A dustup in the comic book world reminds us — as if any of us needed reminding — that the world of comics fandom is filled with a lot of the same sort of garbage people who’ve been harassing (mostly) women in the name of #GamerGate.
The sightly confusing story: On Friday, a bunch of “variant” comic book covers featuring The Joker alongside an assortment of other DC comics characters were posted online, with DC planning on releasing two dozen more “variant” covers for June.
One of these covers, intended for Batgirl #41, featured The Joker and a terrified-looking Batgirl, an unsettling reference to an quarter-century-old graphic novel called The Killing Joke, in which the sadistic Joker crippled Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl, with a shot to her spine. The Joker’s sadism was highly sexualized, with the graphic novel strongly suggesting that she had also been sexually assaulted.
Well, a lot of Batgirl’s present day fans were upset by a reminder of this dark storyline, in part because, as Jude Terror writes on The Outhousers, a cover referencing sadism and sexual assault is a bit “contradictory to the lighthearted tone” of Batgirl comics today.
After hearing this criticism, the artist behind the cover, Rafael Albuquerque, asked DC Comics to pull his artwork, noting that he never meant “to hurt or upset anyone through my art.”
DC Comics granted his request. But DC’s official statement also alluded to “threats of violence and harassment,” which many people took to mean that Albuquerque and DC Comics had been bullied into pulling the artwork by, you know, those evil “social justice warriors” we hear so much about.
Nope. It was the” antisocial injustice warriors” all along. Albuquerque made clear that he hadn’t actually gotten any threats. As Batgirl writer Cameron Stewart noted, it was the people who criticized the cover who were getting threats.
That’s right. Albuquerque and DC took down the artwork because some of the DEFENDERS of the artwork were harassing critics in their name.
Ethics!
Naturally, the people who previously brought so much ETHICS! to the world of gaming have some highly ETHICAL opinions on this controversy.
On Kotaku in Action, Reddit’s home for the #GamerGate crowd, commenters complained that Albuquerque and DC had given in to “a bunch of screeching hens on Twitter.”
“Another win for the feels-censors,” one commenter lamented. “Yeah for moral panic and outrage for they win the day!” another commenter remarked sarcastically.
“I say fuck ’em,” still another commenter defiantly added. “Be as fucking edgy as you want, and if anyone complaints, just tell them “don’t buy it moron”.”
But my favorite comment is probably this one, not just for the “let me explain to you how art works” stuff but also for that slightly ironic bit at the very end.
Dude, I hate to have to tell you this, but you’re part of a movement whose main goal is to shut down peope who disagree with you.
#GamerGate has spent the past, what, six months, harassing and threatening and trying to ruin the lives and the livelihoods of game developers and journalists and cultural critics for the terrible crime of … saying things you don’t like about gaming culture (sometimes even while being female).
Indeed, #GamerGaters have managed to convince themselves, if very few others, that it’s somehow “unethical” for journalists to publish anything #GamerGaters don’t like. And then they complain about “censorship?”
H/T — Big tip of the hat today to Skiriki, for alerting me to this and providing helpful links, and to lifestyled on GamerGhazi for a post highlighting some of the best — i.e., worst — comments from GamerGaters on Reddit.
boy for people who love to scream about evil censorship anti sjs sure do love harassing people who disagree with them into shutting up
Saw this the other day. Good read on the subject when it first exploded.
#ChangeTheCover Is Not The #ComicsGate That #GamerGate Has Been Waiting For – Bleeding Cool http://j.mp/1Cpcw0y
Not going to link directly to the image, but someone tweaked the art a little and it completely changes the tone of the cover – just by altering Barbara’s expression it turns the whole dynamic from Batgirl As Helpless Victim to Batgirl About To Fight Back.
I thought the whole assault thing was also commented on at the time about being out of character for the Joker? He’s an arch-villain psychopath, but his schtick has never been about sex. There’s a number of running commentaries on that – he’s supposed to be equally terrifying to everyone, not worse to women in specific.
In other words, he ain’t The Comedian from Watchmen.
Indeed, the Joker has a re-occuring one-sided love interest he shows near-zero interest in, at least in that way.
I still think the most fucked up thing about this is the way DC handled it (let’s be honest, we’d only be surprised if the #Gits didn’t shit their outrage-diapers about this).
“Poor wording” my ass, they deliberately made it as vague as possible so it’d sound like we were the harassers and the #Gits were innocent. What the fuck is wrong with them?
@M.:
Yeah, DC dropped the ball on that one. They should have been more specific, though the artist, Rafael Abuqueerque and one of the writers, Cameron Stewart did clarify who was being attacked, despite the fact that they should have never have been in that position in the first place.
@strivingally I hadn’t seen that yet! I actually would’ve been totally ok with that version. Still not quite perfect for the current tone of Batgirl, but it does maintain the artistry of the first while giving Barbara the agency she deserves.
I’m really happy with Albuquerque’s and DC’s responses. It’s always awesome when people take criticism as an opportunity to do better rather than a personal attack. After all, no one is saying the cover wasn’t artistically well-done, just not a good fit. I’m loving Batgirl and it would have been a bad move to go forward with a cover that would have upset a lot of current readers and off put new ones. Reminds me a little of the Spider-Woman variant controversy.
For everyone asking/wondering “Should I read the current Batgirl series?” the answer to my mind is “Maybe? I dunno, what do you like?” It’s a light-hearted, very self-consciously modern comic focusing on Youth Culture especially in how it’s shaped by the internet and the tech-savvy. Its action is a lot like Silver Age Batman, where beating people up with martial arts took a back seat to whipping out wacky gadgets and using them in novel ways.
