"Batgirl" Variant Cover Cancellation Sparks Further Debate Among Comic Pros and Fans

[Stormcrow]

It was his decision to come up with that concept. People objecting to the cover did not respect that.

We are not talking about DC. If you do not want to answer the question you can just pass

Honestly, your question doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I think Rafael Albuquerque's concept decision is respected, at least as far as I can tell from what I've seen.

The issue is whether it was appropriate for it to be approved as a cover for the current run, given that it's completely at odds with what they're trying to achieve. So we are talking about DC, I don't believe Albuquerque's work as an artist was in question and he clearly agrees.

[Darth Weevil]

The initial decision was not his alone, the editors and creative team of the actual book should have been included from the start. DC screwed up internally, that's it.

Yeah, I honestly don't get how this got past DC editorial in the first place. I can understand how an artist would get the idea and follow through on it, but someone at DC should have been able to recognize it wasn't the right cover for this book. Maybe even six month ago under Gail Simone, which was much, much darker (though I'd still argue it would be a bit too far), but not this current book.

[Darth Weevil]

At the end of the day, it's a poor decision to have a month of variant covers celebrating a violent psychopath.

Except the other covers I've seen (I looked at a gallery of like 15 of them; there are probably more, but that seemed a representative sample) aren't like this one. Most aren't hyper-realistic. Most have some element of wackiness to them. Several have the Joker being beaten by the star of the book. This cover clearly stood out from the rest—it was not remotely of the same tone of "hey, the Joker's a fun character, let's celebrate his birthday!" Not saying that makes the cover bad, per se, just that it kind of weakens the "but it was a month of covers celebrating the Joker" argument.

[Stormcrow]

Yeah, I honestly don't get how this got past DC editorial in the first place. I can understand how an artist would get the idea and follow through on it, but someone at DC should have been able to recognize it wasn't the right cover for this book. Maybe even six month ago under Gail Simone, which was much, much darker (though I'd still argue it would be a bit too far), but not this current book.

Exactly, this would have been right at home during Gail's Death of the Family tie-in issues. But in this day and age, not so much.

[ispacehead]

At the end of the day the only poor decision making that took place was by anyone that threatened violence over the release of the image.

[Darth Weevil]

"DC's incoming "Green Arrow" artist Patrick Zircher wrote on Twitter Monday night, "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?""

It's interesting that this is one of the few things Moore has outright said he wished he could undo, that shooting, paralyzing, and possibly raping Barbara was a mistake, a giving in to his darker tendencies that he wished DC editorial had said no to. So, yeah, maybe editorial wouldn't let that aspect of Killing Joke through today, but KJ's author is on record as saying they shouldn't have let him do it at the time.

[Grayson]

I still think this cover is awesome. I'd love to have it up on my wall as a poster.

[ultimate jezebel]

I had no problem with the cover.

Joker is a son of a bitch and that's what he does.

[Stormcrow]

I still think this cover is awesome. I'd love to have it up on my wall as a poster.

Albuquerque would make good money selling it as a print.

[solletaire]

What is the debate here really about? Is it that the image is offensive and unacceptable period? Is it that this particular imagery has no place in mainstream comics? Is it that this imagery is OK for other characters, but not Batgirl? Is it that it's an OK image, but it's tonally inappropriate for the current direction of the book? Is it that self-censorship is OK when it rights a perceived wrong? I think things have shifted quite a bit.

[Dauchon]

I just wanted to say that I like the Bat-Girl Variant Cover. Very Dark.

I can understand though why some people didn't like it, whether they are Bat-Girl fans or Oracle Fans.
They are tired of having her be defined by what the joker did to her(Like I'm tired of Hank Pym being defined by that one time he hit Janet Van Dyne during a psychotic break). Sadly there was way too much arguing about the cover and no ideas that i saw on what would have been a better Variant that honored both the killing Joke and the new creative direction of Bat-Girl.
A simple Image of Bat-Girl swiping left on The Joker in the outfit he wore in the killing joke on the DC universes version of Tinder would be a great variant cover, showing the new direction of the creative team, and referencing moving on from the Killing Joke.

Any other Ideas out there for a variant that would reflect both in a good way.

[solletaire]

Albuquerque would make good money selling it as a print.

Just curious, would you still object to the cover if it was sold as a print?

[FriendRoss]

Role reversal of the staging of the picture would be interesting

[cranger]

Honestly, your question doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

It might not make sense for two reasons:

1) You are avoiding the fact that the artist was being disrespected by the campaign to #changethecover. You may want to focus on only certain complaints that seem soley directed at DC, although that is still somehow pretending the artist did not choose the concept for that book on his own, but plenty of the complaints were along the line of calling the cover rapey.

2) You keep focusing on the fact that it was incorrectly approved, which has nothing to do with the question of why should people respect one decision that only came to be due people not respecting his original decision.

[toddx77]

Variant covers are usually always different from the actual contents of the books. Plus if someone is only reading Batgirl because it is lighthearted now and sees this cover and it it makes them not want to read the book then that is their problem. Since this is a variant the only people who are going to really see it are the people looking for it. If this was a variant to Redhood and the only difference was Joker laughing over Jason Todd's dead body with a bloody crow bar no one would be making death threats.

As for Joker raping Barbra I just can't see it. I always took it as he undressed her just to insult her further. I even have a hard time accepting he and Harley had at some point before Arkham City because the only the person I could only see turning Joker on would be Batman lol.