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On today’s Comic Book Club News, Heartstopper is under attack again, this time in Ohio. Gerry Conway reveals he’s been battling cancer. And did Blue Beetle kill off a major character?
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Episode Transcript:
Gerry Conway reveals cancer battle.
Did Blue Beetle kill a major character?
Heartstopper is once again under attack.
This is Comic Book Club News for September 5, 2023.
Gerry Conway Reveals Cancer Battle:
Gerry Conway, known for co-creating The Punisher, Jason Todd, Killer Croc, and more, has revealed that he’s been battling cancer. The good news is that as of January, he is cancer-free. The bad news, as Conway shared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is that there have been complications.
Said Conway, “Last October I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and I had Whipple surgery to remove the tumor, including my gall bladder, some of my intestines, and rearrange most of my lower body parts… I’ve been dealing with those complications since last December and it’s been a lot. Three hospitalizations including weeks in an ICU I don’t remember because I was in an induced coma and various other issues too fun to discuss here.”
Conway further clarified that he wasn’t asking for sympathy, so much as expressing thanks to his doctors and family, and is “well on the road to recovery.”
Our sincerest wishes of good luck to Conway, and fingers crossed he’s back soon, and better than ever.
Did Blue Beetle Kill Off A Major Character?
Did DC Comics’ Blue Beetle #1 kill off a major character? Spoilers after this point! In the new issue released today, Ted Kord is impaled and left bleeding out on the floor.
So does this mark the second time Kord has been brutally murdered in DC Comics? Well… No. In the synopsis for issue number two, which will hit stores on October 3, we find out Kord is beaten — but alive.
“FACE-TO-FACE WITH THE BLOOD SCARAB! Someone is out there hunting Beetles, and after the attack on Ted Kord lands him in the hospital, Jaime is on high alert and ready for a fight. But will he be ready when he comes face-to-face with the Blood Scarab?!”
That’s good news for a generation of comic book readers who are still traumatized by 2005’s Countdown to Infinite Crisis. At the end of that issue, former friend of Blue Beetle Maxwell Lord turned out to be a bit of a villain… And shot Kord in the head, graphically murdering the usually light-hearted hero and announcing Lord as a baddie to be reckoned with.
In this new issue, the villain Blood Scarab is essentially using Kord the same way as Lord. This time, though, Kord is going to make it through, just fine. Whew.
Heartstopper Is Under Attack Again:
In a surprising turn of events, bigots continue to be bigots. Or more specifically, after a Mississippi library was forced to move Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper to the adult section, now Ohio parents are targeting the series.
As reported by Bleeding Cool via Fox19, middle school parents in Maineville, Ohio, objected to Heartstopper‘s inclusion in the school’s Scholastic Book Fair. Said one parent who is the father of a middle school student: “It’s more than foul language. There’s so much sexual innuendo, especially in Heartstopper… You’ve got these kids that are having to think about things they really shouldn’t be thinking about at all.”
As Heartstopper barely has any sexual innuendo and no more foul language than you would hear walking around the neighborhood… Could it be there’s something else these parents are objecting to with a series of LGBTQ+-friendly books? Perhaps!
Added another parent who wrote a letter of objection to the school board: “We’re talking, this is for 11 and 14-year-olds, and certainly, the language that is used in this book would not be allowed at school.”
Just a suggestion, but whoever this parent is should pull a 21 Jump Street and hang around a middle school for a day, because they might be surprised what kind of language gets thrown around.
The Little Miami School District has responded and clarified that the book is not in their libraries or on their shelves, though as with any complaint, they’re undertaking an investigation. The Greater Cincinnati Human Rights Campaign also weighed in, saying, “Banning books because they contain LGBTQ+ content is a shameful attempt to silence LGBTQ+ stories.”
More on this as it develops.
Comic Book Club News Outro:
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And speaking as the parent of a middle schooler myself, let me say, with all due respect, to these folks objecting to Heartstopper: Grow up, you losers.
Got tips or stories you’d like us to cover? Email us at comicbookclublive@gmail.com.
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