Some days, you just can’t buy a Batman comic. “Out of respect for the victims and families in Aurora,” DC Comics made an official request to all comic retailers to postpone the sale of  Batman Incorporated No. 3 for one month, citing “content that may be perceived as insensitive in light of recent events.” Comic books shops across the nation had already received the issue in question, making the industry giant’s concerns more a request than an edict; presumably, no sanctions will be imposed on any retailer that sells the book before the new on-sale date of Aug. 22.

“While I am as horrified as the next person by the event in Colorado last week, I have to confess that I see little connection between James Holmes’ killing spree and the Batman franchise, movie or comics,” said Ed Katschke of Monarch Cards & Comics. “This issue of Batman Incorporated has absolutely nothing within its pages that refers directly or indirectly to any sort of civilian massacre. This leads me to suspect that DC is either oversensitive to the point of being ridiculous or cynically trying to raise public interest in its comics through an empty gesture. Rather than offer up a fictional character as a sacrificial goat to this tragedy, I suggest we lay the blame squarely at the feet of its perpetrator.”

Jim Collins of JC’s Comic Stop concurs.

“I saw no reason to delay the book,” he said. “In fact, we have ours out for sale. They said it was out of respect for the victims, but if Warner/DC wanted to do something out of respect for the victims, how about not having ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ shown for the rest of that weekend or delay it for a month? Oh, that’s right, they would have lost hundreds of millions at the box office, so make the comic shop the ones you punish with a comic that sells, what, 60,000 copies? Having us not put the comic out is meaningless. I’ve had no one inquire about the comic and, by the way, it’s far less violent than the recent issue of Batman: The Dark Knight that has children kidnapped and tortured.”

With the shooter’s alleged claim to be a certain famous Bat-villain, one wonders what that might mean for an upcoming high-profile Joker story in October’s Batman No. 13. Time will tell just how sensitive the venerable company truly is — or how lucrative its native homicidal maniac can be.

Tags: Aurora Colorado, Batman, Comic books, DC Comics, James Holmes, JC's Comic Stop, Jim Beard, Monarch Cards and Comics

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2012 at 10:50 am and is filed under Comics, Star.
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