Remember that comic book about Jesus Christ that some Christians said was blasphemous, causing DC to cancel its existing orders?
Well, a new publisher has just picked it back up.
Second Coming, which features Jesus coming to Earth to “set the record straight” after seeing how people have twisted His words, has been picked up by AHOY Comics, giving it a (for real) second life.
[Writer Mark] Russell said his inspiration for Second Coming was to tell a story about power, in particular about how society “has fetishized physical violence and force as being the solution to every problem.” During a recent telephone interview, Russell said his goal was to examine that notion “by having a superhero who’s bought into this ideology being forced to confront somebody who has a completely different approach to human dynamics. Christ seemed like the natural standard-bearer for that nonviolent approach.”
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There was no adverse reaction until January, when news about the comic was reported by outlets like the Christian Broadcasting Network, Christian Headlines and Fox News. The Christian Broadcasting article described Second Coming as “closer to blasphemous than biblical” and noted the comic’s plans to present Jesus as a failure. A Citizen Go online petition asking DC to pull the series from its publication schedule garnered more than 235,000 signatures. The petition described the comic as inappropriate, and asked, “Can you imagine the media and political uproar if DC Comics was altering and poking fun at the story of Muhammad … or Buddha?” DC canceled the title on Feb. 13.
In the ultimate act of irony, it was a Christian mob that killed this story about Jesus — one that could have ultimately drawn more attention to the faith in a positive way.
At least this time, we can look forward to His return.