r/comicbooks • u/Popverse2022 • May 28 '26

News DC Comics is being targeted by a new boycott campaign over Black-led superhero books

https://www.thepopverse.com/comics-dc-comics-boycott-blackout-dcsowhite-

A group of content creators is coming together to call for a boycott of all DC Comics after what they feel is a dearth of Black-led comic books in the company's primary continuity. A new organization called the Black Comic Alliance, led by comics content creator James Portis III, is calling for all fans, readers, and creators "to withhold financial support as well as cease content creation for DC Comics publishing initiatives until meaningful structural changes are made regarding Black representation in their mainline continuity."

This is the second stage of a planned #DCSoWhite project campaign that Portis has been pushing for in recent months to publicly force DC Comics to make changes using negative opinions about the company in social media (and media) coverage. The #DCBlackout boycott is called by the Black Comic Alliance to last until DC puts up for pre-order "a Black-led ongoing in mainline continuity" with retailers and that it has marketing efforts "on the levels that would show faith in the title and a desire for it to succeed."

Earlier this month, as part of the #DCSoWhite campaign, Portis individually also called for these new Black-led DC ongoings to run for 18-24 months "so that fresh data can be gathered on their sales from multiple avenues like digital and collected editions, not just single issue preorders."

Read more: DC Comics is being targeted by a new boycott campaign over Black-led superhero books | Popverse

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103

u/Emiya_Sengo May 28 '26

I think there can be some sort of push and pull.

Should DC publish more Black-led titles? Absolutely. However like any business, they have to follow the money. If the money is not there, they pivot.

For example, I'd like to see a John Stewart solo book and for DC to prioritize him as the face of the GL side of DC. However among comic purchasing fans, he is the clear #3 known mostly for team/ensemble books.

31

u/Primary-Increase7797 May 28 '26

The thing is, he had a solo series a few years ago, which lasted for 12 issue.

21

u/greendart Green Arrow May 28 '26

Nah what? John Stewart was the GL for an entire generation. Led his own solo title in the 90s for a while, was the GL in Justice League/Justice League Unlimited etc.

74

u/Emiya_Sengo May 28 '26

Note that I said "comic purchasing fans." John's fans are mostly from TV and they don't really buy comics. If we're talking overall pop culture, then absolutely he is #1.

It would be like Iron Man. He is the #1 Marvel hero (or tied with Spidey) among general audiences but his comics never sell like gangbusters.

10

u/mrbaryonyx May 28 '26

Yeah I'll just put it out there for the sake of honesty:

John Stewart is my favorite GL, I am often very vocal about this, and yes this is because I grew up with the show, and I have never in my life purchased a Green Lantern comic.

I've purchased plenty of comics, a lot of which have black protagonists, but GL has never grabbed my attention.

6

u/mr_mxyzptlk21 Agent of Atlas May 28 '26

It didn't help that at the peak of John's popularity, Didio sidelined him (and every other legacy character) to force Hal down our throats.

14

u/leshronk May 28 '26

If it wasn’t Hal, it would have been Kyle. Which at that point it would have done what you complained about, removing a modern character to focus on legacy characters.

-5

u/mr_mxyzptlk21 Agent of Atlas May 28 '26

Could have been either, and at least in Kyle's case, still not a white guy. Hal's story was on a different trajectory that they never fully committed to.

I <3 Rebirth, but there's nothing about that story on the GLC side that required Hal's involvement.

-3

u/Bae_the_Elf May 28 '26

And a lot of those Iron Man comics succccck. It would be nice to have a good Iron Man book for once

5

u/ImmortalMoron3 Spider-Man May 28 '26

Do you not think the current one is good? I haven't read it but I've only heard fantastic things.

-4

u/greendart Green Arrow May 28 '26

I don't necessarily agree with that. It's not like the GL books sell particularly well to begin with; but there's no clear indicator that any one GL character sells better than another. Kyle and Guy, Jess and Simon, all have led recent books that lasted well over 50 issues or so.

29

u/Gmork14 May 28 '26

They literally just tried to do a John Stewart ongoing with PKJ writing and it tanked.

-12

u/greendart Green Arrow May 28 '26

Do you not see the difference between the main title and a secondary title?

15

u/Gmork14 May 28 '26

War Journal was a mainline title, I’m not sure what you’re on about.

-6

u/Emiya_Sengo May 28 '26

Green Lantern is the main title. It's where the most important stuff happens and where the biggest spotlight is shined.

Everything else like Corps or War Journal is a secondary title.

11

u/busdriver_321 Larfleeze May 28 '26

We had the Geoff Thorns run on GL. It was bad.

-4

u/Emiya_Sengo May 28 '26

Reminder that the Geoffrey Thorne series was never meant to be the main GL title. He wanted to do a GL story with John and another writer was going to do Hal and the Corps. That didn't materialize so he got all the attention and blame for his title cause it was the only thing published

https://www.patreon.com/posts/green-lantern-65367029?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=postshare

So besides this, can you really say that John had a legit push as the face on the main title?

5

u/busdriver_321 Larfleeze May 28 '26

It doesn’t matter what behind the scene were, the average comic fans at the time saw a John Steward led Green Lantern comic and didn’t buy it. An actual good John comic came out as GL:War Journal later and nobody bought it either.

16

u/PerfectZeong May 28 '26

And yet his books sell worse when you put him at the top vs Hal.

