News of DC’s hiring vocal Prop 8 supporter and NOM board member Orson Scott Card to write a story for a new Superman digital comic made its way around the blogosphere since it broke yesterday. The reactions from fans about it run the gamut from boycotts of the issue in question (or possibly all DC), to disgust and dismay, to other saying to judge the work and not the man for his views, to claims that it’s a non issue. That last reaction comes presumably from straight fans though I wouldn’t bet against some percentage of LGBT people sharing that attitude for whatever reason. A similar cycle happened when Marvel published a mini series of Card’s Ender’s Game, adapted by Card himself, along with publishing other work though I wonder if the wailing and gnashing of teeth seemed more pronounced then than it does with the Superman news.
Card is entitled to his views, but this makes his views, icluding calling for the overthrow of the government if Prop 8 failed, no less contentious to the LGBT community in my opinion. Freedom of speech is guaranteed to every American citizen up to the point that it infringes upon the rights of others. This freedom doesn’t preclude disagreement from other individuals or groups or disallow non-threatening and non-malicious consequences as a result of freely expressing any views that may be hateful or ignorant.
The fact that a DC editor chose to hire the outspoken and problematic Card is something that I find disconcerting. Separating the work from the writer is a task that fails me. Is it hypocritical to say I’d boycott if I had no interest in the comic to start with and even if Card’s name weren’t attached? The only option I see remaining is to write a reasoned response expressing my opinion to the publisher.
Contact DC to inform the company of your opinion regarding Orson Scott Card’s assignment.
You can read excerpted quotes of Card’s Prop 8 rant at Box Turtle Bulletin. The original blog post on the Mormon site Desert News no longer exists at its URL. Or read this piece from 2004 on the Ornery American site.
