Following controversial comments on social media by the writer of this week's brand-new Red Hood series, DC has announced that the series has been canceled, and that retailers could return their unsold copies of #1 for credit.
Spinning out of the delayed H2SH storyline, Red Hood launched this week from writer Gretchen Felker-Martin and artist Jeff Spokes, the first ongoing Black Label comic book series (DC's "mature readers" line of books) set within the standard DC Universe. It establishes a brand-new home base for the Red Hood, operatiing out of the New Orleans-esque fictional city of New Angelique, with the Huntress following the Red Hood to this new city to keep an eye on him. However, following Felker-Martin making a number of comments on the social media platform, BlueSky, about the shooting death on Wednesday of conservative activist, Charlie Kirk, Felker-Martin's account was suspended on BlueSky, and DC announced the cancellation of the Red Hood.
What message did DC send to retailers?
Image via DC
DC sent out an email to comic book retailers late September 10th stating, "DC Comics cancels existing orders for Red Hood #2 and Red Hood #3, and any orders for future issues of the series. DC Comics will credit retailers for all invoiced copies of Red Hood #1, inclusive of copies that may have already been sold."
As noted, Felker-Martin's Bluesky account is currently suspended, so links to her posts are unavailable, but screenshots of her posts following Kirk's shooting on September 10th have circulated online demonstrating a number of posts by Felker-Martin featuring comments about Kirk, both from when he was initially shot, and also after he passed away from his wounds.
Felker-Martin has long been an outspoken critic on social media of conservative talking points. Felker-Martin, who wrote the acclaimed 2022 horror novel, Manhunt (Vulture's Book of the Year at the time), is very public about being a trans woman herself. She had previously been suspended by Bluesky earlier this year for posting about J.K. Rowling, “I hope someone splits her skull."
Popverse reached out to DC for an explanation as to the abrupt cancellation, and DC released the following statement, which is shy of outright stating that Felker-Martin's social media posts were the reason for the cancellation of Red Hood, but effectively says as much:
"At DC Comics, we place the highest value on our creators and community and affirm the right to peaceful, individual expression of personal viewpoints. Posts or public comments that can be viewed as promoting hostility or violence are inconsistent with DC’s standards of conduct."
Source: Popverse
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