The
title of this post is meant to
convey that this is what I
feel about the whole business of DC soliciting and then pulling the
Batgirl Joker variant cover. I'm not trying to make a definitive
statement here, least of all because the artist, Rafael Albuquerque,
wrote an open letter on the subject which I think deserves
pre-eminence. Its a bit of non-apology but it does seem to represent
genuine contrition, which is good because DC's own statement pretty
much throws Albuquerque under a bus in lieu of admitting any fault on
their part.
(That said, I can't say whether the theme of the piece
was Albuquerque's or DC editorial's idea. After all, you say “Batgirl
Joker variant” and the natural pitch is “Killing Joke tribute”,
so who knows whose idea it was).
As to the cover itself? I think its a really good piece
of art if divorced from context. Hell, even given its context I think
its well-drawn. Its technically proficient and genuinely disturbing.
I'm a strong believer that art is meant to provoke an emotional
reaction and that reaction doesn't need to be positive to have worth.
The problem, and I feel there really is a problem, comes from the
context this image would have been published in.
As
the cover to a horror comic or even to Gail Simone's run on Batgirl
it might even have worked. Simone's Batgirl dwelt a lot on the trauma
Barbara suffered as a result of The Killing Joke. Put this
cover on one of the early Death Of The Family tie-in issues and it
would work perfectly, an expression of Barbara's lingering unresolved
issues, especially given the presence of the gun (one of Simone's
earliest issues has Barbara freeze when a gun is pointed at her).
The
actual context of this piece, however, would have been an issue of
the Stewart/Fletcher run which DC has heavily marketed to the female
young adult audience. Its pretty much the prototype for the way DC
intends to diversify its content and audience coming out of
Convergence. This is the
comic DC is pushing to young women to show them they have a place
within the audience and not just with the traditional trick of having
a female creator on it, which is pretty much how they marketed
Simone's Batgirl and Birds Of Prey before it. Babs Tarr's art is a
big part of this: more akin to Lumberjanes or Girls With Slingshots
than the traditional superhero house styles, swapping out the style
that has historically alienated women for the styles of comics that
have been more welcoming to them.
A
comic's cover is not art alone, it is also a piece of advertising and
good advertising is meant to send out a coherent, unified message.
The purpose of this series from the writing to the art to most every
other piece of marketing has been to foster a sense of Batgirl as
embodying the traditional superhero power fantasy for
young women divorced from many of the usual problems that plague
female superheroes in that regard. To then pair this with a prominent
image of Batgirl restrained and visibly terrified is a massively
dissonant note that contradicts the central message of the series.
The
cover image is disturbing in a way that does not suit the series it
would have been used in and this, more than anything, is why I think
it was a good decision for DC to pull the cover. Hell, of all series
for this to happen to its strangely fitting for it to happen with the
Cameron/Fletcher Batgirl, whose creators were previously criticised
for the use of transphobic tropes in one issue. Their response, in an
open letter, was to look at their work and apologise for the feelings
it evoked, for not properly considering the issues when they wrote
and drew those scenes and to thank their audience for provoking the
discussion and expressing hope that they and others would be able to
create better stories as a result of those discussions.
Especially
given DC's own sidestepping of all responsibility in their corporate
response to this issue, its nice to see that the DC title designed to
appeal to women is also the comic whose contributors own their
actions.
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