A new comics series in which Jesus Christ is sent on “a most holy mission by God” to learn “what it takes to be the true messiah of mankind” from a superhero called Sun-Man, has been cancelled by DC Comics. The move follows a petition that called it “outrageous and blasphemous”.

The Second Coming series, from DC imprint Vertigo, was due to launch on 6 March. Written by Mark Russell and illustrated by Richard Pace, its story followed Jesus’s return to Earth. “Shocked to discover what has become of his gospel,” he teams up with a superhero, Sun-Man, who is more widely worshipped than him.

But the comics publisher has now told retailers that the series has been cancelled. The decision follows a 200,000-signature petition from anti-abortion, anti-LGBT conservative campaign site CitizenGo calling on DC to pull the comic. “Would DC Comics publish similar content about other religious leaders, such as Muhammad or Buddha?” said the petition. “This content is inappropriate and blasphemous.”

Russell told Syfy Wire that he and Pace had requested that rights for the comic be returned to them after they were warned that requests for more significant changes would probably be on the way.

“So I decided I would rather keep the story intact,” he said. “Nobody really wants a watered-down, one-size-fits-none version of this story, so they graciously agreed to let me have it back … We also want a publisher who can get it to fans in the near future, so we hope to be able to announce a new home as soon as possible.”

CitizenGo claimed the decision as a victory, telling Syfy Wire that Second Coming “portrays a false view” of Jesus, who is “not a failure”. It added: “Most children grow up reading about iconic DC superheroes like Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman. It would be a shame to market this false view of Jesus as an equal read to these figures.”

Russell was undeterred. “I first heard of CitizenGo … when they ran this silly campaign to get the buses in Portland to drop ads featuring lesbians. They would be completely ridiculous if not for the fact that social media’s anger-made-easy platforms give them access to cranks from all over the world. But it’s OK. Some enemies are worth having,” he told Syfy Wire. “I think the religious fundamentalists and critics who are trying to stop Second Coming aren’t interested in protecting Christ so much as their ability to control his narrative … They probably (correctly) suspect that it’s not Christ who’s being parodied, but themselves and how they’ve twisted his teachings of mercy for the powerless into a self-serving tool of the powerful.”