DC Comics Fires Eddie Berganza Due to Sexual Harassment Allegations

The latest entertainment industry figure to come under fire (or firing) for sexual-related offenses is Eddie Berganza, one of the top editors at DC Comics.

Berganza had been under intense scrutiny after a BuzzFeed exposé article over the weekend linked him to several past incidents of sexual harassment or outright assault with female DC Comics employees. The article also detailed the publisher's alleged blind eye and/or cover-up of those allegations.

Warner Bros. and its DC Entertainment brand reached out to Buzzfeed to say the firing of Berganza is an example that the company is, "committed to eradication harassment." After the article initially broke on Friday, DC suspended Berganza on Saturday, before firing him outright on Monday.

While there's little ambiguity in the incredibly extensive report that Buzzfeed put together about Berganza's actions, the larger question is what the blowback will be on DC Comics. It seems clear that the publisher had a running log of their top editor's incidents of misconduct - "incidents," plural.

As recently 2012, DC was noted to have reprimanded Berganza with wrist-slap punishments like a slight demotion (from executive editor down to group editor). However, with Berganza still working on major DC Comics projects (like the popular current Batman-centric storyline, Dark Knights: Metal), it seems to indicate that DC was more concerned with the money he could make for the publisher, rather than his personal conduct.

On a day where more and more men in the entertainment industry are being called out or punished for their predatory sexual actions (see also: James Woods), what's disturbing is that, at this point, the new about Berganza may just come and go. But for the victims, as well as the larger crowd of women who are noted to have avoided work at DC because of the well-known threat of Berganza, this will hopefully be a fresh start.

Dark Knights: Metal is currently unfolding in DC Comics; DC Entertainment will release Justice League in theaters on November 17th.