DC Comics announced today that the new digital-first Superman series will be written by Orson Scott Card, who, in a 2004 essay argued that if same-sex marriage was legalized “our civilization will collapse or fade away.”
The decision has drawn strong criticism, and led to at least one petition arguing against DC’s choice of Card. Richard Neal, owner of Dallas’ Zeus Comics, announced his shop would not be selling the Card-authored installments:
Zeus Comics will not be carrying the print edition of writer Orson Scott Card’s Superman.
Card sits on the board of the National Organization of Marriage which fights against marriage equality. His essays advocate the destruction of my relationship, that I am born of rape or abuse and that I am equated with pedophilia. These themes appear in his fiction as well. It is shocking DC Comics would hire him to write Superman, a character whose ideals represent all of us.
If you replaced the word “homosexuals” in his essays with the words “women” or “jews,” he would not be hired. But I’m not sure why its still okay to “have an opinion” about gays? This is about equality.
