Superman To Fight For 'A Better Tomorrow' So Obviously Terrible People Are Piiiiiissed
All culture war, all the time.
A week ago, conservatives had a freak out about the NEW Superman coming out as bisexual in the upcoming Superman: Son of Kal-El #5. But it seems that was just the tip of conservatives' WAR ON SUPERMAN.
On October 16, during the DC Fandome online even t, chief creative officer and publisher of DC Comics Jim Lee announced that the Man of Steel's motto would be "evolving" from the well-known mantra that he fights for "Truth, Justice and the American Way." The new mission statement for Superman will now be "Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow," which is both aspirational and more hopeful for a Superman for the next generation.
Cue Fox News going for another round after the announcement:
The video features well-known comics fans [checks notes] Leo Terrell, Lara Trump, Raymond Arroyo (who made extremely homophobic remarks to Laura Ingraham when discussing the sexuality of Superman last week), and Alicia Acuna. Arroyo and Terrell particularly complain about DC Comics "changing the origins of Superman" to cater to "wokeness."
This narrative was furthered when Fox News published a story of the colorist on "Superman: Son Of Kal-El" quitting over this change. They were so excited to add their new favorite phrase "cancel culture" to their Superman outrage that they created a new word which has yet to be corrected as of this writing:
We can only assume that Superman's "wokness" is delicious, out of this world stir-fry.
In its article , Fox News links to disreputable Comicsgate propaganda website Bounding Into Comics. Both articles published part of a rant colorist Gabe Eltaeb gave during a four and a half hou r YouTube livestream run by Comicsgate's self-appointed leader, former DC Comics artist and bigot Ethan Van Sciver .
After telling an anecdote about The Joker creator Jerry Robinson, Gabe Eltaeb went on a rant that was published in most conservative websites.
I'm tired of this shit. I'm tired of them ruining these characters. They don't have a right to do this. [...] It's not about gay or anything like that. What really pissed me off was saying truth, justice, and a better world. Fuck that it was Truth, Justice, and the American way. My Grandpa almost died in World War II [...] We don't have a right to destroy shit that people died for to give us. It's a bunch of fucking nonsense.
Arguably, no one is destroying or taking anything away by adding more diversity and creating new characters. But Eltaeb continued with his rant against "SJWs" (Social Justice Warriors), as Comicsgate likes to call anyone not in their hate group.
They call us bigots and racist and shit [...] they're the fucking bigots.
Funny that Eltaeb has an objection with them being called bigots or racist considering the "hightlights" of the livestream (which included comics has-beens Jon Malin, Dan Fraga, Graham Nolan, Aaron Lopresti, Art Thibert, and Billy Tucci) that all these conservative publications left out:
Van Sciver using a homophobic stereotypical "lisping" voice
Van Sciver saying they are going to "give Superman HIV"
Art Thibert referring to LGBTQ+ as a "sexual preference"
Making a "joke" about a character raping the new Superman
Jon Malin, after Dan Fraga asking "What's next after this," saying that they will pivot to pedophilia and saying "You're gonna have Batman fucking Robin."
Gabe Eltaeb comparing LGBTQ+ to bestiality after Malin's rant
That last part (and possibly leaking story information weeks prior to Van Sciver to get the hate machine going) is why Eltaeb was probably fired, as posited by this piece by Bleeding Cool and this pinned tweet from Eltaeb (whose Twitter is now in protected mode) in which he describes being "pushed" out rather than "quitting."
Twitter
Eltaeb's and Fox News's meltdowns are both a word salad of conservative dog whistles and ahistorical. "Truth, Justice and the American Way" did not originate with the first Superman comic books by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. In fact, Superman's original motto in his first appearance in Action Comics#1 was one that today would fit more progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Bernie Sanders or, as Comicsgate likes to say, SJWs:
Superman for President in 2028! DC Comics
As noted by this piece in Variety , the version of the motto conservatives are screaming about was created for the "Superman" radio serial in the early 1940s during World War II. But even as early as 1948, in Superman's first film serial, it was adapted to "Truth, Tolerance and Justice," as noted by the writer of Superman Smashes The Klan :
"Truth, Justice, and the American Way" was first used in the 1940s Superman radio show, but didn't become ubiquitou… https: //t.co/LYJSHtQmrD
— Gene Luen Yang (@Gene Luen Yang) 1616245897.0
The "American Way" motto was revived for the "Adventures of Superman" TV series that aired in the 1950s (during the Cold War paranoia and McCarthyism) before it was changed again to "Truth, Justice and Freedom" in the 1960s on the kids cartoon series "The New Adventures of Superman." The "American Way" part came back in arguably the most well-known version of the character, 1978's "Superman: The Movie" starring Christopher Reeve.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the new slogan lets the new Superman live up to of the original Superman's (his father Clark Kent) oldest nicknames: "The Man of Tomorrow." The nickname, which debuted in 1939's "New York World's Fair Comics" #1, has long been associated with Superman. But with both Supermen embracing diversity , advocating to fix climate change and optimistically fighting for a better future , never have we more needed Superman as "The Man Of Tomorrow" and a symbol of hope for EVERYONE.
Both in the comics pages and in pop culture.
#ComicsForAll
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Hey, Felix Deon! He does some very tasteful-- and raunchy!-- queer art.
"Hey!! Quit trying to ruin our patriotic mythology by contaminating it with actual history! If we'd wanted any of that, we might have bothered to stayed awake in history class!"