“seriously name one batman villain better than the joker”
literally all of them how boring are you
The new 52 is long gone but before DC Comics begins its rebirth it is going to celebrate the 52nd issue of the first issues of the new 52. Well the books that are still around with the same titles, anyway.
There are only three female focused titles left - Batgirl, Catwoman and Wonder Woman - of the original that launched. And it is interesting to compare the covers of the original and the “tribute” in whether the treatment of the characters has changed.
Let’s start with Batgirl. The original cover had art by Adam Hughes (as did the first 5 or so covers - you can see some of those and some of the rejected covers here ). Adam’s wife artist Alison Sohn told me that the editors at DC told Adam that the cover to issue one looked too old (which is why she made to look very young on the second cover).
The tribute cover is by the current artist Babs Tarr who help transform the character in 2014 to appear much lighter and younger.
The Batgirl “yellow-boot” was criticized for some for making the character seem young. But the character was always supposed to about 20-21. The second seems closer to that age. The biggest controversy of the new 52 was the eradication of Oracle by “fixing” Batgirl. I wonder why they just didn’t take approach they later settled on of saying the original versions existed on other earths - it would have solved one of the biggest PR issues early on in the new 52.
The new 52 version of Catwoman was another PR problem for DC. The writer hired for the gig couldn’t stop using the word SEXY to describe her. And DC brought on one of its most gazy artists Guiliam March to draw her. That first cover of her laying unzipped on a rooftop (along with some other rooftop shananigans inside) put the new 52 and its treatment of women into even more hot water (oh those days!)
The “tribute cover” is by the current artist Inaki Miranda. I think there’s a pretty clear difference here. The poses are similar but the zipper is zipped up! Score! I’ve had a love hate relationship with the Catwoman book since the new 52 launch. The only creator that made the character work was Genevieve Valentine who has now left the book. Pity.
I didn’t read the first issue of Batgirl until years later (and when I did found it underwhelming) and the first issue of Catwoman was a trainwreck. The first issue of Wonder Woman was, well, wonderful. As was the cover by Cliff Chiang.
I can still remember the excitement I had when I realized that DC had finally given me a Wonder Woman book that was well written, incredibly drawn - it was heaven. And then it went bust. And that tribute cover by David Finch is pretty much emblematic of that.
Who knows what is coming in the rebirth but my hope is that Wonder Woman gets better treatment and new creative team.
