Marvel Comics Censors Civil War And World War II Stories From Upcoming ‘Predator: The Original Years Omnibus Vol. 2’ Over Seeming Racial Language, Nazi Imagery Concerns
Spencer Baculi
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In the latest example of modern audiences being too immature to handle anything more challenging than building blocks, Marvel Comics has censored two stories – one based in the Civil War, the other in World War 2 – from the upcoming second volume of their Predator Omnibus series over ostensible concerns regarding their content.
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Per Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston, the no-longer-worthy-of-the-nickname House of Idea’s disappointing decision was first revealed around December 8th via a formal notice sent to retailers.
Therein, the publisher announced that not only would they be removing both the Demon’s Gold short story, as originally featured in Dark Horse Presents Vol. 1 #137, and the two-issue Predator: Hell Come A-Walkin‘ miniseries from the hardcover collection, but also that due to its now-reduced size of 992 pages compared to its initial solicit of 1048, they would allow any retailers who so chose to return their orders of the book for a full refund.
Notably, Marvel Comics did not provide an explicit explanation as to why they chose to remove the stories from the omnibus.
However, a quick glance at each respective tale suggests they were excluded over concerns that their content could be deliberately misinterpreted by malicious actors as ‘racially offensive’.
Penned by Ron Marz and illustrated by Claudio Castellini and Gary Kato in 1986, the first story, Demon’s Gold, tells the story of a young Ecuadorian boy who, after being taken captive by Nazis and forced to take them to his village’s hidden trove of ancient treasure, finds himself rescued by the sudden appearance of one of the franchise’s signature interstellar hunters.
To this end, given the story’s setting in World War II and its featuring of actual, earnest Nazi soldiers, it unsurprisingly features an abundance of Nazi Swastika and Nazi-related imagery.
Sadly, despite said Nazis both being depicted as the story’s explicit antagonists and the Yautja warrior’s deserving victims, it seems the mere depiction of their insignia was enough to make Marvel Comics sweat.
Jumping back in time a few decades, the second censored tale, writer Nancy A. Collins and artists Dean Ormston and Ellie De Ville’s Predator: Hell Come A-Walkin’, takes place amidst the burning flames of the Civil War and sees opposing groups of Union and Confederate soldiers forced to team-up after finding themselves the target of their own Yautja visitor.
True to the setting, due to the obvious racial conflicts arising between the two groups, the miniseries sees liberal use of the racist slurs “darkie” and “nigra”.
As such, it’s not hard to see why the overtly-fearful Marvel Comics would decide to err on the side of caution and cut the tale of brother vs brother vs Predator from the book.
Retailing for the same price as original advertised despite featuring significantly less content, the updated Predator Omnibus Vol. 2 – which still collects the Predator: Hell & Hot Water, Predator: Primal, Predator: Nemesis, Predator: Captive, Predator: Homeworld, Predator: Xenogenesis, Predator (2009), Predators (2010), Predators: Beating the Bullet, Predators: Preserve the Game, Predator: Hunters, Predator: Hunters II, Predator: Hunters III, Free Comic Book Day 2009: Predator, and assorted series-related material from the aforementioned Dark Horse Presents Vol. 1 – is set to attack shelves on March 26th, 2024.
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