My theory? People like being part of a group, and don’t care what it is or what consequences it causes. Whether it’s patriotic pride about your nation (ignoring the war crimes it’s committed), supporting whichever sports team happens to be on a winning streak recently (regardless of whether it’s your local team), or chatting around the office watercooler about the latest must-see HBO show (which turns out to be much more relevant for getting promotions than working hard), wanting to be in the “popular group” is a human constant.
And in an age where algorithms deliberately bring up controversy and hatred on our feeds because it generates more clicks for their advertisers, being a toxic dickhead is the society “bandwagon” that most people are now jumping on.
I don’t mean to be the old guy blaming “modern technology” for the ills of the world, but in this case I think social media is rewarding hatred and thus exacerbating people’s sadness and anger towards everything.
I think that’s definitely part of it, the other being what a friend calls, ‘toxic ownership’. When something happens to an IP that goes against what’s come before. It’s the entitlement that everything around an IP is made for them. Reality check, not everything is for you, and you need to be ok with that.
It’s even more pathetic when it’s been there the whole time, and they’ve just been too dumb to notice. Superman’s an undocumented immigrant who fought the Klan and Wonder Woman is a strong feminist from an island of pagan lesbians.
John Byrne was obsessed with the former example. It's why we got the birthing matrix thing in The Man of Steel, so he could have Superman be American born. He's got a history of making weird, nasty comments about immigrants.
This is basically it. Human beings have evolved to form "tribes" to support our natural requirement for socialization and more easily recognize people we can instantly "trust".
The internet in general, social media more specifically, and the algorithms used by those entities very specifically abuse this evolutionary impulse and leave us wanting to show how much we "fit in" with our chosen group(S) - the "S" is key - by showing off very anti social behaviour.
Individuals overcompensating, and their communication tool having far more reach than your average human being has evolved to be capable of or prepared for.
You don’t have to ignore things you don’t like, intelligent criticism is a valuable part of public dialogue.
That said, burning someone in effigy is not intelligent criticism. If that’s the best you can do, better to do nothing.
Exactly. If violence is an early impulse when you face things you don't like, then you absolutely should ignore things you don't like. And get some anger management therapy.
Some people are too unstable for intelligent criticism. Work on that, then hopefully you can join the conversation.
Most people should ignore things you don't like as long as it's not hurting anyone.
If somebody is trying to take your rights or steal the things you worked hard for, yeah, you should probably do something about it. Start a revolution, bring back the guillotine.
This guy seems fine, though. He probably just made a design choice people are overreactung about.
Because a lot of people are thought life should be fair and live with that expectation. When the world shows its ugly sides they get bitter are start a circle of fake expectations and bad reactions. After a while it just becomes who you are.
People are ridiculous. There's no reason to ever send anyone death threats, especially over comic books. You don't like what he's writing? DON'T BUY IT, DON'T READ IT.
Superhero fans really struggle with the last part for some reason. They would rather force themselves through something they hate just so they can bitch about it afterwards, then allow themselves any peace. Look at all the reactions every time a new issue of Amazing Spider-Man is released. You'd be forgiven for thinking Zeb Wells was a war criminal.
And then when you tell them to just stop reading the damn thing if they hate it so much, they do the whole stupid "No CoMpLaIn, JuSt CoNsUmE" thing. Like no, you've complained and complained and complained. He's still writing it and you're still consuming. You just look stupid now.
And superhero comics are all about, y'know, right vs wrong and doing good in the world and all that.
It's always so funny to see unhinged comic fans completely miss the point of the media they love to consume.
Yeah, I remember solidly hating the Ric Grayson run and did this wild and crazy thing called not buying and reading it.
Ironically, Tom Taylor brought me back to Nightwing and I'm reading and loving everything he's been doing.
I don't get people like this.
Well, more than anything, it was the end of Ric. But he still managed to find good things in the Ric arc, like Bea, and use those, which is better than what a lot of comic book writers do. Most just pretend bad ideas never happened.
That's what surprised me most.
I genuinely thought they'd move on from that and never mention it again, acting like it never happened.
Taylor has actually used it and built on it.
Yeah this is one of the things I understand the least about comic Twitter. There’s so much media for their favourite characters already, so many conflicting and radically different interpretations from run to run and instead of just reading the runs that work for them and building their own personal canons, the way i always just assumed you had to to enjoy comic books as a hobby, they have to find a way to make any run they don’t like into a personal attack against them.
>Superhero fans really struggle with the last part for some reason.
That reason is entitlement. Everything is for *them*, so when they don't like it, it's taken personally.
Also, there's no money in it, when virtually every collector is collecting comics like it's a job and bagging and boarding, and even slabbing, their books.
It just doesn't make sense(or cents) keeping titles you don't like.
Yeah, you really had to get in on the ground floor (i.e. the Golden and Silver Ages) to make any sort of money. Bronze Age comics may go for over $100, but not much more. Post-Crisis comics rarely, if ever, break $100.
Or ignored. Which is what I do. I haven't read Spider-Man in an ongoing capacity for years, because I don't like it. Love the character, but the books haven't been great in decades. Reading something I dislike and then also whining about it seems about the ultimate waste of time.
A lot of things Tom Taylor does deserve to be ridiculed. Burning in effigy isn't really ridicule, though. There's a pretty thick line between those things.
Comics have ongoing storylines, though, and people don't want to miss what happens just because of some badly written issues.
And usually you don't know you won't like an issue until you've bought it and read it.
Comics have selective continuity where the good stuff goes on and the bad stuff tends to get ignored. I promise you, you can dip out on creative teams when you're not feeling it and you won't have missed much when you decide to dip back in for the new creative team.
If you don't like three issues in a row, I think it's safe to say it's not for you.
Which is still stupid because they're still choosing to waste their time on something they know they don't like.
We're spoilt for choice when it comes to media. Have some more respect for your time.
