Not too long ago, DC Comics came under fire for removing promotional posts on Twitter, featuring one of artist Rafael Grampá's variant covers for Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child. The cover depicts Batwoman hurling a Molotov cocktail. At the time, the removal of the image seemed to have been done at the behest of angered supporters of the Chinese Communist Party.
After several weeks without comment, Grampá and writer Frank Miller recently explained that the image was removed from social media, not because of any controversy, but because there were actual errors present on it. Speaking at the Comic Con Experience in São Paulo, Grampá stated, "DC posted the wrong image without our names and the credits."
Evidently due to unfortunate timing, it was previously assumed that the removal of the Twitter posts was a response to backlash from pro-Beijing readers, who interpreted the cover as an expression of support for the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
Shortly after the image was removed, DC Comics was criticized by pro-democracy supporters, who saw the removal as a sign that DC Comics had become one of many notable companies kowtowing to the influence of Chinese censorship, prompting protesters in Hong Kong to adopt the slogan used in the artwork, "The Future is Young." Far from denouncing its use in protests, Miller and Grampá appear to wholeheartedly support it.
DC Black Label's Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child #1, by Frank Miller and Rafael Grampá, is on sale now.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)