The Four Color Media Monitor

We have here some news about DC's political correctness (and with a creation that originally wasn't theirs, but Fawcett's), not unlike Disney's handling of Song of the South, if you consider their approach awkward as well:

DC has informed retailers that plans to reprint the 1940s story Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil have been scrapped due to concerns over the book's contents.

The most likely cause for concern is the depiction in the comics of racial and ethnic stereotypes common to the era.

"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," DC wrote in an email to retailers. "This title will not be resolicited."

Newsarama tracks some of the history of the story, noting that the comic has been out of print since the '80s and that several people in a position to know had cited racist content within the story's pages as the source of corporate hedging.

“The black characters are depicted in a very stereotypical manner, which was sadly typical of the time, and so were the Japanese characters – which, again, was typical in WWII," Bone creator Jeff Smith, who wrote a similarly titled Shazam! story, said in 2010. “I don’t see why they don’t reprint it. I hope they do reprint it, and say, ‘This is what was done at the time, and it’s pretty bad, but it’s also part of the story.’”

Let me put it this way. I probably wouldn't have minded if DC at least stopped being so hypocritical by continuing to reprint the misogynist Identity Crisis as well. But as far as I know, they're still reprinting that atrocity, as I've seen it still available even on online sales, which suggests they not only kowtow to Brad Meltzer's residual wallet, but they also still consider it easy to get away with slighting women's rights, long after the Weinstein scandal struck Hollywood. If they don't think concerns about sexism are as important as those about racism, and think it's all okay so long as it's from modern times, then their whole reasoning falls flat on its face. In fact, last time I checked, Marvel's own modern form of racism - The Truth: Red, White and Black - is also still sold on B&N, yet that's apparently acceptable too, simply because it's from modern times and not the Golden Age.

Here's more about this on CBR. While stereotypical depictions of blacks and Asians can be cause for concern, it's stupefying how once again, we apparently have a case here of whitewashing the atrocities of the Japanese during WW2 (Pearl Harbor, the Rape of Nanking) by acting as if their renditions in the Shazam story are entirely unjustified and incomprehensible. It's troubling how no distinctions are made. I may have seen some liberal commentators at times acting as though some renditions of Germans/National Socialists from those times were only unjustified and inconsiderate, and not an outraged reaction to barbarism. Which just shows how in the long run, we have SJWs who're excusing evil and not recognizing the whys or making distinctions between what was right or wrong. It's all basically a refusal to recognize what's important in history, or how it should be handled going forward.

DC may have canceled the Shazam trade because they didn't think it would be good to put out at a time when the planned movie is in production and released to theaters. But it's still caving to political correctness and suggests they're also scared of SJW gangs. At the same time, it's hypocritical they continue to profit from Identity Crisis, a book that's offensive to women, apparently confident nobody will consider women's rights issues as important or noticeable as racism.

Labels: dc comics, misogyny and racism, msm propaganda, politics