In a low not just for the Western comic book industry but for the author himself, DC writer Mark Waid reacted to the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump by lamenting not just the “sh–ty eyesight” of the shooter, but also the fact that the failed act “clinched the election” for the Republican candidate.
As anyone with an internet connection likely knows by now, while speaking at a July 13th campaign rally held at the Butler Farm Show Grounds near Butler Pennsylvania, the aforementioned Trump narrowly avoided falling victim to a barrage of eight shots fired at him by the now-deceased Thomas Matthew Crooks.
In the aftermath of this objectively harrowing and historical moment, while many Americans from across the aisle took a moment to take stock of just how America got to this moment, Waid was taking to social media to share his disappointment regarding Crooks’ aim.
Writing to his personal Bluesky account in a pair of now-deleted posts, as screenshotted by entertainment news outlet Bleeding Fool, the World’s Finest scribe asserted, “Pray that the shooter was wearing an RFK Jr. T-shirt.”
“If you’re tuning in, some f–king idiot with sh–ty eyesight just clinched the election for Trump,” he added. “F–k.”
Unsurprisingly, rather than celebration, Waid’s tasteless posts soon drew condemnation from comic book fans from across the political spectrum. In response, the DC writer would ultimately choose to delete his posts.
However, in doing so, Waid blamed the backlash not on his own words, but on their being misconstrued by “right-wing lunatics” and “Comicsgate incels”.
“Because right-wing lunatics and Comicgate incels have made a campaign today of sickly twisting my condolences about yesterday’s tragedy into claims that I ‘cheer’ political violence, I have deleted my posts,” wrote the veteran comic book scribe. “I will not give them any fuel to spread their disgusting lies.”
Hilariously, it should be noted that accusing his detractors of being some form of ‘right-wing zealot’ or ‘incel’ is one Waid’s favorite defensive crutches.
Most recently, in responding to the December 2023 discourse surrounding the coining of the term ‘cancel pig’, the comic book creator declared that any and all readers who wanted to see the industry improve the quality of their output were members of the “alt-right”.
“I think a lot of us would just rather see the industry burn down than ‘get together’ with the alt-right,” he asserted when pressed on the issue. “I know I would. Sorry. And I call bulls–t on ‘anyone who tries to highlight the issues gets piled on.’ I think it’s far more accurate to say ‘anyone who wants to blame everything on SJWs gets piled on’ or ‘anyone who wants to complain that their favorite characters are being written as political mouthpieces but can’t provide any examples of this is being piled on.”
The second issue of Waid’s current (and exceptionally trite) blockbuster event series, Absolute Power, hits shelves on August 6th.