Esquivel Pulled from NIGHTWING; Issues Statement on Twitter
Writer Eric Esquivel, whose book Border Town was cancelled by Vertigo after allegations of abuse surfaced, has now been removed as the new co-writer of Nightwing at DC Comics.
Word first came out via Bleeding Cool, which ran a leaked solicitation for Nightwing #58 that listed Esquivel co-writing along with Scott Lobdell. Since then, sources have confirmed that Esquivel has been pulled from Nightwing and that a new solicitation with updated writing credits will be forthcoming.
Esquivel scrubbed his social media accounts immediately after the allegations were made public, but he re-opened his Twitter account from lockdown last night to issue a statement thread that mixes apology with an attempt to explain his behavior, citing the lack of proper male role models as he was growing up, noting that his examples for dealing with women were the likes of James Bond, The Fonz from Happy Days, and KISS guitarist and media personality Gene Simmons.
His full statement (click to embiggen):
Reaction to Esquivel’s statement have been mostly negative, with many calling him out for what appears to be a non-apology that has a lot of blame-shifting and not taking responsibility for his actions. There is no indication whether Esquivel has retained legal representation, nor if he consulted with same before posting this thread.
Cynthia Naugle, who posted the original allegations against Esquivel last week, posted this on Twitter on December 17.
By now, it should be obvious that I’m not going to respond to any negative, insensitive, or hurtful comments.
I’m busy trying to make a difference for people that have been abused.
Arguing on Twitter is NOT going to do that.
Keep your eyes peeled I’m not close to being done.
— Cynthia Naugle (@GoOffTiger) December 17, 2018
Does this indicate that she intends to pursue a civil case against Esquivel? Her lawyer, Stephen Portell, would only say that it’s a decision for her to make, and that there are a lot of factors to consider.
DC Comics and Vertigo still have yet to make any official statement on the matter.
