The Flashpoint Map - REALLY, DC?????

I saw this map over at Cheryl Lynn Eaton's Digital Femme blog:



(Click to enlarge)


This is the world map according to the revised Flashpoint universe.


Before I zoomed in on the map, I thought Cheryl might have merely been upset at the Amazons being part of the war zone and portrayed as warlike yet again.


Then I zoomed in, took a closer look, and my jaw hit the floor.


OK, I get that Grodd plays a key role in this event, particularly since this is a Flash-related crossover. I understand that he's even getting his own mini, Flashpoint: Grodd Of War. I'm even familiar enough with the Flash mythos to know the history of Gorilla City, Grodd's original stomping ground, and to guess how it might be incorporated in the crossover, and to conceive how its forces could be formidable enough, under Grodd's direction and with Grodd-augmented numbers, to accomplish their conquest.


But are you honestly telling me that nobody at DC could have possibly seen the problem with THIS?????

Are you fucking KIDDING ME????


They couldn't have picked a better and less offensive designation like, say, "Grodd-Controlled"?


No one looked at this map and saw how this could have been just a little off-putting??? Particularly to African-American readers (like Cheryl, for example)? You know, ones who might have been tempted to give this crossover a look?


Sure, I get the Flashpoint context, but did anyone at DC consider the real-life historical context at play here, particularly with regard to the aforementioned reader demo? Even now, there are still too many people in the US who use that designation to describe the actual African continent.


It was bad enough they whitewashed and blond-washed XS, the one African-American Flash Family member, in the free previews. Now there's this.


All I have to say to DC at this point is:



REALLY??