10 Controversial DC Comics Covers That Went Too Far

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Covers are an important part of the publishing process, be it for novels or comics. They’re a way in which readers can get their first impression of a title, with the practice of variant covers even improving the sales of a series due to their status as collector’s items.

Due to the high volume of comics, and thus covers, that are published, there are going to be some misses every so often. DC Comics has been around for almost a century and in that time, there have been dozens upon dozens of covers that have stirred up controversy. Maybe it’s because of their contents, maybe it’s because of the shady practices behind them, but either way, there’s no shortage of covers that have caused a stir in some way.

The start of the Bronze Age was an era of experimentation for comics, as they dived into more mature subject matters. Writer Dennis O’Neil was one of the first to push this change over at DC with his work on the Green Lantern title, having Hal Jordan work alongside Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, in stories meant to shine a light on political causes. One of the most famous was that of drug abuse, culminating in the two-part storyline “Snowbirds Don’t Fly” and “They Say It’ll Kill Me…But They Won’t Say When.”

The issues went into the reveal that Roy Harper, Green Arrow’s loyal sidekick and ward, had been struggling with a devastating heroin addiction. While the story wasn’t handled perfectly, it was a new way of bringing social issues to the forefront of a medium stifled by the limitations of the Comic Code Authority, and this change was signalled by the cover of the “Snowbirds Don’t Fly” issue. Here, the young Roy is seen using heroin as Green Lantern and Green Arrow look on in shock, a striking image that grabbed readers immediately.

9

Fans Hated Wonder Woman’s Yoga Pants

The New 52 era of DC promised change to its wider universe. It was intended to be a full reboot that made everything more accessible to readers new and old—and with that came new shifts to its characters, mythoses, and designs. One of the controversial changes from this period, which even caught mainstream attention, was Wonder Woman getting a new design with pants.

Depicted on the covers of a few Justice League issues and the first few issues of the New 52 Wonder Woman ongoing, this new take on the heroine gave her a pair of yoga pants that felt like a holdover from the design she sported in the Wonder Woman: Odyssey story arc during the final days of Post-Crisis. Many fans were up in arms about the look—some didn’t like the heroine having a more covered-up look for more disingenuous reasons, some didn’t like it because it looked plain ugly, but ultimately, the backlash to the concept art and solicited covers lead to Wonder Woman’s final look being a more classic swimsuit.

8

Variant Covers From One Artist Were Accused Of Being AI-Generated

The rise of AI in artistic fields has been a controversial topic, to put it simply. Many creatives feel their livelihoods are threatened by companies looking towards the currently cheap technology that pumps out rather soulless work with little effort. As of now, major faces in the comic industry seem to be against incorporating AI into their products, which is a good sign—but existing artists don’t seem averse to incorporating it into their workflow and certainly not for the better.

There was a recent controversy in which the cover artist Jingxiong Guo, or Daxiong, was accused of using AI on three variant covers for DC’s Wonder Woman, Shazam, and Power Girl series. Fans online noticed the style used for these pieces was different than his usual and contained odd amounts of artifacting that seemed to indicate the works may have been done with AI. Daxiong posted physical sketches in response to the accusations, only for people to accuse him of using AI to complete the sketches; the final works had some glaring deviations from the sketches. Ultimately DC put out a statement about the controversy and pulled the covers, replacing them with work by Dave Johnson, Dan Panosian, and Cully Hamner.

7

A Notable Cover Artist Was Accused Of Using AI

Daxiong was not the only artist recently accused of using AI in his covers. Francesco Mattina is a longtime veteran in the comic business, but with a crop of solicitations for comics releasing in September of 2024, there also came controversy around three of the covers the artist was putting out, brought about by superstar comic book artist Adi Granov.

Granov is another industry veteran who has done work on major comic book films like Iron Man 2 and Black Panther. He had a bone to pick with Mattina, who had found himself in trouble for heavily “referencing” the work of other artists in the past and this time, Granov called him out for using AI in an upcoming Superman cover. A telltale sign that AI might have been used was how Superman’s crest was rendered, with two curves denoting the bottom of the S at the logo. The cover, alongside some of Mattina’s others, were pulled, showing that DC, while they may have a low threshold for the integration of AI art in their books, needs to up their vetting process to spot it before solicitations.

6

Superman Apparently Isn’t Allowed To Drink

Comics have always had an odd history of censorship. Understandably, superhero comics produced by Marvel or DC don’t want anything too provocative or R-rated on their covers to maintain a teen rating or to maintain the family-friendly nature of their characters. However, in some cases, it goes too far and feels ridiculous.

One issue of Action Comics had Superman outside with his father, Pa Kent, enjoying the night air and talking. Clark stands in plain clothes, though his Superman costume (and symbol) peeks out from under. In both of their hands were drink bottles, plainly labeled as “beer” if readers looked closely at what Pa and Clark were holding. The issue made it to print, but DC quickly pulled the issue as they did not want to have Superman holding a bottle of alcohol while donning his symbol. The cover was quickly revised to indicate that they were holding soda pop bottles, with the original printing becoming a collector’s piece.

