Tomato

feministbatman

I am at the point where I really feel the need to say something about this. I apologize for the long post, I apologize for the stupid hashtag, and I apologize that people on my dash will likely have to see this cover.

I’d like to start out by saying I love Batgirl. I liked Gail’s run a lot and I like Cameron’s run a lot. I am so excited for next week where we’ll have DOUBLE Batgirl with the regular series and the Endgame one shot. I understand that some people are not fans of the new, brighter Batgirl run, and oftentimes criticism of the book’s mood and energy drowns out criticism that is really, genuinely important. This is criticism that I believe is really, genuinely important. It has nothing to do with the current story or creators, it’s just about this Joker variant right here.

If you are a fan of the Batgirl books and have never read The Killing Joke I guarantee you have at least seen it referenced. The Killing Joke is an Alan Moore one shot written in the 80′s and maybe the most referenced Bat-book of all time. At the time DC didn’t have much use for Barbara Gordon, so it was requested by the book’s creative that she be paralyzed for the sake of furthering the angst for her father in the story (there were not plans for her to recover or come back to the books at the time, they were just getting rid of her). In the story Joker comes to her father’s apartment, shoots Barbara in the spine, and has his thugs drag her father out. Joker then takes off Barbara’s clothes as she lies in a pool of her own blood and uses his camera to take pornographic pictures of her naked body. These pornographic images of her naked breasts and of her crying out in pain are later explicitly shown in the book.

The joker sexually assaulted and molested Barbara after shooting her through the spine. This is a book that is STILL canon in the current universe and referenced frequently. This cover portrays a victim of sexual assault with the man who molested her wrapping his arms around her shoulders and painting a smile of what is likely blood on her face as she weeps. If any other character was paired with their molester on such a dark horrifying cover there would be an outcry, but because The Killing Joke is so “iconic” someone at DC thought it was okay. It’s not.

I wrote a post about this earlier and every single reblog and reply has been someone with a similar reaction to mine: A wave of shock, the feeling of their stomach flipping, the feeling of being triggered, the feeling of fear. If that is what the artist intended to do then they did it well. But it is still unacceptable.

Here’s another thing about this- It’s okay to reference the Killing Joke, I’m not saying that no one should ever reference it again. It can be done well. Joker’s camera on the cover of TKJ became iconic; it’s an image of him as he takes the pornographic pictures of Barbara. In the new Batgirl run I have always thought that the constant use of cameras referenced Barbara’s ability to put herself back in control of the camera. Barbara taking selfies to reclaim her image, the Harley Quinn variant, the art show where Barbara was “on display” in a sexual manner without her consent and how she reacted to that, it’s subtle but the list goes on and on. Though I like many others had guessed the big baddie beforehand, I even thought that making the Joker the villain for the story arc would be interesting because of the constant camera symbolism. There are many Birds Of Prey issues that handle post TKJ stories well; Barbara knocking out all of the Joker’s teeth was pretty damn great. One of the recent Batman Eternals had Barbara fight Joker’s Daughter at the carnival where her father was taken, and she strode in telling Julia Pennyworth that she was going to put a punchline on the joke once and for all.

There are a lot of potential Joker variant covers that would have been amazing. I would have loved to see Barbara stepping on the joker’s face after punching him to the ground, perhaps using that iconic camera of his to take a selfie. But a violent, bloody cover of a weeping Batgirl as the man who molested her smiles by her side is sickening. It’s disgusting. And I am tired of her scenes in The Killing Joke being referenced while the serious issues involving her assault are casually ignored.

Maybe nothing will happen. I actually doubt it will be changed, which is an absolute travesty considering DC has pulled covers for being ridiculously over-sexualized before. This is different, though, because to some attacking the cover would be the same as attacking the entire Killing Joke story (not the case). The whole thing just bums me out.

Anyways, if you’ve read this all I’d love to hear your ideas as to what a new potential cover should be. Because I am sure you all could come up with something much better than this.

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.