Hello Faithful Readers,
To no one’s surprise (except, perhaps, the creative team at DC), DC’s gay Superman has crashed and burned. As RedState has reported, DC is pulling Superman: Son of Kal-El after only 18 issues. It seems that the premier issue sold only 68,000 copies; a pretty bad showing for a Superman title. But it gets worse. The third issue only sold 34,000 copies, which is nothing short of abysmal. Instead of having his own on-going title, Jon Kent, the son of Kal El (aka Clark Kent, the original Superman) and Lois Lane, will be relegated to a six-issue miniseries, Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent. Though not an outright admission of defeat, this can hardly be called a success for DC.
As I’ve had occasion to note multiple times, one of the best ways to alienate fans and influence people for the worse is to take beloved characters and change their core identities. You can get away with a lot in comic books; killing the main character, for example, which DC did quite successfully in 1992.
The Death of Superman was one of DC’s biggest hits, becoming a best-seller that year. But when DC turned Superman into a being of pure energy (whatever that means) only a few years later in 1997, sales tanked. They were forced to change him back in 1998.
Why? Because they changed who and what Superman was. Superman is not some weird energy being who loses his powers when in human form. He is flesh and blood, the Man of Steel, who fights for truth, justice, and the American way. He loves, and is loved by, Lois Lane. He is unfailingly good and upright, reflecting the upbringing he had at the loving hands of his foster father and mother, Jonathan and Martha Kent. Change any of those things, and Superman ceases to be Superman.
If DC wants a gay or bisexual superhero, then they should create one or more. As a matter of fact, they’ve tried it multiple times, but without any great success. Which may be why they tried to make Superman gay/bi. And we see how well that worked. When you create a character only to pander to a small part of the reading public, you only appeal to that portion of your reading public. And it doesn’t mean that anyone who isn’t on board with your pandering is something-phobic. I don’t need to be homophobic to not like gay comic book characters. It’s something that doesn’t appeal to me, in the same way that Harlequin romances and Hallmark movies don’t appeal to me. I don’t read Harlequin and I don’t watch the Hallmark channel. I find them aesthetically lacking in substance. Full disclosure: I do believe that homosexuality is morally wrong in a way that Harlequin and Hallmark are not, but that’s a topic for another post.
So, DC, learn a lesson here. Stop messing with the core identities of your characters. Write engaging stories and stop pandering. Then watch what happens to your sales. Oh, and stop rebooting your universe every few years. Once was enough.
The Red Crosse Knight