Comic community stands with Mockingbird writer over 'Feminist' cover hate

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Oct 27, 2016, 11:05 AM EDT

Marvel’s ongoing Mockingbird comic deserves to get a whole lot of attention because it’s awesome, but it’s generating buzz this week for all the wrong reasons.

The comic’s writer, Chelsea Cain, was pushed to the point of deleting her Twitter account after facing a mountain of hate from what she described as “misogynist bullies” over the issue No. 8 cover of Mockingbird. The cover art features Bobbi Morse wearing a shirt that reads “Ask Me About My Feminist Agenda,” which makes sense, because the character is a fairly outspoken feminist. Apparently online harassers didn’t like Mockingbird’s shirt, so they aimed their vitriol at Cain online.

After having her Twitter mentions flooded with ugliness, Cain pulled the plug. For the sake of reference: Cain’s day job is typically writing thriller novels, and she’s sold millions of them. But she said via Inverse she’s “Never had to block people until I started writing comics.” She enjoyed interacting with fans, and they've literally driven her off social media. Which is just sad. It also says a lot about geek fandom, and it’s not saying good things. It’s a fictional story, folks. You want real, believable characters? Bobbi is a feminist, and she likes that shirt. Is that any reason to attack and target a real person online? The answer is no, in case you’re wondering.

Because the world isn’t entirely a terrible place, a boatload of folks in the comics community has chimed in to support Cain with #StandWithChelseaCain, which is great. Check out some of those tweets below, and be sure to pick up a few issues of Mockingbird before it's gone (the series was canceled in an unrelated move last week). Pick it up to support feminism, or just pick it up because the comic’s awesome. Your call.

The final issue of Mockingbird hit shelves on October 19.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)