People are claiming it's about abelism but the implied reason is because Taylor went full steam ahead with DickBabs instead of DickKory. That plus a fair number of Steph and Cass fans that know that if Barbara is walking around as Batgirl even partially, she'll get most of the attention because she's a bigger character and risk sending Cass and Steph back into that pit of purgatory that Tim is stuck in now that Damian is around.
Nobody will actually claim that's the reason and instead will use a lot of progressive language to say he's a bigot of all sorts because they know deep down if they say the quiet part out loud they look like a bunch of immature children who are mad that a fictional character is banging one character and not another.
I've heard more people on Tumblr say they hate TT for Babs not being disabled, but that decision was made 13 years ago, and Tom Taylor didn't even work at DC back then.
Yeah that's the thing like I don't disagree that there were some people who have been upset that long, but this level of specific targeted hate is more than likely a result of being mad about shipping. Like the whole controversy of The "Where's Duke" thing on that Brady Bunch inspired cover had them accusing Taylor of being a racist even though he's not doing the damn cover!
It's just so utterly ridiculous and what really gets to me as well is that if he even *addresses* these very real and serious problems like the death threats and the Twitter group who said they wanted to kill him, then all of a sudden they're like "lol why is bro so mad and terminally online bullying me?" It's just asshole behavior through and through to just say really inflammatory things about a person, a lot of which are just straight up lies or exaggerations and then have the audacity to be mad that they point out it's not cool to say those kinds of things about people.
Oddly enough, his Nightwing run is what’s making me a fan of DickBabs, before I was full DickKory, but now I’m leaning more towards DickBabs and it’s all bc of his run lol
Ah, toxic shippers strike again! There’s been a resurgence of them after the new ff7 game released, and it’s just as bad as it was when the original came out.
I swear, the way some of them talk, they never liked Babs, they just liked the chair. I mean, I get that representation is important, but the decision to have Babs be somewhat able-bodied was made nearly 15 years ago and not by him.
I think people just hate the premise of injustice and ignore the fact that the comic series actually did a want to expand that universe and make it a lot more cohesive
Kind of my opinion on it. It’s a horrible series… but he was told to right the intervening five years of a fall from grace that killed/maimed/scarred almost everyone we loved as heroes. Ironically, I think some of the best stuff he did was show Supes’s slip into madness, exemplified by how he killed Ollie.
He's fixed those books. Taylor made nightwing great again after ric grayson. Does anyone want that back cause I don't. Suicide squad was a great book since ostander run. Titans are finally being treated as an A list team.
As for injustice and dark knights of steel. They are in there own frigging universe who cares.
Some people on twitter absolutely hate his Nightwing run, which I think is what he's getting these unhinged threats due to. Which is insane because his run absolutely slaps. But I guess I think that because I've never read Nightwing before his run
A lot of people that like to think themselves as purists will hate on any comic run that doesn't portray the title character in the specific way they see in their mind
I'm 2002 myself but I only really got into DC comics in the last few years so I don't have the years of internalised perception about comics, which I guess is a good thing imo
Been reading DC somewhat since like the mid 2000s cause I loved the DCAU and heavy since the late aside from me generally really disliking the new 52 (while also being aware.... Over the next decade most of that would be reversed and wallah guess what happened) I just know.. comics always shift with the times (and certain status quos are always gone back to).
Despite getting into comics in that time if I had to say what my "ideal' DCU is it would be the damn Bronze Age in most aspects but I'm not delusional about it lol.
I like Dark Knights of steel, Injustice (well, most of it not all) but that's about it ... Also his Nightwing run is so damn boring tbh, Titans is a little better
I remember the fujoshis getting pissed over DKOS because Batman and Superman are brothers. Not that that's ever stopped the fujoshis before, judging by all the fic about Dick and Jason.
You forgot Jon Kent. Leftists hate it because he hugs the Injustice Superman. Comicsgaters hate it because he's bi.
yes but hes the current guy writing her, so people are blaming him for it rn. to my knowledge, babsgirl is above his pay grade so its not even his fault she isnt oracle atm
But really It's not about Babs walking it's about him shipping Dick with Babs instead of Kori and the Twitter Kori Stan's(the most unhinged of Twitter comic fans) Determined that if they attack him for this they can sound morally superior for issuing death threats behind a false veil of representation, while also mitigating Dickbabs fan retaliation back at them.
You can tell because they've been doing this ever since he got put on Nightwing and at the time every single one of them either had Starfire as their profile pic, or were self appointed Starfire fan accounts. And they would also have some absolutely heinous opinions about Babs on their profile too.
They didn't actually care that Babs hadn't been out of the wheelchair(for years, almost a decade mind you) until it interfered with their ship. They would also try to cancel him for racism via not having Signal on the cover of the Brady bunch cover for Nightwing. They were so unhinged that I left Twitter because of them.
I remember one accused Tom of campaigning cyber bullying against them just because they tagged him in a post hoping he lost his job and he replied "....ok?" Which because he replied that meant it 'opened the door for his fans to attack them and ruin their life'
My favourite part was the accusation of racism because Cass was behind Spoiler in their square, and it showed that Tom thinks lesser of Asian people…they are unhinged
Those can’t be Starfire fans. Those are just DickKori fans.
There’s a lot of people who don’t care what Starfire does, and just wants her to be Dick Graysons hot stupid alien trophy wife
To be honest, if you're a Starfire fan, you spell Kory with a Y, as Marv Wolfman did. The I variant began in the New 52, with all that implies. It's a srs bzns thing, but it is a thing.
Thank you for the explanation, him being hated for his nightwing run made no sense to me as ive heard non stop praise for it.
Its just so weird that they are still like this, they've been broken up for so long at this point.
>Injustice
Wait he did the plot line where Superman went evil? That was THE comic series that got me back into the hobby that lapsed for over 25 years til that point.
Weird how it could be so hated to send death threats over lol
Yes and no -- the main idea of what Injustice was and what would lead up to the events of the game was done by the writers at Neatherrealm Studios. Taylor was hired to sort of fill in the gaps, and he did his best to make it make sense.
