For those of you who lost your virginity before the age of 21, this article may not interest you. The rest of you may read on.
Orson Scott Card, famed writer, was pegged by DC Comics to write the newest arc of “The Adventures of Superman”. Being primarily a Marvel man (thusly, a post-teen virgin), I would not give a rat’s a** about who is writing Superman. He was never one of my favourite characters. However, I have a problem with Orson Scott Card, because he’s a homophobic piece of s***.
Being of the land of “free speech”, I could care less what Card has to say about homosexuals and their impact on society. He has some pretty standard bigoted views. However, I don’t understand how a company in an industry that is usually on the forefront of progressive and controversial views would think it is a good idea to hire this man. Marvel was created the first superhero comic with a black protagonist. One of the first female superheroes with her own book was Wonder Woman, and she wasn’t baking cookies at super-speed. She was beating the s*** out of hardened criminals! DC re-imagined the ORIGINAL Green Lantern, Alan Scott, as a gay man. Both comic giants have been ahead of general society when it comes to social issues, from race to homosexuality to drug use. And even though their track record for drawing women with little more than dental floss as a costume is not that stellar, powerful women in comics have started to come up. Google Alias and Ultra. Trust me.
So why the hell would DC hire a man who has promised to violently overthrow any government that legally allows same-sex marriage? This is a man who is a board member of the National Organisation for Marriage, a group who actively tries to tear apart families. He said that the notion of gay rights is a myth back in 2000. He often writes about the (false) connection between homosexuality and paedophilia, a common trope of the religious right. In 2004, he wrote a whole essay about the “threat” of homosexual marriage, because as we all know, gay marriage always destroys society! Just look at all the countries who have legalised gay marriage, who are doing better than us socially and economically. In the states where it’s legal, they’re getting extra revenue from all the new marriage licences and subsequent wedding planning, hotel bookings, agent arrangements, etc., and the governours are all, “Oh no, what are we going to do with all this money!”
I really don’t understand how a man who hates gay people would want to write about a man who regularly dons bright spandex clothes with his underwear outside his pants and and a big flapping red cape. That is about as ridiculous as an organisation that makes its members wear a uniform that consists of khaki shorts, a sash with a bunch of hand-sewn badges on it, and a handkerchief around the neck, yet bans gay members...ohhhhh...
Card is a man who hides behind his religion to justify his repugnant bigotry, and then he screams at you for being a bigot against his religious views when you call him on it. This is a new tactic of the a**holes of the social world. Truthfully, though, it is about as valid as Newt Gingrich dressing up in blackface and doing a Stepin Fetchit routine, then accusing a black man who tells him it’s offensive to do so that HE is racist. Why is this such a big deal? Because whether we want to believe it or not, comics and other media DO affect how some think. In general, though, that affect is positive, contrary to what your local conservative would have you think. I read a lot of comics as a kid, and I know that lots of what I read made me see the real world in a different light. Unfortunately, I didn’t try to see the world with ruby quartz glasses, but I could tell that comic writers wrote their views into this parallel universe for everyone to enjoy. Look at the entire premise of the X-Men...don’t watch “X-Men 3”, though. Look at the moral dilemmas sewn into the recent Batman stories. Look at the recent Civil War series. Reality begets fantasy, and the writers and artists make it entertainment. Having a known bigot write for the most powerful superhero in the DC universe is disconcerting, as whether he intends to or not, his views WILL bleed into his stories. Noah Berlatsky also brought up a few very good points: one is that there is a fine line between the superhero and the supervillain. The conundrum of Superman is that he is forever fighting for the greater good, yet he is doing so using vigilante tactics. The Klan thought they were enacting tactics greater good as well. That begat a LOT of strange fruit in sycamore trees throughout the South. So what happens when Superman, who works for the “greater good”, deems that gay marriage is NOT good? Does that mean he’d have to violently act out against Alan Scott, you know, for his own “good”?
It will likely not come to that, but I know I will not know what will be happening with Superman, or any DC hero for that matter, until Card is dropped. There are already a few petitions imploring DC to get rid of Card: one on AllOut.org and one on Change.org. Public outcry is still rising. Hopefully, DC will feel the pain in their pockets and break their contract with one of the Grand Wizards of NOM. Until they do, Make mine Marvel.
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