In a surprising move, DC Comics has canceled the variant cover of Batgirl #41 that depicts the Joker terrorizing Barbara Gordon with a gun and smeared lipstick across her crying face. The decision was made at the cover artist's request.
When the cover was revealed on March 13, fans disturbed by the art took to Tumblr and Twitter over the weekend to voice their displeasure using the hashtag #ChangeTheCover. An opposing campaign, #DontChangeTheCover, fought to keep the artwork intact based on the fact that it calls back to the characters' shared history.
The image refers to the events of Alan Moore's The Killing Joke. In that seminal Batman story, first published in 1988, Barbara/Batgirl gets shot and paralyzed by the Joker in an effort to break the will (and mind) of her father, Commissioner James Gordon. There are many interpretations of the famous story (especially about those final few panels), including a common reading that suggests Barbara was also sexually assaulted during her encounter with Batman's most hated nemesis.
Though the variant cover artist, Rafael Albuquerque, wanted to pay homage "to a comic that I really admire, and I know is a favorite of many readers," he also didn't mean to hurt anyone with his image. "My intention was never to hurt or upset anyone through my art," Albuquerque said in a statement. "For that reason, I have recommended to DC that the variant cover be pulled."
DC Entertainment further explained that Albuquerque's art was "inconsistent with the current tonality of the Batgirl books" which feature a lighter, more optimistic direction under writers Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher and artist Babs Tarr.
#ChangeTheCover supporters agree:
Batgirl #41's variant cover is torture porn on a book 'revamped for younger audiences'. Trauma of abuse victims isn't sexy. #ChangeTheCover
— Femmes in the Fridge (@FemmesinFridges) March 15, 2015
It's triggering victims of Sexual Assault. So #CHANGETHECOVER — laurel af anu (@barbaragordxn) March 15, 2015
Oh COME ON guys. The Batgirl cover was a misfire for the people who read that book. Wrong tone. Pulling it was a very reasonable decision. — Joe Hill (@joe_hill) March 17, 2015
Even Batgirl co-writer Cameron Stewart weighed in on Twitter:
The cover was not seen or approved by anyone on Team Batgirl and was completely at odds with what we are doing with the comic. — Cameron Stewart (@cameronMstewart) March 17, 2015
Responses to the DC Comics writer range from confusion over the DC Comics cover art approval process - how do they let a variant cover go all the way through pencils, inks, colors and PR without anyone noticing? - to promises to avoid future Batgirl issues, to snarky outrage over throwing the artist under "the Tumblr bus." The counter-outrage doesn't stop there:
They pulled the Batgirl cover. The Killing Joke story couldn't get made now. If this is progress why does it feel we're marching backwards? — Patch Zircher (@PatrickZircher) March 17, 2015
#CHANGETHECOVER only if you want to pander to people who don't even buy your comics and just want to be offended by literally everything. — スライムちゃん (@smilexslime) March 15, 2015
@Romudeth @Chriss_m outrageous and ridiculously dumb. Piece of comic book history might as well erase that. Smfh — PluckEric (@ericplucks) March 17, 2015
IDK how these faux activists got the idea that their world view should define everything, but people need to stop appeasing them out of fear — Jesse #3412 (@jessemeixsell) March 17, 2015
For those who felt the tag #CHANGETHECOVER is constructive, hope someday you realize the harm in trying to remove art you disagree with. — Jennay (@JennOfHardwire) March 17, 2015
It's certainly an interesting time to be an artist, or a creator, on the Internet. Could an adult, violent story like Watchmen even happen in 2015 without a considerable amount of online backlash? Or The Killing Joke, the inspiration for this canceled variant cover? Or anything by comics legend Alan Moore, who is known for challenging stories about superheroes and their relationship to sex and violence?
Moore spoke about sexual violence in comics and the recent reactions to it in a 2014 interview with The Guardian:
"Why should murder be so over-represented in our popular fiction, and crimes of a sexual nature so under-represented?" Moore asks in the interview. "Surely it cannot be because rape is worse than murder, and is thus deserving of a special unmentionable status. Surely, the last people to suggest that rape was worse than murder were the sensitively reared classes of the Victorian era ... And yet, while it is perfectly acceptable (not to say almost mandatory) to depict violent and lethal incidents in lurid and gloating high-definition detail, this is somehow regarded as healthy and perfectly normal, and it is the considered depiction of sexual crimes that will inevitably attract uproars of the current variety."
So, do we live in a new Victorian age? Are the #ChangeTheCover supporters being oversensitive? Or should artists be more careful about offending audiences?
Is this a case of backpedaling on the part of DC Comics? Or is DC Comics correcting a mistake of clashing tones?
Let us know in the comments.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page
