DC Comics is asking stores around the country to destroy tens of thousands of copies of a new Batman comic book because of a printing error that revealed a slew of obscenities.
"Text every friend you've got, s- - -heads," Batgirl tells a group of incredibly foulmouthed, drug-dealing thugs in "All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder" No. 10.
"Sell your poison somewhere else. This here arcade belongs to the f- - -ing Batgirl."
The S- and F-words were supposed to be blacked out, but two shades of black were used, and the expletives are clearly legible, as are the thugs' A- and F-words - and even a number of C-bombs.
While "All-Star Batman & Robin" isn't aimed at kids, it also doesn't have a "mature readers" warning on the cover.
DC caught the error earlier this week as the comic was heading to stores. They were able to stop some shipments, and asked retailers who got copies to destroy them.
DC said "a printing gaffe" caused "a problem with All-Star Batman. As soon as the problem was discovered, we quickly asked retailers to pull the issue. We apologize to our retailers and fans for any offense or inconvenience."
Several city comic-book stores said they had complied, but the book was sitting on the rack at St. Mark's Comics in the East Village yesterday.
"We've sold a lot," said store owner Mitch Cutler.
"We didn't destroy it because we couldn't know everyone would destroy it," Cutler said.
The comic is currently doing "Dark Knight"-like business on eBay, with copies selling for between $20 and $250.
Cutler was selling copies at his store for cover price, $2.99. "There's no need to inflate the price," he said. "It's wrong and evil and slimy."
Cutler said he hadn't sold any copies of the issue - or the entire series - to kids.
The title "has been full of adult content since the minute it was published. We'd never sell it to minors. The curse words make no difference."
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