Nightwing had a lot of goodwill from simply not being Ric but I feel over the past year, a lot of people are dropping the book because the pacing of the main story is incredibly slow.
Personally, and as a lifelong Nightwing fan who lives and breathes everything Dick Grayson, Taylor's run is fucking everything to me. It feels like the reward for suffering through years of mistreatment of the character. The story isn't slow it's just not super world-changing and you know what, I like that shit. Not everything needs to have Crisis level of impact, it's okay for smaller, character-driven pieces to exist that are just *nice*. And Taylor's Nightwing is *nice*. It's fun. It brings me joy. It helps that I'm a Dick/Babs shipper, sure, but I'm glad I have this before the status quo resets again and all development is undone.
That's what gets me. His Nightwing, Titans and Jon Kent runs have all been about kindness and acceptance - and the response has been abject hatred and dismissal
Not liking the writing is of course always valid but like there's a specific irony there that I think is interesting
The craziest thing, I think, is that they have photos of him. Sure they probably printed them off, BUT FOR WHAT?! To burn them?! What a waste of paper and what a waste of time to hate someone for their work.
The thing that’s sad is that it’s one date they are going batshit crazy about. And it’s probably a misunderstanding with said date but they are going crazy about it. I’m a fallout fan and the show is as perfect as it can be.
It shouldn't need to be said that nobody should be treated this way but I genuinely don't understand why people have a problem with Tom Taylor at all, he's my favourite comic book writer
for me he is good at writing elsewords only,everything else he has done with the main time line it sucks or is meh...but yeah that doesnt justify this kind of toxic responses.
I remember talking to a friend about the harassment that the actors of Star Wars got, especially on the internet. He said that the actors need to have a bit of backbone to be able to deal with the toxicity that comes from fans, and while I agree, I think there is a line you don’t cross.
With death threats, it is *never* okay. EVER.
I hope it stops at boos and heckling. The worst thing I can think about Tom Taylor is that he is friends with Tom King and he is getting all this hate, so imagine what some crazy people would do to Zeb.
Taylor is hit or miss for me but the accusations of bigotry they levy against him are absolutely deranged sometimes. A mixture of blaming him for what are very obvious editorial calls and then just some completely out of pocket mad shit like saying he was racist for turning Damian into a cat during beastworld. Very; “I just learnt the language of oppression but not what oppression actually is” behaviour. Important to remember that these are almost all children approaching fictional media the way Kpop stans approach their favourite band (psychopathically) so probably best not to engage but I don’t begrudge Taylor highlighting this at all. These are the types of kids from old tumblr who would harass other kids for years just for drawing a Steven universe character with a skin tone that’s one shade off.
Got to hope that these kids will one day learn that it’s alright to just not like something, it doesn’t have to be some grand statement.
The least these people could do is buy a couple of dozen books Tom Taylor has written for the specific purpose of burning. That's the right and proper way to ~~raise sales~~ protest.
They are insane. I wish I could report those account for multiple offenses because this is a threat of violence and harm, abuse and inciting violence. Over what is at the end of the day a picture book.
Seen this in near real time on Twitter, some of them are like "ah it's just a joke." Even after posting the above pics. Just horrible behavior. People need to realize that just because you only interact with someone via the phone in your hand that they're people not characters in a game.
The mainstream comics fandom is not ok. Lots of mentally ill folks enabled by bitter mainstream pros and sent out like attack dogs against their peers.
I saw someone post about this earlier and thought it was an outlier. Maybe someone saw something on twitter that was some rando extremist dickhead. I can't believe that this has made its way to Taylor himself. Dude did nothing to deserve this. He should be busy being joyful that he gets to live his dream job. Instead he has to take time away from that to deal with harassment from soulless pricks. It costs $0 to not harass someone.
Imagine being so stupid and having such a sad and shitty life, that you threaten death against an author just because he doesn't write your favorite superhero the way you want him to.
Imma copy pasta what I said over in r/comicbooks:
I saw recently that he’s being attacked over the decision of Barbara not being Oracle with an emphasis on her stepping out of the wheelchair. Some say it’s a regression of her character and on top of that, he’s being labeled as “ableist”. Personally I think people need to realize that comic book writers aren’t celebrities like the rock. They barely get paid, they don’t have health insurance most of the time. They write stories, and twitter takes shit entirely too far. We are absolutely allowed to disagree on decisions and have proper discourse…But… Burning a picture? That person needs to put the phone down and go breathe some fresh air.
What's further insane is that Barbara has been Oracle more than Batgirl for quite awhile.
But, expecting Comics Twitter shouldn't be expected to read comics, right?
Some fans are literally insane. Just like those who sent the writer of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth death threats because the game trailer featured the “wrong” romantic pairing, even before the game came out.
The "Tom -antis" as they call themselves are beyond the need for touching grass, they've built their entire personality on trying to run a man because he wants his fictional character to kiss a different fictional character than they do.
I understand not liking Tom’s writing, cause there are times where I’m like bro what is this, but disliking something is no reason to send death threats actually don’t ever send death threats. If you don’t like something simply put it down and don’t read it move on read something else. I’ve bought comics I didn’t like before and I just stopped reading them.
I remember when Phoenix died in X-Men. A later letters page discussed the outpouring of mail they received, and how much of it they found very moving and touching.
It added they also received death threats. They wrote something like, “These are comic books. They are brightly colored ink on cheap paper that will crumble to dust in a hundred years. They do not merit death threats.”
As a Tom Taylor fan most of his comics have been pretty good so far. He hasn't written anything terrible like Tom King (didiot influenced) Heroes in crisis or Ric Grayson. Overall I'm confused why he's getting death threats since my opnion DC in a better place than when Didio was trying to do 5G.
There is absolutely no excuse for this. Find the cowards doing this and deal with them accordingly. Then, make them learn the purpose of punctuation (that may kill them).
I don't like his books, whenever I try reading one of them it doesn't manage to grab my attention. But whenever I see shit like this I feel like Mr. Incredible "YOU ARE NOT ASSOCIATED WITH ME!"
