Woke Superman Apparently Doesn’t Sell – Opinion

DC Comics, publisher of superhero comics like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman has embraced wake messaging. This is especially true for LGBT representation. They published a huge pride comic this summer that included many LGBT characters. It was meant to shine a light on the diversity of its characters.

If you’ll recall, DC recently shifted things around and Clark Kent/Kal-El went off-world, leaving the mantle of Superman to his son. The younger Kent becomes bisexual a little while into the series. DC Comics was very vocal about it. There were numerous write-ups about it, even the New York Times. New York Times. It was a huge success and everyone kept talking about it.

These sales however appear to be over.

Although the annual Superman: Son of Kal El was published in December, it dropped completely from the Top 50 charts when it comes to unit sales. The book did place 45 on ICv2’s Top 50 Comic Books By Dollars chart in December.

Not only was his narrative shoddy when he posted all of these tweets in January, but the new January sales charts from ICv2 confirm it.

Superman, Son of Kal-El #6 barely managed to make it onto the unit charts. This book was at 42nd position. It was dead last in the Top 50 Comic Books by Dollars Chart.

It was clear in January that Taylor’s thread was a deflection given he never showed any numbers, and it’s abundantly clear now. It’s likely without another major gimmick like making Superman gay, which is what they did in Superman: Son of Kal-El #5, that the book will fall off the charts in February.

The “he” referenced above is the line’s current author, Tom Taylor, who went on a rant on Twitter in January trying to explain how the sales were actually good but without providing any actual numbers.

Comic books are not performing well. A number of their lines are in serious financial trouble. Some great comics have been canceled because they can’t afford to pay writers and artists what’s needed to make them nor can they afford to publish them. DC, in particular, has had to make some abrupt cancelations in recent years, despite having some genuinely good stories (I’m biased, but a lot of what has been done in the Batman and related character series over the past handful of years has been outstanding, but not all of those series have been able to continue).

That’s one of the reasons the publishers have had to turn to movies to make ends meet, but the DC Extended Universe has been hit-or-miss at best. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has probably saved most of its line for the time being, but there’s been a lull in big-name blockbusters as they’ve tried to build up lesser-known characters (Spider-man not included).

All of this is not to say LGBT characters don’t work. There are several characters who are LGBT but it hasn’t been blown out of proportion by the media every single time. For example, one of the most popular characters to wear the Robin costume and work with Batman, Tim Drake, came out as bisexual (or even gay – he did hint that he had to have a tough conversation with his ex-girlfriend).

Brandon Morse was my colleague and he said it well in a VIP column some time back.

Many will say that it’s homophobia driving the anger toward DC’s decision on their character’s sexualities, but that’s not it. It is more about what we know, and not homosexuality that drives the anger.

It is because homosexuality has been used to make America look bad. They simultaneously want to use Superman’s sexuality to normalize homosexuality to the young and purposefully anger everyone else for both publicity and personal reasons. They want to shove it in your face and make you watch as they destroy characters you grew up with with “modern” values that make no sense to the character or the story half the time.

And he’s absolutely correct. It’s the fact that we are being bludgeoned with it that makes it unbearable. Son of Kal-El’s writing isn’t very good. The message was more important than the substance. This, along with the cudgels of wakefulness show in the finished product.