Horror ‘It Girl’ Gretchen Felker-Martin on DC pulling Red Hood after Charlie Kirk comments: ‘I had no regrets’

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On June 16, DC Comics announced that writer Gretchen Felker-Martin, an author of horror fiction including 2022’s Manhunt and one of the more well-known transgender writers in the genre, would be helming a new Red Hood ongoing series, alongside artist Jeff Spokes. On Sept. 10, one day after the first issue of Red Hood reached stands, the book was abruptly cancelled. In a statement released to retailers and initially obtained by Popverse, DC said simply, “"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."

The cancellation came on the same day that Felker-Martin had been temporarily suspended from her social media account on Bluesky for comments she made about the murder of right-wing activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk. Felker-Martin had written the following posts, since deleted from the site:

Indeed, a subsequent statement released by DC to both Popverse and other news outlets requesting comment, including The Comics Journal, obliquely referenced the Bluesky posts as the cause of Red Hood’s cancellation, reading:

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.

This was not the first time that the outspoken Felker-Martin had come under fire for her blunt political comments. Following the outbreak of the Israel’s war with Gaza in 2023, she had been harshly critical of Israel, referring to its government as “fascist,” and comparing Zionism to “full-fledged Nazism.” Her novel Manhunt includes a sequence in which writer and anti-transgender activist JK Rowling is killed when her castle catches fire and collapses on her. And Felker-Martin had previously encountered trouble on social media sites for her off-color jokes, including one referring to the destruction of the World Trade Center as, “the most principled and defensible thing [Osama bin Laden] ever did.”

According to Felker-Martin, however, none of this was an expressed concern of DC at the time that she was approached by DC editor Arianna Turtorro to write the Red Hood book early in 2024.

“We had a conversation about it, and I told them, ‘As soon as you hire me, you're going to get between five and a hundred of the craziest people you've ever met in your life, screaming for my head and yours,’” she said.

According to Felker-Martin, there were no terms or limitations placed on the writer’s public comments or use of social media as far as DC was concerned. A spokesperson for DC, however, said that all creators working for the company, including Felker-Martin, are given a written set of guidelines for social media use, with which they are asked to comply. Two other DC creators contacted for this article confirm that this is the case.

Following the announcement of her involvement with the Red Hood book, Felker-Martin became the subject of vocal criticism from news outlets and prominent comics figures on the political right. Many were associated with the far right Comicsgate movement, but earlier in September, as Red Hood’s release drew closer, the story seemed to break into larger venues, and on Sept. 3, the right-leaning Jewish news outlet Algemeiner Journal ran a story headlined, “Lead Writer of Upcoming DC Comics Series Celebrated Oct. 7 Massacre in Resurfaced Social Media Posts.”

This, Felker-Martin said, prompted the first concerns from DC. Approximately three weeks ago, the writer said that she received a call from her editors Turturro and Rob Levin, expressing that, “There had been some internal hesitation about going forward, just because of the breadth and vitriolic nature of everything going on. I know the concern was coming from higher up. I don’t know who, exactly, just that it was coming from someone at the more executive level.”

A spokesperson for DC comics confirmed that a call did take place with Felker-Martin at that time, and that the general nature of the conversation was to ask that Felker-Martin be mindful of the tone and intended audience of her social media posts.

“I think I did a fairly good job of it,” Felker-Martin said, until Charlie Kirk’s murder on Sept. 10. At that point, only a day after Red Hood’s first issue had reached comic shops, her social media presence returned to previous form. Even in hindsight, however, Felker-Martin stands by her comments.

“It just didn't strike me as an especially hot flashpoint,” she said. “This is such a loathsome person. Everyone on the entire internet is talking about how pleasant it is that he got his. … I saw that he had died in the middle of spreading more of the bigotry that he spent his every waking moment promulgating, and in a way that he had advocated for others to die, and felt nothing but contempt for his life. I mean, this is a man who I've watched for years go on television and on enormous stages and convention halls and say that me and everyone like me should be stoned to death.”

She does, however, concede that under the circumstances, “I can only put it down to really just a moment of poor impulse control. Had I thought for another second, of course I would've known [that it would be a problem for DC], and naturally, as soon as I had said it, I did know.”

At 10:30 p.m. ET, Felker-Martin said she received a phone call from DC Editor in Chief Marie Javins, who told her: “The story of the issue's release had gone from being celebratory to something that DC and Warner Brothers couldn't stand behind or defend.” When Felker-Martin asked why this was the case, she says that Javins replied, “That any kind of promotion of violence or harm is unacceptable to them.”

“I said that I've listened to Charlie Kirk being an overt Nazi for years of my life, and I had no regrets for what I said about him,” Felker-Martin said.

A DC spokesperson confirms that Felker-Martin was informed of the book’s cancellation in a phone call on Sept. 10, and that Javins was among those on the call, though the spokesperson did not offer further specifics as to the content of the conversations.

Others in the comics world have been less reticent to speak out about the firing. Writer David Brothers wrote of Felker-Martin’s cancellation on Bluesky: “Comicsgate ran wild for years, nurtured by people in comics who really should've known better because it kept them relevant or lined their pockets, but this right here is the line to draw? not when your own staff was getting harassed and hassled? C'mon son.”

Writer and academic Roxane Gay, who has previously worked for Marvel Comics, wrote on her own Bluesky account: “It’s an absolute shame that DC fired Gretchen Felker- Martin for exercising free speech. … Every writer here should be decrying this because we have to stand up for each other! This is ridiculous.”

For her own part, Felker-Martin said that she regrets that the rest of her creative team had been drawn into this situation, and that she had spoken privately with them following the book’s cancellation. For DC, however, she remains blunt. Referring to herself as “a more disposable person,” to the publisher, partly due to her transgender identity, she cited instances of what she feels were other controversial writers given more leeway by the publisher, noting specifically two high-profile former writers of Batman, Tom King (a former employee of the CIA during the Iraq War) and Jeph Loeb (accused in 2020 of making disparaging comments about Asian actors on television shows he produced).

“Frankly, I feel that they were interested in my cachet as a transgressive horror author,” Felker-Martin said. “And the moment that became politically disadvantageous for them, they cut and ran.”

She expressed that while she would be very surprised if they offered her work again, the point would be moot, as she would not accept it. “I have no desire to be part of any organization that wants to pretend that people like Charlie Kirk are decent human beings who deserve respect,” she said.

In that sense, then, it could be argued that Felker-Martin’s critics achieved their immediate aim. Comicsgate-aligned news sites Bounding Into Comics and Cosmic Book News both ran stories hailing Red Hood’s cancellation. And on his X account, Ethan van Sciver, generally considered one of the founding figures and leaders of Comicsgate, sounded victorious, writing: “We got one.”

Felker-Martin, though, is resigned to the reality. “This is not a sustainable level of stress and harassment for me to deal with,” she said. “So yeah, in a way they have succeeded.”

The post Horror ‘It Girl’ Gretchen Felker-Martin on DC pulling Red Hood after Charlie Kirk comments: ‘I had no regrets’ appeared first on The Comics Journal.

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