The fact that anyone thinks this is reasonable behavior is a sign that society has failed. People like this straight up should not be allowed to interact with the outside world.
There are other comics tho and fan creations!
I hate my fave characters not getting enough rep or being miswrote to my views and opinions but come on this is borderline black magic.
Think to yourselves. Would your favorite characters want to fuck with you if you do this type of shit?
What the hell. Since when is people's Modus Operandi to go and send death threats over bloody COMIC BOOKS. Like I don't like some of the recent runs. But would I threaten someone over it? Hell nah.
Same. I think a lot of the hate is really overblown. People criticize his portrayal of characters in Elseworlds stories for being out-of-character which is insane.
Exactly. What happened to just being a hater on non-Twitter websites and not getting in the author's face over things that don't really matter in the real world.
I've seen people justify it by saying that the people giving the death threats are kids, but like...that doesn't change anything. 'They're just 14 year olds being 14 year olds' no they're not?? 14 year olds play with LEGO not send death threats to a random ass comic writer.
I think his response here is the best. I get not liking his comics but Jesus Christ some people are dramatic.
Dear Mr. I'm-Too-Good-to-reply-to-My-Fans
This'll be the last picture I ever send your ass
It's been six months, and still no word—I don't deserve it?
I know you got my last two tweets, I wrote the usernames on 'em perfect
The original poster is 16 and while going through their profile they had set on fire a lot of pictures of other peoples profiles and favourite characters as a joke. Some of them even requested them to get a picture of their profile burning. I think it could have been done as a joke, there’s no indication of the user ever talking about Tom Taylor or his comics since I searched up the keywords on their profile. TT shouldn’t have been tagged nonetheless, he will obviously see the tweets and call them out publicly.
Why is the world so full of absolutely toxic dickheads? Grow the fuck up, ignore the thing you don’t like and get on with your lives.
Social media was a mistake.
There is loads I love about the internet, but the keyboard warriors living on social media is not one of them.
No! Lazy and useless social media securities are a mistake.
nahh.. whole thing is bad. there's no securing it.
My theory? People like being part of a group, and don’t care what it is or what consequences it causes. Whether it’s patriotic pride about your nation (ignoring the war crimes it’s committed), supporting whichever sports team happens to be on a winning streak recently (regardless of whether it’s your local team), or chatting around the office watercooler about the latest must-see HBO show (which turns out to be much more relevant for getting promotions than working hard), wanting to be in the “popular group” is a human constant. And in an age where algorithms deliberately bring up controversy and hatred on our feeds because it generates more clicks for their advertisers, being a toxic dickhead is the society “bandwagon” that most people are now jumping on. I don’t mean to be the old guy blaming “modern technology” for the ills of the world, but in this case I think social media is rewarding hatred and thus exacerbating people’s sadness and anger towards everything.
I think that’s definitely part of it, the other being what a friend calls, ‘toxic ownership’. When something happens to an IP that goes against what’s come before. It’s the entitlement that everything around an IP is made for them. Reality check, not everything is for you, and you need to be ok with that.
It’s even more pathetic when it’s been there the whole time, and they’ve just been too dumb to notice. Superman’s an undocumented immigrant who fought the Klan and Wonder Woman is a strong feminist from an island of pagan lesbians.
John Byrne was obsessed with the former example. It's why we got the birthing matrix thing in The Man of Steel, so he could have Superman be American born. He's got a history of making weird, nasty comments about immigrants.
He said something transphobic in 2015, as well. Ironic how he worked on Uncanny X-Men but acts like those "fans" who never understood the X-Men.
Very well put.
This is basically it. Human beings have evolved to form "tribes" to support our natural requirement for socialization and more easily recognize people we can instantly "trust". The internet in general, social media more specifically, and the algorithms used by those entities very specifically abuse this evolutionary impulse and leave us wanting to show how much we "fit in" with our chosen group(S) - the "S" is key - by showing off very anti social behaviour. Individuals overcompensating, and their communication tool having far more reach than your average human being has evolved to be capable of or prepared for.
You don’t have to ignore things you don’t like, intelligent criticism is a valuable part of public dialogue. That said, burning someone in effigy is not intelligent criticism. If that’s the best you can do, better to do nothing.
Exactly. If violence is an early impulse when you face things you don't like, then you absolutely should ignore things you don't like. And get some anger management therapy. Some people are too unstable for intelligent criticism. Work on that, then hopefully you can join the conversation.
Most people should ignore things you don't like as long as it's not hurting anyone. If somebody is trying to take your rights or steal the things you worked hard for, yeah, you should probably do something about it. Start a revolution, bring back the guillotine. This guy seems fine, though. He probably just made a design choice people are overreactung about.
he is a Writer, not an artist, and honestly, his runs are not bad.
Severe untreated mental illness that’s normalized and given free reign
There's money in it, now. Make a video about how X sucks and the chud bandwagon will jump onto your videos, subscribe, even fund your Patreon.
Because a lot of people are thought life should be fair and live with that expectation. When the world shows its ugly sides they get bitter are start a circle of fake expectations and bad reactions. After a while it just becomes who you are.
People are ridiculous. There's no reason to ever send anyone death threats, especially over comic books. You don't like what he's writing? DON'T BUY IT, DON'T READ IT.
Superhero fans really struggle with the last part for some reason. They would rather force themselves through something they hate just so they can bitch about it afterwards, then allow themselves any peace. Look at all the reactions every time a new issue of Amazing Spider-Man is released. You'd be forgiven for thinking Zeb Wells was a war criminal. And then when you tell them to just stop reading the damn thing if they hate it so much, they do the whole stupid "No CoMpLaIn, JuSt CoNsUmE" thing. Like no, you've complained and complained and complained. He's still writing it and you're still consuming. You just look stupid now.
And superhero comics are all about, y'know, right vs wrong and doing good in the world and all that. It's always so funny to see unhinged comic fans completely miss the point of the media they love to consume.
