Several Republican politicians faced ridicule online Monday after voicing objections to the sexual orientation of a comic book character.
DC Comics announced Monday that Jon Kent, the son of original Superman Clark Kent and journalist Lois Lane, will be shown as bisexual in the latest iteration of the comic book series. The character will come out in the Nov. 9 issue of “Superman: Son of Kal-El #5,” when he kisses his love interest Jay Nakamura.
This character development apparently bothered some on the right.
“Superman loves Louis Lane. Period. Hollywood is trying to make Superman gay and he is not. Just rename the new version Thooperman so we can all know the difference and avoid seeing it,” tweeted Rep. Wendy Rogers, an Arizona state Republican who has persistently spread election disinformation.
“Say no to Woke Thooperman!!!” she added in a separate tweet.
Josh Mandel, a Republican running for a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio, opted for a more dramatic complaint.
“Bisexual comic books for kids. They are literally trying to destroy America,” he tweeted.
Mandel has endorsed wild conspiracy theories that the coronavirus, the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests were funded by “liberal forces,” George Soros and possibly the “deep state.”
Arizona’s Josh Barnett, a GOP candidate for the U.S. House, asked: “Why does Hollywood have to ruin everything?” with a Superman hashtag.
Over on Fox News, the outrage continued.
“Why are they sexualizing superheroes?” asked Raymond Arroyo, a frequent guest on Laura Ingraham’s show. “We just wanted them to catch the bad guys, not a venereal disease.”
Tom Taylor, writer for the new Superman issue, said he felt everyone deserves to see themselves in their heroes.
“The idea of replacing Clark Kent with another straight white savior felt like a missed opportunity,” Taylor told The New York Times. “For so many people, having the strongest superhero in comics come out is incredibly powerful.”
The predictable conservative outrage received a collective eye-roll from critics:
Rogers’ tweet, which insisted that “Superman loved Louis Lane,” received a multifaceted roasting:
Mandel’s homophobic take was also roundly slammed: