This entry was posted on Sunday, March 10th, 2013 at 1:56 pm by Brandon Hanvey and is filed under Comic.
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I didn’t care about reading the thing until everyone made such a big deal out of it! But I understand the sentiment. I don’t read any Byrne books because he’s such an idiot.
My question is, where was all this outrage, all this human rights activism when Marvel hired the guy to write Iron Man a few years ago? He held the same views then. He was NOT shy about pushing them actively. And the message boards were full of shocked, upset fans wondering why Marvel was supporting him.
But the pros, news sites, blogs, comic strips…all eerily silent on the subject. What changed?
Then I realized: This year both a Superman AND an Ender’s Game movie are coming out.
So that’s what it takes to get comics pros and commentators to take a stand….FREE PUBLICITY.
I can’t tell you how badly my opinion of so many pros and sites have fallen, because of this. If one only takes a stand when there are SIDE BENEFITS, I count it as if you haven’t taken a stand at all.
Earl: I don’t think that’s it. I think it’s the fact that the issue is one that can no longer be treated as a non-issue. This wonderful time, right now, that we’re living in, is I think for gay rights somewhat analogous to the sixties for the Civil Rights movement. When Card wrote Iron Man, it was like we were in the fifties– some people still spoke out, but it didn’t get anything like the coverage (and the mainstream press coverage) as it did in the sixties. It’s a zeitgeist thing.
I couldn’t care less about this crap. Whether a writer agrees or disagrees with gay marriage is a non-issue for me. And I’ll still go see Ender’s Game in theatres.
@Tobias Cards statements and actions go beyond the marriage issue. He suggests that people who are gay were all raped or abused. He works for an organization that actively creates propaganda and fights not only gay marriage but the right for gays to adopt. They caused controversy when it was discovered they wanted to create tactics involving pitting people of race against gays which caused them to be blasted by black leaders. Its not his opinion on gay marriage that’s the issue, its his efforts to attack a group of people and work to deny them rights that is.
Earl: I do think it’s a much bigger issue now than it was in the early 2000s. When Ultimate Iron Man was being published, Canada and Spain were legalizing gay marriage. Those were the third and fourth countries to do so. At that time, one US state (Massachusetts) had legalized same sex marriage. Between the publishing of Ultimate Iron Man and Ultimate Iron Man 2, one country (South Africa) legalized gay marriage. Since then? 6 have formally legalized same sex marriage, Mexico has more-or-less done it (any gay couple that goes to Mexico City can do it and have it recognized) and now 9 US states and the District of Columbia have legal same sex marriage, as California almost certainly will after the Prop 8 supreme court case. There’s also a real chance that Vietnam, Colombia, New Zealand, the UK, France and the USA will all legalize gay marriage this year depending on what elected officials (first four) and the courts (last two) decide, and in several other countries, there’s a popular movement to fully legalize same sex marriage in many other countries as well.
In other words, it’s become an issue since then. And, well, I wasn’t going to buy the new Superman anyway, but if I was, this might have turned me off. Really, aside from some of his Seventh Son books and Ultimate Iron Man, I’ve not read any of Card’s work, and I read all of it before learning about the guy. The Seventh Son stuff was pretty good, but Ultimate Iron Man was very bad. I’d guess that, if he has creative freedom, the new Superman will likely be just as bad. I don’t think he can work well with superheroes.
Tom and Ben make excellent points when it comes to why it’s a bigger deal now than it was then. But there’s also a comics-centric point to be made, which is our site’s specialty:
1. Before the movie, the number of people who gave a damn about Iron Man could be counted on one hand.
2. And the number of people who gave a damn about the Ultimate version of Iron Man could be counted on the hand of a nearsighted wood shop teacher.
I miss the writer Card used to be. Ender’s Game, Maps in a Mirror . . . even The Worthing Saga had moments that blew me away. It’s just painful to try to read his recent stuff. (A lot of people blame the religion, but I don’t think it’s that specifically–Brandon Sanderson’s from the same religion, and he’s never been that crazy. I think there’s something we’re not getting. Maybe he’s gay and in denial, or maybe one of his kids is gay, or something.)
“It’s not about free publicity, but then, well, he wasn’t doing anything that would get lots of free publicity.”
Clear as mud. 🙁
Feotakahari: Don’t fall into that trap. “If someone opposes gay rights, they must be secretly gay” is one of those things that ultimately prove flat. Were all the people opposed to African American rights secretly black?
March 10th, 2013 at 7:56 pm
Oh jeez, Marissa, I’m right with you on that one. Whatever you do, don’t try turning this into a discussion of what ‘free speech’ means!
March 11th, 2013 at 6:37 am
Similar to the reason why I don’t read much Lovecraft.
March 11th, 2013 at 12:51 pm
is it weird to tell the creators of certain characters are acting off character?
March 13th, 2013 at 8:39 pm
I didn’t care about reading the thing until everyone made such a big deal out of it! But I understand the sentiment. I don’t read any Byrne books because he’s such an idiot.
March 15th, 2013 at 10:42 am
His sociopolitical views are completely irrelevant to whether or not he writes competent fiction.
March 16th, 2013 at 10:16 am
My question is, where was all this outrage, all this human rights activism when Marvel hired the guy to write Iron Man a few years ago? He held the same views then. He was NOT shy about pushing them actively. And the message boards were full of shocked, upset fans wondering why Marvel was supporting him.
But the pros, news sites, blogs, comic strips…all eerily silent on the subject. What changed?
Then I realized: This year both a Superman AND an Ender’s Game movie are coming out.
So that’s what it takes to get comics pros and commentators to take a stand….FREE PUBLICITY.
I can’t tell you how badly my opinion of so many pros and sites have fallen, because of this. If one only takes a stand when there are SIDE BENEFITS, I count it as if you haven’t taken a stand at all.
Thanks for nothing, publicity hounds.
March 17th, 2013 at 6:50 am
Earl: I don’t think that’s it. I think it’s the fact that the issue is one that can no longer be treated as a non-issue. This wonderful time, right now, that we’re living in, is I think for gay rights somewhat analogous to the sixties for the Civil Rights movement. When Card wrote Iron Man, it was like we were in the fifties– some people still spoke out, but it didn’t get anything like the coverage (and the mainstream press coverage) as it did in the sixties. It’s a zeitgeist thing.
March 17th, 2013 at 9:17 am
I couldn’t care less about this crap. Whether a writer agrees or disagrees with gay marriage is a non-issue for me. And I’ll still go see Ender’s Game in theatres.
March 17th, 2013 at 11:24 am
@Tobias Cards statements and actions go beyond the marriage issue. He suggests that people who are gay were all raped or abused. He works for an organization that actively creates propaganda and fights not only gay marriage but the right for gays to adopt. They caused controversy when it was discovered they wanted to create tactics involving pitting people of race against gays which caused them to be blasted by black leaders. Its not his opinion on gay marriage that’s the issue, its his efforts to attack a group of people and work to deny them rights that is.
March 17th, 2013 at 2:25 pm
Earl: I do think it’s a much bigger issue now than it was in the early 2000s. When Ultimate Iron Man was being published, Canada and Spain were legalizing gay marriage. Those were the third and fourth countries to do so. At that time, one US state (Massachusetts) had legalized same sex marriage. Between the publishing of Ultimate Iron Man and Ultimate Iron Man 2, one country (South Africa) legalized gay marriage. Since then? 6 have formally legalized same sex marriage, Mexico has more-or-less done it (any gay couple that goes to Mexico City can do it and have it recognized) and now 9 US states and the District of Columbia have legal same sex marriage, as California almost certainly will after the Prop 8 supreme court case. There’s also a real chance that Vietnam, Colombia, New Zealand, the UK, France and the USA will all legalize gay marriage this year depending on what elected officials (first four) and the courts (last two) decide, and in several other countries, there’s a popular movement to fully legalize same sex marriage in many other countries as well.
In other words, it’s become an issue since then. And, well, I wasn’t going to buy the new Superman anyway, but if I was, this might have turned me off. Really, aside from some of his Seventh Son books and Ultimate Iron Man, I’ve not read any of Card’s work, and I read all of it before learning about the guy. The Seventh Son stuff was pretty good, but Ultimate Iron Man was very bad. I’d guess that, if he has creative freedom, the new Superman will likely be just as bad. I don’t think he can work well with superheroes.
March 17th, 2013 at 6:12 pm
Tom and Ben make excellent points when it comes to why it’s a bigger deal now than it was then. But there’s also a comics-centric point to be made, which is our site’s specialty:
1. Before the movie, the number of people who gave a damn about Iron Man could be counted on one hand.
2. And the number of people who gave a damn about the Ultimate version of Iron Man could be counted on the hand of a nearsighted wood shop teacher.
March 17th, 2013 at 9:02 pm
I miss the writer Card used to be. Ender’s Game, Maps in a Mirror . . . even The Worthing Saga had moments that blew me away. It’s just painful to try to read his recent stuff. (A lot of people blame the religion, but I don’t think it’s that specifically–Brandon Sanderson’s from the same religion, and he’s never been that crazy. I think there’s something we’re not getting. Maybe he’s gay and in denial, or maybe one of his kids is gay, or something.)
March 18th, 2013 at 2:43 pm
“It’s not about free publicity, but then, well, he wasn’t doing anything that would get lots of free publicity.”
Clear as mud. 🙁
Feotakahari: Don’t fall into that trap. “If someone opposes gay rights, they must be secretly gay” is one of those things that ultimately prove flat. Were all the people opposed to African American rights secretly black?