idk if i agree with you. Lobdell created Isabel and made it so that Jason really cared about her and brought her back after Tynion made it so they'd split for good. imo if Lobdell has it his way Jason and Isabel will end up lasting a while and probably just had jartemis for a couple issues to please the fans. i could be wrong, but he actually seems to be giving her a personality and making her a character that will end up staying and i've actually grown to like her over these 2 issues + preview
You are all welcome (and even encouraged) to disagree with me. Any predictions I make are obviously just my guesses. I think they’re based on a pretty solid understanding of the impermanence of everything in comics. But they are ultimately just suspicions and no matter how confident I am with them, I’m never exactly surprised when I’m ‘wrong’ either. I generally rank my predictions as, especially in comics, there’s so many different narrative directions things can go that it’d be silly to be convinced that this thing I think is going to happen is the only possible outcome. I just usually only share my top one or two expectations.
And… also… what I suspect will happen is often very different from what I want to happen. I don’t expect Lobdell to ever bring Rose into the Outlaws–regardless of whether he can use her or not–unless DC makes him (no matter how obvious it is). He got rid of Biz and Artemis the second he was allowed to because they aren’t his creations and he doesn’t get money from their usage.
But regarding the rest of you comment…
Isabel is definitely Lobdell’s baby and I think you’re right, if Lobdell gets his way they’ll last a while*. But 1) Lobdell doesn’t necessarily get his way. He wanted to keep Jason and Artemis platonic (a decision I wholeheartedly agreed with). But his bosses disagreed and he lost, 2) Even though it seems like Lobdell will write RH forever, he won’t. I’m not much of a gambler, but I’d bet a whole $5 that, if Isabel lasts until the new writer (which is a bet I would absolutely not take, even if Lobdell only writes RH for another year I’d be surprised if editorial allowed her to last that long**), she’ll be one of the first things to go, 3) Giving a character personality and purpose is… default settings? writing 101? bare minimum? Plenty of well developed comics characters die, switch sides, disappear… Just because Isabel is… being written? is a recurring character? doesn’t mean she gets to stick around indefinitely.
Also, I can’t help but note that even you said you think she’ll last “a while” which is acknowledging that she’s unlikely to last forever. That’s pretty much all I said. Is that it won’t last (I don’t expect it to last more than 10 issues but concede that it could last for a year give or take). And that if we’re lucky they’ll split fairly amicably and be able to rekindle later when someone who agrees with Lobdell that Isabel is Jason’s Lois writes the book or someone who wants to use the past relationship for emotional fodder.
That’s what I mean by impermanence. The side characters are on a conveyor belt that runs through a revolving door. Even the best established legacy romances cycle out.
Dick really cared about Babs. Dick really cared about Kori.
Tim really cares about Steph.
Bruce really cares about Selina. And Talia.
Clark and Lois are the closest to a permanent couple in superhero comics and even they get periodic breaks to put them with different people.
Such is the nature of indefinite serialized narratives that don’t have generational progression.
*The longer Jason/Isabel last, the more likely it is that she is seen as Jason’s Lois and Lobdell can get royalties when future writers inevitably use her, which is probably why Essence is coming back, to double down on love interests who will act as some kind of foil for each other. Before Lobdell Jason had no love interests so he’s gonna make sure that the best established ones are his. Most writers favor their own characters. But few are as insistent about it as Lobdell. So, yes, I agree with you that he’ll try to keep her around as long as possible. It seems we differ on how long editorial will let her stick around. Because…
**Romantic relationships in comics are viewed as weights holding the characters down. That might seem stupid. And that’s because it inherently is. The only way that logic holds up is if it’s standing on the shoulders of another stupid principle so deeply rooted in the foundations of modern comics that it regularly makes me think about quitting the medium altogether. The divine edict to maintain the status quo at all costs. Romantic relationships grow stale, annoying, frustrating when the characters aren’t allowed to grow. If Batman and Catwoman are forced to remain static caricatures of people, they can only have so many arguments about their different ideologies before it feels like we’re stuck watching a bad gif for too long. When DC feels like we’ve hit that point, Batman and Catwoman break up and suddenly Talia is trying to be a good guy and the process starts over again.
Hoo boy, that was much longer than I meant it to be.