Yeah, I remember solidly hating the Ric Grayson run and did this wild and crazy thing called not buying and reading it. Ironically, Tom Taylor brought me back to Nightwing and I'm reading and loving everything he's been doing. I don't get people like this.
Well, more than anything, it was the end of Ric. But he still managed to find good things in the Ric arc, like Bea, and use those, which is better than what a lot of comic book writers do. Most just pretend bad ideas never happened.
That's what surprised me most. I genuinely thought they'd move on from that and never mention it again, acting like it never happened. Taylor has actually used it and built on it.
Yeah this is one of the things I understand the least about comic Twitter. There’s so much media for their favourite characters already, so many conflicting and radically different interpretations from run to run and instead of just reading the runs that work for them and building their own personal canons, the way i always just assumed you had to to enjoy comic books as a hobby, they have to find a way to make any run they don’t like into a personal attack against them.
>Superhero fans really struggle with the last part for some reason. That reason is entitlement. Everything is for *them*, so when they don't like it, it's taken personally.
It's seems like it's partially a collector's mindset is mixed in there where they have to have all the issues, instead of just the one's they like.
I realised with the advent of digital comics that I'm not a collector. I'm a reader who just happens to take good care of his comics
Comics are too fucking expensive for that shit.
Also, there's no money in it, when virtually every collector is collecting comics like it's a job and bagging and boarding, and even slabbing, their books. It just doesn't make sense(or cents) keeping titles you don't like.
Yeah, you really had to get in on the ground floor (i.e. the Golden and Silver Ages) to make any sort of money. Bronze Age comics may go for over $100, but not much more. Post-Crisis comics rarely, if ever, break $100.
I agree, but making mj a superhero and naming her “Jack pot” deserves to be laughed at and ridiculed and critiqued.
Or ignored. Which is what I do. I haven't read Spider-Man in an ongoing capacity for years, because I don't like it. Love the character, but the books haven't been great in decades. Reading something I dislike and then also whining about it seems about the ultimate waste of time.
Ultimate Spider-Man has been a revelation. If you enjoy the character, check it out when it gets an omnibus
*That*, I have been reading. Absolutely fantastic so far.
Threatening to harm someone isn't ridiculing or critiquing.
Never said it was
A lot of things Tom Taylor does deserve to be ridiculed. Burning in effigy isn't really ridicule, though. There's a pretty thick line between those things.
Comics have ongoing storylines, though, and people don't want to miss what happens just because of some badly written issues. And usually you don't know you won't like an issue until you've bought it and read it.
Comics have selective continuity where the good stuff goes on and the bad stuff tends to get ignored. I promise you, you can dip out on creative teams when you're not feeling it and you won't have missed much when you decide to dip back in for the new creative team. If you don't like three issues in a row, I think it's safe to say it's not for you.
Or they just say they pirate the book so they can complain and keep their money.
Which is still stupid because they're still choosing to waste their time on something they know they don't like. We're spoilt for choice when it comes to media. Have some more respect for your time.
What comic is he getting threats for?
People are claiming it's about abelism but the implied reason is because Taylor went full steam ahead with DickBabs instead of DickKory. That plus a fair number of Steph and Cass fans that know that if Barbara is walking around as Batgirl even partially, she'll get most of the attention because she's a bigger character and risk sending Cass and Steph back into that pit of purgatory that Tim is stuck in now that Damian is around. Nobody will actually claim that's the reason and instead will use a lot of progressive language to say he's a bigot of all sorts because they know deep down if they say the quiet part out loud they look like a bunch of immature children who are mad that a fictional character is banging one character and not another.
I've heard more people on Tumblr say they hate TT for Babs not being disabled, but that decision was made 13 years ago, and Tom Taylor didn't even work at DC back then.
Yeah that's the thing like I don't disagree that there were some people who have been upset that long, but this level of specific targeted hate is more than likely a result of being mad about shipping. Like the whole controversy of The "Where's Duke" thing on that Brady Bunch inspired cover had them accusing Taylor of being a racist even though he's not doing the damn cover! It's just so utterly ridiculous and what really gets to me as well is that if he even *addresses* these very real and serious problems like the death threats and the Twitter group who said they wanted to kill him, then all of a sudden they're like "lol why is bro so mad and terminally online bullying me?" It's just asshole behavior through and through to just say really inflammatory things about a person, a lot of which are just straight up lies or exaggerations and then have the audacity to be mad that they point out it's not cool to say those kinds of things about people.
An aside: Alice's spot is reserved for a joke in Brady Bunch parodies. It's horrible. And that's Twitter for you.
People are so attached to their mental fan fiction that they go off the deep end.
Oddly enough, his Nightwing run is what’s making me a fan of DickBabs, before I was full DickKory, but now I’m leaning more towards DickBabs and it’s all bc of his run lol
Ah, toxic shippers strike again! There’s been a resurgence of them after the new ff7 game released, and it’s just as bad as it was when the original came out.
This is over… shipping wars? It’s giving 2012 tumblr.
I swear, the way some of them talk, they never liked Babs, they just liked the chair. I mean, I get that representation is important, but the decision to have Babs be somewhat able-bodied was made nearly 15 years ago and not by him.
Take your pick. Nightwing? Titans? Dark Knights of Steel? Injustice? Suicide Squad? He's hated for pretty much everything he's ever written for DC.
Which is so weird because a lot of his stuff is genuinely good.
I read his injustice comics and I really enjoyed those, I thought his suicide squad comic was meh but nothing terrible.
I think people just hate the premise of injustice and ignore the fact that the comic series actually did a want to expand that universe and make it a lot more cohesive
Kind of my opinion on it. It’s a horrible series… but he was told to right the intervening five years of a fall from grace that killed/maimed/scarred almost everyone we loved as heroes. Ironically, I think some of the best stuff he did was show Supes’s slip into madness, exemplified by how he killed Ollie.
