DC Comics Cancels "Batgirl" Joker Variant at Artist's Request

[Claude]

My ongoing Twitter discussion with Cameron continues.

https://twitter.com/cameronMstewart/...41920412913664

I'm thinking Cameron had a role in having the cover pulled.

He's not being the most politically-phrased in his responses, but he's right. If someone puts you in charge of a book's story, you should be able to have a pretty strong say in how it's packaged.



I have to be honest, I find the grinding of teeth from people furious that they've been denied a Dark And Gritty Cover With A Murderer Terrorising The Female Lead As He Points A Gun Between Her Legs more galling than many of the objections to it.

"Je Suis Charlie"? Vous ne comprenez pas.

[Dr. Cheesesteak]

It does make it a bit harder to read the book when you don't really agree with the writer.

Thing is, I tend to not care about a creator's political or social views. It's their character and personality that may sway me to read their stuff or not. Cameron throwing Rafael under the bus like that is just inexcusable to me. He didn't even say something like "it was a great cover, just not to my taste or vision". He's essentially shitting all over it now. I know it aint personal vs Rafael, but he's not even being supportive of Rafael's efforts.

[Sacred Knight]

This is all setting a really bad precedent. I don't like the idea of artists being bullied into asking for their work removed, as I'm sure that's the reason he caved and requested it. He was probably getting a bunch of hate messages.

[thecrimson]

Good. The cover depicts a superhero who is not shown as someone trying to fight back against her captor, but as a victim. If she was shown struggling, looking angry or desperate, it would have made a huge difference.

I don't know how good it was considering people apparently sent the dude death threats over his cover.

[Rakzo]

Those guys can easily be discovered and prosecuted.

Well, I certainly hope so because if they don't then there will be a huge problem with how justice works.

[Noodle]

Cameron Stewart basically has sided with those who wanted the cover gone.

https://twitter.com/cameronMstewart/...41042910011392

So invoking memories of The Killing Joke on a more lighthearted comic is the problem?

Because I find that (by his words) it "contradicts the work we’re doing" on a book where the current storyline has the spine Joker damaged IN THE KILLING JOKE conspiring against her to be kind of, you know, doing that exact same thing.

[Immortal Weapon]

Great, crocodile tears wins the day again. These people gonna damage the medium as much as the comics code did.

[InformationGeek]

I understand people not liking the cover and willing to argue the problems with it. It' a striking and wonderful drawn cover, but it does go against the tone of the book and can feel a bit tasteless depending on who you ask.

That being said, the best protest to something like this is to not buy the variant cover or ignore the issue in response, not demand it be taken down, censored, or have threats been thrown at the artist or creators. Your side of the argument instantly loses a lot of points with me, even if I do agree with some of your frustration about the depiction of the cover.

All I hope now is Rafael will still be willing to do more variant covers despite this incident, since he is a great artist, and that this book is able to get another variant to replace this lost one.

[Sacred Knight]

If I were DC I'd have another artist, if one is willing, to recreate the same basic idea of the cover, and release it anyway.

[Badou]

I thought the cover itself was fine. It does what it is supposed to and be an homage to a very well known, maybe DC's most well known story given the sales figures each year, but it was tonally completely wrong for the series the variant was for. It didn't fit with the new direction for the character. So removing the variant was probably the right move, but the idea of that artist being criticized it just sad. Just disgusting behavior.

[hellacre]

So protest over a cover for being too violent but then make death threats to the artist? That is the ultimate irony . Are fictional characters more important than the lives of real people? This was an opportunity to bring constructive discourse not trying to lynch one artist and now threatening to kill the guy? It's appalling.

[DevilsGambit]

As I mentioned in Twitter: Albuquerque probably received the death threats from the same people who are supposedly against such things.

Hipocresy at its worst. I can't believe they're not making a scandal about this.

they are only against it when it benefits them. I hope he reverses his decision. Marvel got a lot of flack for doing the same damn thing.

[Horizon]

I am so glad our comic culture is one that validates freedom of expression

[cranger]

Cameron Stewart basically has sided with those who wanted the cover gone.

https://twitter.com/cameronMstewart/...41042910011392

You know, I mentioned in a thread about tweets Erik Larsen made that I pretty much stopped following comic creators on Twitter because they say the dumbest stuff and it ruins the books for me. Well this comment and the comment Cameron Stewart made about people only liking Batgirl's previous costume so they could pleasure themselves to it has pretty much ruined this run for me.

yeah, pretty sure Batgirl just lost a reader in me.

Yep.

[DevilsGambit]

This is all setting a really bad precedent. I don't like the idea of artists being bullied into asking for their work removed, as I'm sure that's the reason he caved and requested it. He was probably getting a bunch of hate messages.

No one does, but in the world we now live in. People who are "offended" or cry loud enough get their way.