[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1415″ img_size=”1024×500″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_border” border_color=”black”][vc_column_text]DC Comics has decided to pull their upcoming ‘Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil (Deluxe Edition). This deluxe edition was set to include “the entire 24-chapter serial from the Golden Age of Comics with new essays by Fawcett Comics expert P.C. Hamerlinck and film producer and comics historian Michael Uslan.” DC decided to pull this reprint altogether due to concerns over harmful content.
DC sent this e-mail out to retailers:
“After careful consideration, DC announces that the Shazam!: The Monster Society fo Evil Deluxe Edition HC (JUL180783) is cancelled due to concerns over its contents,” “This title will not be resolicited.”
One would have to think that because this story is set in the 1940s this ‘harmful content’ would be race related given how society was back then. I have never read through this story but after doing some research and looking at certain panels from the story it’s easy to see why it was pulled. One panel in particular showed a black character talking in broken English and another panel showed the members of the ‘Monster Society of Evil’ (who are asian) depicted in a very stereotypical way too. Again I know this is a time piece and society was different back then. But as a business especially with the upcoming Shazam! movie which is looking to target a younger audience I think this was the right decision.
This news has caused quite some controversy in the comic book world as Erik Larsen (co-founder of Image Comics) responded to the cancellation of the reprint with a number of tweets:
“I think at this point–DC is trying to dodge a bullet because of the Shazam! movie. They don’t want the negative publicity associated with the racist Fawcett Captain Marvel material,”
“The Monster Society of Evil is a big, attractive, irresistible carrot to DC because it’s a long, multi-part story which includes all of Captain Marvel’s major foes up to that point, including the ONLY Golden Age appearance of Mr. Mind,”
“Most Fawcett Captain Marvel stories are relatively short. Few are multi-part stories and almost none are continued from one issue to another. There were a couple serials but the Monster Society of Evil was the only really long one (25 8-12 page chapters).”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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