Marvel Comics Severs Ties With Joe Bennett After Immortal Hulk Writer Al Ewing Dumped Him Over 2017 Political Cartoon, Is Bill Sienkiewicz Next?
John F. Trent
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Marvel Comics severed ties with Immortal Hulk artist Joe Bennett following Al Ewing’s announcement that he would no longer work with the artist earlier this month after a 2017 political cartoon made the rounds on social media.
Games Radar reports that a Marvel spokesman told them that Bennett will not be working on “any future Marvel projects.” To that end, Bennett was relieved of his duties for the upcoming Timeless #1.
Source: Immortal Hulk #49
Ewing made his announcement that he would no longer with Bennett back at the beginning of the month.
He tweeted, “There’s an image doing the rounds that Joe Bennett drew back in 2017. I won’t link to it, but I have seen it, and it’s reprehensible. Thread follows.”
Source: Al Ewing Twitter
He next wrote, “If you’ve seen the image, you know what it is. An armoured swordsman, which I assume represents Bolsonaro given Joe’s commentary, slaughtering tiny, scurrying people, with the buck teeth and ears of rats. And big noses. One of them is cosplaying Dracula.”
Source: Al Ewing Twitter
“I’m assuming these are political enemies of some kind, but even if not, the tropes are apparent. Human beings as vermin being exterminated. Even if it’s no longer up, that it was drawn in the first place, signed, and so proudly displayed by Joe speaks volumes,” he added.
Source: Al Ewing Twitter
Ewing then tweeted, “This isn’t the first issue with Joe that I’ve been made aware of. I’ve spoken behind the scenes, but that’s no comfort to people at the sharp end of this kind of brutal propaganda. My lack of public visibility on this has let people down, and I apologise.”
Source: Al Ewing Twitter
“In the interests of adding some material action to that apology, I’ve made donations to Rainbow Railroad and the Rainforest Trust. I understand if that feels like an empty or insufficient gesture for those reading this,” he stated.
Source: Al Ewing Twitter
Ewing then announced he would no longer work with Bennett again, “Immortal Hulk is done, but I won’t be working with Joe again. If people choose not to pick up my work with other artists in the future on the basis of my handling of this, I understand and accept that. If I’ve lost your trust, that’s on me.”
Source: Al Ewing Twitter
The Immortal Hulk artist added, “I can’t speak for Joe on this. He can speak on it for himself. But I will say that it’s not up to him – or me – what those hurt by his behaviour in the past should be willing to accept from him now. He’s made his bed.”
Source: Al Ewing Twitter
“With all this said, I’m probably going to remain off Twitter myself for now, and not read or reply to mentions for a while. Again, if that feels insufficient, I understand. Thank you for reading,” he concluded.
Source: Al Ewing Twitter
The image that caused Ewing and Marvel to sever ties with Bennett can be seen below.
Source: Joe Bennett Facebook
Related: Comic Book Legend Bill Sienkiewicz Calls For Political Violence Against Republican Leaders
Interestingly enough Ewing has not made any public comments regarding Immortal Hulk cover artist Bill Sienkiewicz and his history with political cartoons where he depicted his own political enemies as shooting targets.
Sienkiewicz created a series of the targets that he called “The Most Punchable Faces Of 2017.”
It featured Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Matt Lauer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Steve Bannon, Sean Hannity, Stephen Miller, Ajit Pai, Harvey Weinstein, Mitch McConnell, Tucker Carlson, and Roy Moore.
Source: Bill Sienkiewicz Twitter
Not only has Ewing not commented on Sienkiewicz, let alone declare that he won’t work with him, but Marvel does not appear to have severed ties with the artist.
In fact, Sienkiewicz did pencils for Marvel’s Chris Claremont Anniversary Special #1 that came out in January 2021.
Source: Chris Claremont Anniversary Special (2021) #1
What do you make of the fact that Marvel Comics severed ties with Joe Bennett?
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