UPDATE: Does This Look Rushed?

I'm just saying: Batman...major event...variant cover...and you have your both-writing-and-drawing-artist producing the variants. You're probably going to get a loss of quality somewhere in the whole thing. Writing was a given. But when the cover doesn't look as perfect and shiny as you'd expect DC to use to sell a big project, that's a bit alarming.

UPDATE: The above was referenced in the comments section.

YKW suggests that this may have been rushed from the production side. I'd still contend that it might have gone past getting inked because of delays from the artist. There are other indication of pencil artist lateness in the book, I believe. I don't have it in front of me, but I recall there being multiple inkers on #2.

Is Dan Didio On Speaking Terms With...Dan Didio?

From Newsarama.com:

We’re still locking down the writer on the Oracle miniseries, but Battle for the Cowl will be written and drawn by Tony Daniel, which we’re very excited about. This is the first time Tony’s written in a while, and he’s just champing at the bit to be able to do this, and we’re excited that he’s on the series.

From Hero Complex on the LA Times website:

Dan Didio: The first thing we’re going to see is called “Battle for the Cowl,” that’s going to be a book that features nearly every member of the Batman family

GB: Even Ace the Bat-Hound?

DD: [Laughs] Probably. We have a writer-artist team on this right now that’s scouring every book possible to see what they can include in these two-page spreads they want to build of all the characters that inhabit the Batman universe.

Unless Tony Daniel has MPD, there's no way I can see him referred to as "they" and "team". What's the deal?

What's Going On At DC?

Rich's LitG this week seems to be pointing at Dan Didio as the source of a lot of disgruntlement for the writers at DC.

Making Grant Morrison change the ending to Final Crisis that is, supposedly, exactly what was approved at the beginning (have some doubts on that one)?
Writers having to put their own stories on hold because of the Final Crisis changes?
Having a stand-up shouting match with James Robinson (who, IMO, is writing like a guy back from Hollywood that thinks comic book scripts are kids' stuff)?
Winding up with Tony Daniel on your big follow-up to BATMAN R.I.P. (any bets on whether this winds up worse than Countdown: Arena?)?

I have no idea what is actually going on, but it doesn't look good for DC at all.