Last month former Static Shock writer John Rozum revealed his side of why he left the New 52 series after only a handful of issues. His reasons came down to creative differences with his editor and with artist Scott McDaniel--or, as Rozum said on his blog, "From the first issue on, I was essentially benched by Harvey Richards and artist/writer Scott McDaniel."

Now McDaniel has posted his side of the story on his website, noting, "I have remained SILENT because I fear no good thing comes from this type of public display. However, John chose to bring this into the public square. He has forced me to speak openly about our experience together on Static Shock, to correct the public record before his grotesquely distorted account matures in people's minds as the truth of what happened here."

McDaniel's post is lengthy, as he gives some context around the book's origins, the pressure of following in the footsteps of Dwayne McDuffie and the original Milestone book and how a poll on CBR about the New 52 books from last summer indicated the potential challenges the book might have in the marketplace. He then shares his side of how the collaboration started and when it soured, going into detail on some of the plot points Rozum called out in his original posts on the subject.

As I said, it's lengthy and a lot to digest, so I'll refrain from cutting any more of it up to post here and encourage you to read it on its own. My takeaway from all this is that sometimes people just don't work well together, even talented creators like Rozum and McDaniel. Hopefully both of them will have a better experience on their next projects (which I look forward to seeing). I do agree with Rozum's previous statement about the potential for Static Shock to be a breakout comic for DC, so hopefully this doesn't sour the publisher on revisiting the character.