Can't we all just get along?

DC are getting a lot of flak this week aren't they???

I agree that it's largely their own fault. Their constant editorial meddling is now becoming infamous, but this week the hatred I've seen for them is kind of misplaced. If you can post hateful bile on someones Facebook page, or threaten violence, you could probably manage some homework first.

Case in point: DC are not homophobic.

Last week, the creative team on Batwoman left the title. One of the reasons given was that DC would not let them write the characters' wedding into their story. This set the internet alarm bells ringing, because Batwoman (Kate Kane) happens to be gay. Now, Batwoman is one of DC's most critically acclaimed titles, and they are very proud of the book, the character, and the handling of her sexuality. But internet logic goes like this:

"DC won't let Batwoman get married? Batwoman is gay. DC are homophobes!"

Batwoman co-writer JH Wlliams III then had to take to Twitter to clarify:

DC are pretty much against marrying off characters at the moment anyway, and editor Dan Didio explained the companies stance during an appearance at Baltimore Comic-Con:

"Heroes shouldn’t have happy personal lives. They are committed to being that person and committed to defending others at the sacrifice of their own personal interests. That’s very important and something we reinforced. People in the Bat family their personal lives basically suck. Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon and Kathy Kane. It’s wonderful that they try to establish personal lives, but it’s equally important that they set them aside. That is our mandate, that is our edict and that is our stand."

A person making sense on the internet? Surely not!?

DC have also brought the pain on themselves in the last day or two over their Harley Quinn art competition. Entrants are required to draw a page from script in the hope of getting their art into an upcoming Harley Quinn comic. The uproar here comes from one of the panel requirements:

"Harley sitting naked in a bathtub with toasters, blow dryers, blenders, appliances all dangling above the bathtub and she has a cord that will release them all. We are watching the moment before the inevitable death"

The backlash to the suicide angle I can understand to an extent. Despite the supposed Looney-Toons-style context of scene, it's National Suicide Prevention Week in the US, so in order to avoid controversy, you'd maybe want to steer clear of any sort of depiction of the topic, but another issue being raised is the apparent sexualization of suicide.

If you remove the word 'naked' from the panel description, the sexualization issue kind of disappears, so yeah that's a slight oversight on DC's part, but when protest-bloggers get hold of a headline like 'DC Comics asks artists to show their skill at killing off naked women', context goes out the window anyway, and the hate spreads like wildfire, giving thousands of armchair activists something to rant about on Facebook and Twitter. 

I do wonder, though...if they hadn't asked for Harley to be naked, and some of the artists had drawn her naked anyway (because, you know, she's in the bath), would they have been publicly abused on the internet for being sexist? I bet they wouldn't.

DC will probably lose some readers over the backlash, while the majority of real comic book fans will just move on and continue to support a medium we love.