'Static Shock' writer John Rozum explains departure

John Rozum has explained his departure from DC Comics' Static Shock.

The writer has opened up about the creative differences that saw him depart the title from issue #4.

Rozum posted his reasoning at the bottom of Danny Donovan's blog article about what went wrong in DC's recently cancelled title.

The Xombi writer explained that his high hopes for the series were quickly dashed by editorial interference.

"I wound up being shunted to the sidelines as the writer while Scott McDaniel's 'high concept' criminal syndicate made up of Power Rangers and a big monosyllabic thug took centre stage and Harvey's ideas of the two Sharons and slicing off Static's arm were implemented as desperate means of trying to draw attention to the book," he said.

"I tried my best to keep it from being a total turd, but as I said, I was completely sidelined. My main contributions were the Pale Man character, Guillotina, naming the school after Dwayne McDuffie, and including Hardware, along with random lines of dialogue.

"I decided it was unethical to stick with a title that a) I thought was garbage b) that people were buying because of my involvement, due to Xombi, when really I had nothing to do with it c) because I wasn't being utilised on the title.

"Frankly, Static deserved a lot better."

On his own blog, Rozum said that, while initially he had kept quiet on the reasons for his amicable departure from the title, he decided he had to speak out after receiving the blame for Static Shock's imminent end.

"I've had people announce that due to the low quality of comic that they would no longer buy anything that had my name on it," he said. "I've had an editor at a publisher other than DC say they weren't interested in having me write for them because they thought Static Shock was a poor comic book series.

"I finally spoke out because I'm unwilling to have my professional reputation damaged because of something that is not my responsibility."