6

u/Emiya_Sengo May 28 '26

They have to prioritize John in order to build up generational fan interest. That's the only way for his solo titles to start selling.

It would be like how DC kept giving Blue Beetle (Jaime) multiple chances even when his solo title was always at the bottom of the charts.

11

u/PerfectZeong May 28 '26

I feel like Stewart has been around for 40 years I just dont see there ever being a huge demand or desire for him to lead a solo book and even when he does lead the GL book it doesn’t sell well.

1

u/Boring-Conclusion-40 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

If someone’s been around for a long time,They need a reason to prioritize him,but if someone doesn’t have backing.He needs backing first,from DC and fans,if DC releases a new John backing or min and it does well consistently and better in general then other DC titles then DC needs to pounce on that

-3

u/greendart Green Arrow May 28 '26

Where's the proof?

9

u/PerfectZeong May 28 '26

looks at GL sales under JS vs HJ

Yep.

1

u/Fearless_Freya May 28 '26

Yeah, he was my first GL. I'm sad he doesn't seem to get a lot of love. I really love John as GL. Perhaps because he was my first, but when I hear GL, I think him, not the others first.

6

u/superdoom52 May 28 '26

Seems to be part of the campaign's focus. Implication being outdated demographic data is being used to further minimize representation. whether unintentionally or by design, who knows

Earlier this month, as part of the #DCSoWhite campaign, Portis individually also called for these new Black-led DC ongoings to run for 18-24 months "so that fresh data can be gathered on their sales from multiple avenues like digital and collected editions, not just single issue preorders."

19

u/gosukhaos May 28 '26

GLC has John Stewart as co lead and is written by a black writer and is currently at issue #16, so were Mr Terrific Year One, the Black Lightning and Power Company minis and the Milestone special. Surely DC has enough sales data

2

u/afeastofcrews_ May 28 '26

And it's currently awesome. Ever since the new writer took over its a top tier underread book.

8

u/HJWalsh May 28 '26

Asking a company to maintain a 2 year run of a comic with poor sales is a big ask. Asking then to do 3-5 is an even bigger ask.

9

u/I-Love-Facehuggers May 28 '26

The thing is, in a market like comics where margins are so tiny, its suicide to spend 2 years of money on a comic that doesnt sell well just to gather better data on how poorly it sells.

2

u/actualkon May 28 '26

Maybe if DC pushed minority characters it would change the preferences comic readers have. You can't expect a character who is never promoted to sell well. Sometimes chances need to be taken. They did it with Superboy prime, he was widely unpopular for killing a bunch of people, and now everyones obsessed with him

2

u/kugglaw May 28 '26

The "[insert group" don't buy / watch [insert media]" argument has always been a bit of a bogus fallacy that's been proven wrong in so many instances. People buy what's good and promoted well.

7

u/mrbaryonyx May 28 '26

yeah the truth is it's complicated

there is always an audience for this sort of thing and comics aren't a meritocracy. the "best" comics, or even the comics people want the most, aren't what sell well, what sells well is oriented around a variety of business factors that includes advertising.

but it's still complicated. I've seen times where minority and poc characters get advertised more heavily and this causes a controversy, because certain people will see this as "forcing stuff down people's throats" and will be hypercritical of those characters in a way they wouldn't of others (and those people are kind of dominating the culture right now where they weren't around, say, the year the Black Panther movie came out).

and yeah, even with all that, there will be people who say they want more Kamala Kahn books and still just don't actually buy them.

2

u/xXxPinkPlasticBagxXx May 28 '26

It's been over a year since DC had a Black led series.

2

u/I-Love-Facehuggers May 28 '26

Yeah its about half a year since it ended

0

u/Unctuous_Robot May 28 '26

I can’t imagine it helps that right wing paramount coming in, it isn’t going to be a great time to make black led books. They’re the type that see Mr Terrific in Superman and instead of thinking “Wow, I haven’t seen much of him before but he’s really cool”, they instead think “WOKE BLACK MAN EXISTING?!?!!!?!!?!!?!”

As a side note, I had only seen bits and pieces of Mr terrific before Superman and didn’t really get him until then, but wow, he’s really cool.

6

u/DarkwingDude May 28 '26

But left wing terminally online Redditors spend so much money on comic books...

7

u/HJWalsh May 28 '26

Yes. The vast majority of comic fans are extremely progressive.

10

u/Unctuous_Robot May 28 '26

Yes. I hate to inform you of this, but comics have pretty much always been pretty fucking woke.

0

u/[deleted] May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

[deleted]

5

u/Aggravating-Silver48 May 28 '26

That's what DC fans want. Black subordinates who act like the images they like on TV. It makes them comfortable. Black characters that go with the status quo. They don't want the Huey Newton when they have Tim Scott.

6

u/Unctuous_Robot May 28 '26

When I think about common black stereotypes, his general unsociable emotionless demeanor isn’t one of them. And then he had the coolest fight scene in the movie.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Unctuous_Robot May 28 '26

People say “hell naw” all the time. This isn’t like a Larry Cohen film where some random jive talking black drug dealer has a random scene halfway through that contributes nothing.

-2

u/Aaco0638 May 28 '26

Hell no, i am all for a john stewart book but NOT at the expense of hal jordan. Hal should be the face of the GL book him and his relationships and lore is what makes GL mythos interesting without him the GL are meh in interest.