DC cancels the freshly-released Red Hood series after only one issue.
The publisher has asked retailers to pull any remaining copies of issue #1 off the shelves and they will credit the unsold copies for future purchases. Digital comic sellers also scrubbed issue #1 from their For Sale lists and will not be selling the comic book moving forward. Additionally, DC informed retailers that their orders for issues #2 and #3 are also cancelled and refunded.
Originally, DC promoted Red Hood as a Black Label mature-readers only series that took place in-continuity. It dealt with Jason Todd after the events of “Hush 2” where Batman and Todd had a falling out. Now on his own, Todd travels to New Angelique where he teams-up with Huntress to solve a murder mystery.
Gretchen Felker-Martin wrote the series with art by Jeff Spokes. Unfortunately, Felker- Martin recently came under fire for incendiary social media posts reacting to the shocking death of Right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. The posts themselves were highly critical and expressed violence towards the online personality- which will not be repeated on this site.
‘Poor Impulse Control’
In a recent interview with The Comics Journal, Felker-Martin attributed the posts to her “poor impulse control”. Furthermore, she expressed deep regret that her actions caused the cancellation and impacted the rest of the creative team, like artist Spokes, letterer Becca Carey, and cover artist Taurin Clarke. However, she stopped short of actually apologizing for the actual rhetoric of the posts themselves.
She also clarified that the cancellation was also due to her past violations of DC’s social media policy. The latest posts were the publisher’s breaking point with Felker-Martin.
DC’s Response
DC released a statement in light of the controversy.
“At DC Comics, we place the highest value on our creators and community and affirm the right to peaceful, individual expression of personal viewpoints. Posts or public comments that can be viewed as promoting hostility or violence are inconsistent with DC’s standards of conduct.”
It is important to keep in mind that this fallout hurts everyone involved. It obviously hurts Felker- Martin and the rest of the creative team, since the story they worked hard on won’t see the light of day. The cancellation and refunding hurts DC Comics financially. And finally, this hurts the fans who wanted to read more adventures of Jason Todd without concerns about ethically supporting poor behavior.
If nothing else, this is a lesson in being mindful when speaking about one’s opinions and how it can have unintended consequences.
Source: Comicbookclublive.com
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