are scrapped at the last minute, so we’re stepping aside," they wrote. 

Departures from DC, often over creative differences, have been a running story recently (see "James Robinson Ankles DC Comics" for a list).  DC’s co-publishers argue that the churn is normal, and that in fact, editorial control is looser than it’s been in the past (see "Interview with Didio and Lee, Part 2").