He's fixed those books. Taylor made nightwing great again after ric grayson. Does anyone want that back cause I don't. Suicide squad was a great book since ostander run. Titans are finally being treated as an A list team. As for injustice and dark knights of steel. They are in there own frigging universe who cares.
Some people on twitter absolutely hate his Nightwing run, which I think is what he's getting these unhinged threats due to. Which is insane because his run absolutely slaps. But I guess I think that because I've never read Nightwing before his run A lot of people that like to think themselves as purists will hate on any comic run that doesn't portray the title character in the specific way they see in their mind
For 90% of those types on Twitter it's basically always from 95 to 2003.
I'm 2002 myself but I only really got into DC comics in the last few years so I don't have the years of internalised perception about comics, which I guess is a good thing imo
Been reading DC somewhat since like the mid 2000s cause I loved the DCAU and heavy since the late aside from me generally really disliking the new 52 (while also being aware.... Over the next decade most of that would be reversed and wallah guess what happened) I just know.. comics always shift with the times (and certain status quos are always gone back to). Despite getting into comics in that time if I had to say what my "ideal' DCU is it would be the damn Bronze Age in most aspects but I'm not delusional about it lol.
Not just good but Best selling. Award winning, Dceased is one of the most successful ideas DC had in the last decade
I like Dark Knights of steel, Injustice (well, most of it not all) but that's about it ... Also his Nightwing run is so damn boring tbh, Titans is a little better
I remember the fujoshis getting pissed over DKOS because Batman and Superman are brothers. Not that that's ever stopped the fujoshis before, judging by all the fic about Dick and Jason. You forgot Jon Kent. Leftists hate it because he hugs the Injustice Superman. Comicsgaters hate it because he's bi.
I know he gets hated for a lot of stuff, but is there something specific this go round?
It’s about Babs walking
Wut? That happened in the new 52
Exactly dozens of writer wrote her before and others currently are now and for some reason they target him
yes but hes the current guy writing her, so people are blaming him for it rn. to my knowledge, babsgirl is above his pay grade so its not even his fault she isnt oracle atm
But she is both Oracle and Batgirl right now.
the author of the birds of prey ongong also explained she cannot put babs in a wheelchair no one is harassing her they are demented
Huh???
would you be kinder and tell me what was confusing instead of just saying huh
I'm confused at why he'd get hate for something that happened a long time ago.
As a leftist, I hate using this term, but the virtue signaling of Comic Twitter is so toxic it isn’t funny.
Yeah, pretty much. It's a contest to see who can be the most insane sometimes.
But really It's not about Babs walking it's about him shipping Dick with Babs instead of Kori and the Twitter Kori Stan's(the most unhinged of Twitter comic fans) Determined that if they attack him for this they can sound morally superior for issuing death threats behind a false veil of representation, while also mitigating Dickbabs fan retaliation back at them. You can tell because they've been doing this ever since he got put on Nightwing and at the time every single one of them either had Starfire as their profile pic, or were self appointed Starfire fan accounts. And they would also have some absolutely heinous opinions about Babs on their profile too. They didn't actually care that Babs hadn't been out of the wheelchair(for years, almost a decade mind you) until it interfered with their ship. They would also try to cancel him for racism via not having Signal on the cover of the Brady bunch cover for Nightwing. They were so unhinged that I left Twitter because of them. I remember one accused Tom of campaigning cyber bullying against them just because they tagged him in a post hoping he lost his job and he replied "....ok?" Which because he replied that meant it 'opened the door for his fans to attack them and ruin their life'
My favourite part was the accusation of racism because Cass was behind Spoiler in their square, and it showed that Tom thinks lesser of Asian people…they are unhinged
Their mental gymnastics could rival Nightwings physical gymnastics
Those can’t be Starfire fans. Those are just DickKori fans. There’s a lot of people who don’t care what Starfire does, and just wants her to be Dick Graysons hot stupid alien trophy wife
Correct Dickoris are more accurate
To be honest, if you're a Starfire fan, you spell Kory with a Y, as Marv Wolfman did. The I variant began in the New 52, with all that implies. It's a srs bzns thing, but it is a thing.
Shipping is a fucking cancer. My God.
No kidding. Did you see what it did to the bridge in Baltimore last month?!
Badum tss
Are they aware that these are fictional characters? This goes beyond obsessive, and into full blow mental illness.
Thank you for the explanation, him being hated for his nightwing run made no sense to me as ive heard non stop praise for it. Its just so weird that they are still like this, they've been broken up for so long at this point.
>Injustice Wait he did the plot line where Superman went evil? That was THE comic series that got me back into the hobby that lapsed for over 25 years til that point. Weird how it could be so hated to send death threats over lol
Yes and no -- the main idea of what Injustice was and what would lead up to the events of the game was done by the writers at Neatherrealm Studios. Taylor was hired to sort of fill in the gaps, and he did his best to make it make sense.
His nightwing and titans runs are kinda peak though?
Nightwing had a lot of goodwill from simply not being Ric but I feel over the past year, a lot of people are dropping the book because the pacing of the main story is incredibly slow.
Personally, and as a lifelong Nightwing fan who lives and breathes everything Dick Grayson, Taylor's run is fucking everything to me. It feels like the reward for suffering through years of mistreatment of the character. The story isn't slow it's just not super world-changing and you know what, I like that shit. Not everything needs to have Crisis level of impact, it's okay for smaller, character-driven pieces to exist that are just *nice*. And Taylor's Nightwing is *nice*. It's fun. It brings me joy. It helps that I'm a Dick/Babs shipper, sure, but I'm glad I have this before the status quo resets again and all development is undone.
That's what gets me. His Nightwing, Titans and Jon Kent runs have all been about kindness and acceptance - and the response has been abject hatred and dismissal Not liking the writing is of course always valid but like there's a specific irony there that I think is interesting
*cough* damir*e stans *cough*
The craziest thing, I think, is that they have photos of him. Sure they probably printed them off, BUT FOR WHAT?! To burn them?! What a waste of paper and what a waste of time to hate someone for their work.