5

This Batgirl Cover Was A Tone Deaf Reference

The history between Barbara Gordon and the Joker has run deep ever since the villain shot, paralyzed, and assaulted her in the infamous The Killing Joke comic in 1988. While the story has been praised for its dynamic between Batman, Joker, and Commissioner Gordon, it’s been criticized ever since its release for its poor handling of Barbara Gordon.

In the years since the comic’s release, Barbara has made leaps and bounds as a heroine. Fans loved her becoming the information dealer Oracle and weren’t exactly overjoyed when she was regressed into Batgirl after being “cured” of her disability, but that ultimately led to the Batgirl of Burnside rebrand for the character. The title targeted a younger audience with its light and fun tone. This, however, was ignored with the release of a variant cover for DC’s June 2015’s “Joker Month” initiative. It was dark and unsettling, depicting Joker drawing a bloody smile on a terrified Barbara’s face, and fans voiced their disdain for how Batgirl was reduced to being a victim yet again on the cover.

4

Fans Were Put Off By The Flash… Well, Flashing

The 2023 film The Flash was laden with controversy. From a troubled stint in development hell that lasted longer than The CW Flash show to using AI to resurrect dead actors, the movie—which wasn’t even received that well and was one of DC’s largest financial bombs in history—was fighting an intense uphill battle since day one. Its issues were only exacerbated, however, with the problems that its lead Ezra Miller found themselves in, ranging from allegations of kidnapping to assault.

Miller’s issues pretty much tanked the movie’s already lacking PR pretty badly. This made a variant cover for a tie-in miniseries for the film, The Flash: Fastest Man Alive, seem incredibly questionable. Drawn by film director Andy Muschietti, it depicted a half-naked Flash with Miller’s likeness putting on his costume in the street. Fans found the cover very poorly-timed, and it was eventually pulled from solicits.

The Big Two love to honor months dedicated to certain groups in their publishing initiatives, especially DC. Pride Month specials are annual fixtures and DC’s 2023 We Are Legends line of miniseries was a wonderful way of honoring AAPI Heritage Month that hasn’t been topped since. A lot of the time, these companies just stick to publishing covers honoring these groups, However, the 2022 array of Hispanic Heritage Month covers would become more infamous than anything else.

A cover that caught a lot of eyes depicted hero Kyle Rayner, the Green Lantern, waving a flag that said “Viva Mexico!” while holding a plastic bag full of tamales. Many were outraged at the artwork, considering it both stereotypical and a downgrade of the original version of the cover, an homage to the 1962 painting Madre Patria by artist Jorge Molina. It had Kyle waving a proper Mexican flag. When it came time for the final publication, the original cover was what was, thankfully, published. It eventually came out that the alteration was just a backup version of the original cover in case DC could not legally print an homage to Madre Patria. Regardless of the intent, this led many fans to realize that a lot of the other Hispanic Heritage Month covers were themed around food, which some found stereotypical. DC eventually had these covers pulled or lightly altered.

The Milestone Comics imprint was, in and of itself, a milestone for comic publishing. Brought together by several Black creatives, Milestone was made to create and push characters from groups that were otherwise underrepresented in mainstream superhero comics. One of the most famous characters to come from this imprint was Static, immediately becoming a fan-favorite hero who got his own DCAU cartoon less than a decade after debuting.

Readers loved Virgil and his stories, though the cover of one was oddly a bit too much for DC editorial to handle. It depicted Virgil and his girlfriend Daisy embracing one another as they kissed on a couch. Fairly innocuous artwork, especially compared to some more egregious cases of sexualization on covers coming out around the same time, with the only aspect of it that might have raised some eyebrows being the condoms Virgil held in his hand. But DC brought the hammer down on the cover—making the final version of it a closeup of Virgil and Daisy kissing in a heart silhouette—in a way creator Dwayne McDuffie disapproved of. He found the censorship the result of a double standard when it came to depicting sexuality in comics, and it further strained his relationship with DC as a company.

1

A Canned Heroes In Crisis Cover Felt Downright Exploitative

Heroes in Crisis was a famously controversial comic for many, many reasons. Fans disliked it because of poor treatment of mental health, a baffling murder mystery, and stilted dialogue. While some of the book’s faults fell to editorial making poor choices, many of its issues still came about from its creative team, including a leaked variant cover for the title that was considered to be in poor taste.

The story killed off Poison Ivy—if only temporarily—and decided to make this plot beat into a variant cover. It’s a sensible choice to do such a thing, but that wasn’t the problem. What fans did take issue with, however, was the way Ivy’s mangled corpse was depicted. Laying in a pool of blood, the villainess was posed like she was the focus of a pinup rather than a crime scene, with her chest exposed and back arched. Many saw the cover as exploitative and thankfully, it was not finalized work. While it did undergo some coloring edits that covered more skin, DC ultimately decided not to publish the cover in any of its incarnations.

“}]] Comic covers are designed to capture the attention of potential readers, though DC Comics sparked some controversy with these questionable covers.  Read More