Freakish Coincidence That No One Will Believe, Ryan Choi Related.

[Gail Simone]

Okay.

I'm sure many of you have already guessed I'm not thrilled about certain story events happening to a character I created (and yes, I created him, much as I love Grant Morrison, Ryan was my creation), the All-New Atom, Ryan Choi.

I've said elsewhere that even though I really, really, really dislike this whole event, and disagree with it as strongly as possible, I do not believe race played a role. It's just a matter of a bunch of elements that I don't agree with anyway and so the decision was made and that's that, and that's how it goes when you deal with a shared universe. Toes get stepped on, your Faberge Egg is someone else's ashtray, it sucks but it's how it goes.

But here is the almost creepy thing that happened that I am convinced no one will believe is unintentional. I repeat it because it makes me laugh and because it's weird and because if the issues come out after all this fuss, I know people are going to think it was on purpose.

Okay, so in Secret Six's current storyline, three metahuman assassins kidnap Thomas Blake's child. Since I think kidnappers are the lowest fricking scum on Earth, these three are utter scumbags, and the the worst of the lot is a guy in a straw hat, the leader of the three. He is an irredeemable bastard, the kind who would steal a baby and wouldn't balk at killing that baby for a paycheck.

In short, he's the WORST.

And his name is Erik Wallace. The guy who wrote the TITANS special that has the Ryan Choi story in question's name is Eric Wallace.

This amuses and freaks me out at the same time. :)

Now, a couple things in my defense. I have never met Eric Wallace. We sat on a panel together at WonderCon recently but we didn't actually speak and he didn't introduce himself. But even so, I am almost POSITIVE he is not a metahuman babythief assassin. I haven't seen his television work nor had I read his previous comics, so I am certain I didn't use the name consciously from having seen it previous. I suppose unconsciously, I might have, after seeing it in Previews or something, but more than likely it's just pure coincidence, both names being very common.

Most every reader knows how far in advance scripts are. We're close on Secret Six but it still would have been written, with the characters named and created in the script, months ago, long before I was told about the Ryan Choi development. I don't have the issues in front of me but I don't think they were named at that point in the story, but they were in the script.

Anyway, I didn't even realize it until writing the final issue in that arc.

I think it's funny, anyway.

So if it comes up, TOTAL COINCIDENCE.

[Free-Man]

I refuse to believe that it wasn't on purpose.
But isn't the real Eric Wallace black?

[Gail Simone]

I think so, and he also doesn't wear a straw hat.


That I KNOW of!

[Gail Simone]

I don't get why people are so mad an Asian character was killed. Why, look right on the pages--he's a blue-eyed white dude with brown hair!

[Teal_Lantern]

Wow, that gave me a good laugh.

[nigel33]

I don't get why people are so mad an Asian character was killed. Why, look right on the pages--he's a blue-eyed white dude with brown hair!

So they really killed Ray by mistake, and Ryan is alive?

[Free-Man]

Myabe they really killed Ray by mistake, and Ryan is alive?

Or maybe they killed Molecule....AGAIN!

[Apathy Lad]

I refuse to believe this a coincidence.

By the way, Giganta's going to kill the crap out of Dwarfstar right?

[nigel33]

I refuse to believe this a coincidence.

By the way, Giganta's going to kill the crap out of Dwarfstar right?

Kill him until he dies from it.

[K-DoG7p7]

Yeah i refuse to belive that Giganta and Dwarfstar on the same team right now is also "Coincidence"

[Teal_Lantern]

It's easy to kill the Atom, I mean he's so small they might just step on him.

[K-DoG7p7]

I don't get why people are so mad an Asian character was killed. Why, look right on the pages--he's a blue-eyed white dude with brown hair!

Very true
but Gail even you cant deny that the DCu has become very very "Aryan" in the last year or so

[Apathy Lad]

Very true
but Gail even you cant deny that the DCu has become very very "Aryan" in the last year or so

Like Firestorm, Jason does all the thinking and concoctions with absolutely no say in the matter as dumb-as-a-bag-of-hammers Ronnie Raymond gets the credit.

[KevinTBrown]

Like Firestorm, Jason does all the thinking and concoctions with absolutely no say in the matter as dumb-as-a-bag-of-hammers Ronnie Raymond gets the credit.

Yeah, too bad for you that Ronnie is nothing of the sort. He's a jock, he's an average student (when in school), and did quite well for himself when he was Firestorm on his own.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

It was bound to happen some day, there are only so many name-surname combinations in the english language.