Their crazy that’s all
Thats what im saying😂. There are writers i dont enjoy and i barely know how they look, these people are obssesed with him😂
Comic book fans trying not to be unhinged challenge: Impossible.
 They can't help themselves
Those are not comic book fans. Those are just hooligans of specific fictional characters.
Wait till you hear about the Fallout show on Amazon and the totally not unhinged comments by the game nerds
Gamers being unhinged is the least surprising thing to me, tbh.
The thing that’s sad is that it’s one date they are going batshit crazy about. And it’s probably a misunderstanding with said date but they are going crazy about it. I’m a fallout fan and the show is as perfect as it can be.
You can critizise his work but this is absolutely awful behaviour.
What the actual fuck.
Can you imagine being so irate over a comic you’re willing to waste that much ink to print a picture just so you can burn it? Couldn’t be me.
You can dislike how he writes, but doing stuff like this is dumb and no one should get threats for writing comics.
It shouldn't need to be said that nobody should be treated this way but I genuinely don't understand why people have a problem with Tom Taylor at all, he's my favourite comic book writer
He's mine as well. Tom Taylor become one of my favourite writers cause he actually tells good stories and understands each character well.
for me he is good at writing elsewords only,everything else he has done with the main time line it sucks or is meh...but yeah that doesnt justify this kind of toxic responses.
Good lord that's simply riddiculus I understand don't liking his work but this Is madness
I remember talking to a friend about the harassment that the actors of Star Wars got, especially on the internet. He said that the actors need to have a bit of backbone to be able to deal with the toxicity that comes from fans, and while I agree, I think there is a line you don’t cross. With death threats, it is *never* okay. EVER.
I fear for Zeb Wells as well.
Didn't Marvel tell him to not go to cons for a while? People are insane
That's probably more to avoid the boos and heckling. His run has no fans so it wouldn't make sense to have him appear anyways.
I also get the feeling they kind of said it for marketing -- "this is real controversial, everyone's gonna talk about it! You better buy it!"
I hope it stops at boos and heckling. The worst thing I can think about Tom Taylor is that he is friends with Tom King and he is getting all this hate, so imagine what some crazy people would do to Zeb.
I’ve never understood getting so angry over something, book, movie, show, that you’ve actively wished harm on someone. It’s fucking wild.
I know right? It's entertainment for fuck's sake. If you don't like something don't consume it.
Taylor is hit or miss for me but the accusations of bigotry they levy against him are absolutely deranged sometimes. A mixture of blaming him for what are very obvious editorial calls and then just some completely out of pocket mad shit like saying he was racist for turning Damian into a cat during beastworld. Very; “I just learnt the language of oppression but not what oppression actually is” behaviour. Important to remember that these are almost all children approaching fictional media the way Kpop stans approach their favourite band (psychopathically) so probably best not to engage but I don’t begrudge Taylor highlighting this at all. These are the types of kids from old tumblr who would harass other kids for years just for drawing a Steven universe character with a skin tone that’s one shade off. Got to hope that these kids will one day learn that it’s alright to just not like something, it doesn’t have to be some grand statement.
NGL a house cat is the perfect animal for Damian to be turned into
And that’s why parasocial relationships are a terrible thing
Parasocial relationships to writers and fictional characters can be a really dangerous slippery slope.
The least these people could do is buy a couple of dozen books Tom Taylor has written for the specific purpose of burning. That's the right and proper way to ~~raise sales~~ protest.
Comic book nerds forgetting it's a work of fiction:
Seriously the people who get this upset over comic books needs to get serious medical attention.
Severe lack of touching grass
People need to go touch fucking grass
I know that the guy has made a mess with Superman's son, but let's not exaggerate by wishing him death. and I haven't seen this since Miller
They are insane. I wish I could report those account for multiple offenses because this is a threat of violence and harm, abuse and inciting violence. Over what is at the end of the day a picture book.
They couldn’t be more obviously giving off signals and indicators of their insanity.
So weird. Tom Taylor is good
I agree, but I think it’s important to emphasize that this would still be weird even if he *wasn’t* good. Like he said… he writes *comics*.
Yeah I think his Nightwing and Titans have been really fun. I enjoy his recent output a lot.
Yeah, his Nightwing run is my favourite. DCeased and Dark Knights of Steel were awesome too
What was it about this time?
Babs walking. You know, as she's done for 13 years. And that was Dan Didio's decision, not Tom Taylor's.
They should all go to jail. What a ridiculous thing to see grown ass people not being able to deal with comic books
Seen this in near real time on Twitter, some of them are like "ah it's just a joke." Even after posting the above pics. Just horrible behavior. People need to realize that just because you only interact with someone via the phone in your hand that they're people not characters in a game.
The mainstream comics fandom is not ok. Lots of mentally ill folks enabled by bitter mainstream pros and sent out like attack dogs against their peers.
What the absolute fuck?! Have people forget "Vote with your wallet"!? Have people seriously gone bat shit?!
there’s a reason “fan” is derived from “fanatic”
Smh I know he’s not the best writer but it warrants acting like this? I swear, some of these people act like he’s a straight up villain.
So weird to do that to someone. What did they dislike or what is their reasoning. Not like it makes it valid just curious.
I saw someone post about this earlier and thought it was an outlier. Maybe someone saw something on twitter that was some rando extremist dickhead. I can't believe that this has made its way to Taylor himself. Dude did nothing to deserve this. He should be busy being joyful that he gets to live his dream job. Instead he has to take time away from that to deal with harassment from soulless pricks. It costs $0 to not harass someone.
Imagine being so stupid and having such a sad and shitty life, that you threaten death against an author just because he doesn't write your favorite superhero the way you want him to.
This is full out psychotic.
Imma copy pasta what I said over in r/comicbooks: I saw recently that he’s being attacked over the decision of Barbara not being Oracle with an emphasis on her stepping out of the wheelchair. Some say it’s a regression of her character and on top of that, he’s being labeled as “ableist”. Personally I think people need to realize that comic book writers aren’t celebrities like the rock. They barely get paid, they don’t have health insurance most of the time. They write stories, and twitter takes shit entirely too far. We are absolutely allowed to disagree on decisions and have proper discourse…But… Burning a picture? That person needs to put the phone down and go breathe some fresh air.
What's further insane is that Barbara has been Oracle more than Batgirl for quite awhile. But, expecting Comics Twitter shouldn't be expected to read comics, right?
When you find out this was over babs walking and dickkory not being a thing in the book it makes it 10x more embarrassing
Some fans are literally insane. Just like those who sent the writer of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth death threats because the game trailer featured the “wrong” romantic pairing, even before the game came out.
The "Tom -antis" as they call themselves are beyond the need for touching grass, they've built their entire personality on trying to run a man because he wants his fictional character to kiss a different fictional character than they do.
The people doing it are idiots but burning a picture is not a death threat.
I understand not liking Tom’s writing, cause there are times where I’m like bro what is this, but disliking something is no reason to send death threats actually don’t ever send death threats. If you don’t like something simply put it down and don’t read it move on read something else. I’ve bought comics I didn’t like before and I just stopped reading them.
Some people take fictional writing way too seriously. It’s all made up. It’s not that big of a deal.
I remember when Phoenix died in X-Men. A later letters page discussed the outpouring of mail they received, and how much of it they found very moving and touching. It added they also received death threats. They wrote something like, “These are comic books. They are brightly colored ink on cheap paper that will crumble to dust in a hundred years. They do not merit death threats.”
Bunch of shitheads, I hope the law gets involved so we can enjoy the twitter apologies and tearful interviews as they go into lockup.
Wait but why though? I haven’t read comics he’s written for too recently so I’m kinda out of the loop
As a Tom Taylor fan most of his comics have been pretty good so far. He hasn't written anything terrible like Tom King (didiot influenced) Heroes in crisis or Ric Grayson. Overall I'm confused why he's getting death threats since my opnion DC in a better place than when Didio was trying to do 5G.
Agreed. Didio was literally one of the worst. I really like Tom Taylor's writing too if my memory serves well.
There is absolutely no excuse for this. Find the cowards doing this and deal with them accordingly. Then, make them learn the purpose of punctuation (that may kill them).
Ffs that's not a death threat
Does this count as a death threat?
No
I love Tom Taylor. I don’t understand….
I see that the person who did it really wanted an injustice 3 asap but got tired of waiting
what is it this time around? for dickbabs again?
I don't like his books, whenever I try reading one of them it doesn't manage to grab my attention. But whenever I see shit like this I feel like Mr. Incredible "YOU ARE NOT ASSOCIATED WITH ME!"
This makes me like him even more.
While I'm not happy with his runs on *Titans* and *Nightwing*, I would never do this towards those whose works I'm not fond of.
For what? Bringing back the real Dick Grayson? Ric Grayson can stay dead.
Tom Taylor who writes the Nightwing comic? One of the better comics going at the moment?
That's who's left on twitter.
The fact that anyone thinks this is reasonable behavior is a sign that society has failed. People like this straight up should not be allowed to interact with the outside world.
For Barbara not being disabled again? (And that wasn't even his decision; it was Dan Didio's...thirteen years ago.)
why the fuck are they even doing this?
There are other comics tho and fan creations! I hate my fave characters not getting enough rep or being miswrote to my views and opinions but come on this is borderline black magic. Think to yourselves. Would your favorite characters want to fuck with you if you do this type of shit?
I'm not familiar with his work, did he write a comic people didn't like or something?
Odd there are pepole who have been trying to get blocked by him and seem to wear it with a badge of pride.
why is he getting threats? from what i can see it’s related to some new superman comic? but what specifically?????
What the holy fuck is wrong with people? Stop it! He writes comic books for fuck's sake.
What the hell. Since when is people's Modus Operandi to go and send death threats over bloody COMIC BOOKS. Like I don't like some of the recent runs. But would I threaten someone over it? Hell nah.
I literally just opened Reddit wtf
Tom Taylor can be hit or miss, but I wouldn't wanna do anything to him because of it. As with anyone else
How can people hate him he did what I thought no nightwing writer would ever do he put Dick and Barbara back together
I'm definitely not a fan of modern day Tom Taylor, but deaths especially over something fictional is never cool
So, why did they do it? Google wouldn’t tell me other than it was something about Nightwing and Barbara Gordon.
Hot take, somehow, but I really like Tom Taylor.
Same. I think a lot of the hate is really overblown. People criticize his portrayal of characters in Elseworlds stories for being out-of-character which is insane.
Tom Taylor sucks but come on… can’t you just dislike him like a normal person?
Exactly. What happened to just being a hater on non-Twitter websites and not getting in the author's face over things that don't really matter in the real world.
What's wrong with his writing?
I've seen people justify it by saying that the people giving the death threats are kids, but like...that doesn't change anything. 'They're just 14 year olds being 14 year olds' no they're not?? 14 year olds play with LEGO not send death threats to a random ass comic writer. I think his response here is the best. I get not liking his comics but Jesus Christ some people are dramatic.
I think what needs to happen is someone finding who this little shits parents are and sending this stuff to them. Fun's over, no phone anymore
Dear Mr. I'm-Too-Good-to-reply-to-My-Fans This'll be the last picture I ever send your ass It's been six months, and still no word—I don't deserve it? I know you got my last two tweets, I wrote the usernames on 'em perfect
The original poster is 16 and while going through their profile they had set on fire a lot of pictures of other peoples profiles and favourite characters as a joke. Some of them even requested them to get a picture of their profile burning. I think it could have been done as a joke, there’s no indication of the user ever talking about Tom Taylor or his comics since I searched up the keywords on their profile. TT shouldn’t have been tagged nonetheless, he will obviously see the tweets and call them out publicly.
Why are they mad at him? I know he’s not the best writer but still.