James Gunn’s DCU Slate Features Tom King As One Of The Chief Architects, A Massive Red Flag For Any DC Fan
DC Studios CEO James Gunn recently released his plans for the future of the DCU and revealed that DC writer Tom King was one of the chief architects behind the slate.
While detailing an upcoming Supergirl-focused film titled Supergirl: Wonder of Tomorrow, Gunn relayed to DC.com, “This is based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s wonderful comic. Tom has been of the architects of this entire situation.”
Gunn elaborated, “He’s been one of the guys in the room with us, along with four or five other others. I love his take on these characters. He just turns them slightly to be something very unique.”
This description by Gunn concerning King’s work should concern fans of DC given King’s track record at DC wasn’t slightly turning the characters, but was completely butchering them and turning them into self reflections of himself.
Gunn provides the example himself explaining what the new Supergirl film will be about, “In our story, we have Superman who was sent to Earth and raised by incredibly loving parents. Kara was on Krypton. She was on a piece of Krypton that drifted away from the planet and she lived there for the first fourteen years of her life in a horrible situation where she watched everyone around her die. So, she’s a much harsher and more f*cked up Supergirl than you’ve been used to thus far.”
Anyone who knows Supergirl, knows this is not a description of Supergirl or her origin story.
This isn’t the only example, King has an entire assassination list of DC characters he’s wrecked so much so that he was pulled off Batman.
In one instance, Ethan Van Sciver lampooned King for his depiction of Batman as a scared child needing to be consoled by Gotham Girl.
He wrote on Twitter, “I think I’m going to throw up. Hey mentally ill writers? Not every character you’re writing is you. Stop projecting your own personal neurosis onto characters you didn’t create, who already have enough of their own established problems.”
As another example, King decided to not only tear apart Guy Gardner’s character, but he also had him brutally killed in his The Human Target miniseries.
King turned Guy Gardner into an obsessive, jealous ex-lover of Ice. After attempting to abuse her, Ice freezes Gardner and then The Human Target proceeds to punch him in the face, killing Gardner by shattering him into numerous pieces.
The story didn’t just destroy Gardner’s character and kill him, but it goes on to imply that both The Human Target and Ice have sex after they killed Gardner.
To make matters worse, not only does King come with extensive baggage when it comes to bad storytelling and narratives, he also comes with morally reprehensible behavior something Gunn claims he would have to take into account if it came to his attention.
Gunn specifically told The Hollywood Reporter, “I can’t be changing my plans all the time because an actor says something that I don’t agree with. At the same token, if someone is doing something that is morally reprehensible, that’s a different story. And we have to take that into account.”
RELATED: Former Batman Writer Tom King Issues Apology To DC Comics Artist Jae Lee
It’s unclear if Gunn knows about King’s morally reprehensible behavior, but King went out of his way to attack then DC artist Jae Lee because he happened to create a variant cover for Ethan Van Sciver’s Cyberfrog series.
King wrote, “Today DC put out an alternate cover to Rorschach by Jae Lee, who has also done covers for comicsgate, a hate group. DC does not consult creators on alternate covers; I reached out to them to express my deep disappointment. Far as I’m concerned this is the cover to Rorschach #1.”
While DC did indeed reveal Lee’s cover on July 24th, the fact that he was doing a variant cover for Rorschach #1 had been previously announced on July 15th.
King’s tweet showed that he has a penchant for lying and went out of his way to try and cancel Jae Lee for his own false assumptions about him and those of ComicsGate. His actions were and are clearly morally reprehensible.
This isn’t the only case of King being embroiled in scandal. He claimed back in August 2021 that he got a guest removed from Awesome Con because they were not wearing a mask.
King wrote, “Love seeing people at cons. But yesterday we had a Rorschach cos player who took his mask off at our table. You think I swear a lot in comics you should see me in person.”
“After an impolite talking to, Rorschach was escorted from the con,” King added. “Wear your mask. We’re not f—ing around.”
However, King’s story would change a day later when he tried to clarify his initial tweet, “There seems to be some confusion about a mask thing at a con. Mitch and I were signing at our booth at awesome con which has a strict mask mandate in compliance with Washington DC’s indoor mask mandate. Thousands of people there. All wearing masks.”
“We spotted a dude in a Rorschach jacket not wearing a mask a few feet from our booth coming our way. We noted this to the kind people helping us with our line at the con,” he continued. “They went over and politely asked the dude to put on a mask. He ignored them and walked up to the booth.”
King then accused, “Cutting the line, dude came up to us. We told him he had to mask before talking to us. He seemed confused by this, liked kind of dazed or stunned. But finally he took out a think Rorschach mask (nylon stocking with ink). But didn’t seem to know how to put it on. It was tangled.”
King would go on to weave a tale about the individual trying to figure out how to put his mask while he berated him with “some language” before eventually signing two books this alleged individual handed him.
He then claimed, “We were later informed that the kind people helping us at the con, as they are obligated to do, reported this behavior to the con management and the dude was removed for violating the con and the District’s policy.”
However, contrary to King’s initial tweet and then his supposed clarification, YouTuber Perch indicated that Awesome Con informed him that they had “no incidents” and that the convention was “running smoothly.”
It’s doubtful even if Gunn is informed of King’s behavior that anything will be done especially considering that Gunn’s own past behavior should instantly disqualify himself by his own standards for the position. And he certainly isn’t stepping down from the position.
NEXT: James Gunn Claims He Didn’t Fire Henry Cavill From Superman, Says “Henry Was Never Cast”
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