One thing I’ve been seeing time and again is how…fluffier distaff stories are. She-Ra isn’t as ‘important’ as He-Man, Batgirl, especially now, isn’t shaping or changing how Gotham is, it’s about a person living in a world defined and controlled by other characters. The previous Batgirl series written by Gail Simone and drawn by somebody with a less cartoony style was a lot more like a female version of the modern Batman, somebody engaged in that world rather than living in a differently-coloured corner of it where people smile and bodies don’t show up every week on a street corner. It’s a lot more escapist.
If that sounds like something you’d like, maybe you would enjoy the current run of Batgirl? Don’t ask me, I don’t know your mind.
For what it’s worth, it’s a well drawn and fun book but it’s just doesn’t feel like a Barbara Gordon comic to me. Barbara acts like Stephanie Brown except a computer genius.
Ah! Figured out Twitch’s archive and timestamp stuff, and found the segment.
It’s at the 16min 40sec mark.
http://www.twitch.tv/geekandsundry/v/3913871?t=16m40s
Kagato is spot on – always return to how things were before!
Btw, I always found it weird that Barbara had a wheelchair like the ones people use in our world. They have all this incredible sci-fi-tech in the DCU, and she rides around on plain old wheels? I have a comic where they handwave this by having Barbara say that she doesn’t wanna be a cyborg. Fine – but why didn’t she have a chair that could climb stairs or, heck, FLY?
I guess there’s some value in having a disabled character bein presented in a realistic way, but within the context of DCU it seemed unrealistic to me.
I’ve read The Killing Joke and I never picked up on the implied sexual assault. Though, it has been some years since I last read it and I’m better at seeing nuances and implied things now then I was before.
@strivingally – I actually really like the tweaked version.
@dvarghundspossen – I vaguely remember reading an issue where pre-boot Oracle!Babs explained that she didn’t want to be magically/alien-tech cured or have other “special treatments” because it felt like cheating? Like, if normal people didn’t have access to the stuff, why should she?
I really like the tweaked image; she’s about to hand the Joker his innards.
Want to bet these are the same dorks who are “offended” by the new Thor?
I don’t take sucker’s bets.
Though, I did notice a lot of the people who were calling for the variant cover to stay were talking about “respecting artistic integrity” and “respecting the artist”.
I just tweeted at a girl a while ago to tell her that the artist was the one who asked for the cover to be changed.
I wouldn’t mind a callback to the Killing Joke, except this basically puts Barbara back in the position of the victim.
@Karl: Of course! After all, with the exception of the Redpillers themselves, men are all just mindless creatures that can be swayed in any direction by a feeemales evil wiles. You know!
@Snootle:which is exactly the reason I stopped reading superhero comics because so much of it seemed to boil down to fight scenes in bikinis, male power fantasies and gratuitous T&A. Its sad becasue I still love superheroes but I won’t read them anymore. I still read comics. Just not those.
Steampunkd: I was just thinking in that myself. He has never shown any kind of sexual interest in anyone or anything ( except for the one time he goosed Batman, but that wasn’t about sex). Sexual assault sounds horribly out of character for him, which is another reason I hated what they did to Barbara. It was pointless from every angle.
@Michael Lindsey: I’ll take that bet and raise you a Wonder Woman redesign and a Muslim Marvel Girl.
I saw some of the alternate cover tweets, every single one of which completely misses the point of why anyone objected to the cover in the first place. And why the artist himself decided to pull it. Also completely missing the point that it’s not an actual cover and never was.
I should be long inured to the lack of basic reading comprehension of your average Internet misogynist, but I’m not.
Why?
I’ve been discussing this on Facebook all day and, by God, I’m drained. It’s like this shit never ends…
The thing I’m growing weary of how often I hear of “the outrage” and, when finally seeing what angers them so, it becomes obvious how disproportionately explosive their reaction is in comparison. The reality is some people voiced their dislike of the cover, explained why, and the artist decided to respectfully listen to them. They, as well as myself and others, are accused of being “oversensitive” and that is how they react to something they dislike? It’s even worse all these assholes act as if they’re the voice of reason – even as they petulantly dismiss and shout down anyone who criticizes, perhaps speaking in unison as they all use the same talking points.
If the cover (or even that grotesque Milo Manara-illustrated Spider-Woman one) did actually make it to print, none of them would really give a shit about the cover. It’d just another thing to take for granted as entitled fanboys, as they usually do. Besides, shouldn’t the thing that matter be the content behind the cover? Of course, but it’s not about that – it’s the fact opinions were expressed that did not coincide with their own. As well as their need to be constantly indulged and then subsequently validated, as it makes them feel special.
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs70/200H/f/2012/207/9/4/super_reality_climax_by_kitty4president-d58nna6.png
Seems the exclusionary comic dude-bros aren’t actually doing anything different these days, they’re just slapping the word “ethical” onto their same whiny opinions to justify them.
DC should have pissed on their bonfire by making it 100% clear that it’s the “SaveTheCover” brigade sending the threats. The only way GG is going to fizzle out is if their beloved franchises put their foot down and tell them to fuck off. It’s not as if DC’s going to lose out by refusing to tolerate GG’s boorish shenanigans – even if they throw a tantrum, they’re going to have to play nice if they want access to their Batman comics.
@Bear: That sounds like a really phony explanation. She has no trouble taking advantage of the super-advanced computers, teleporters and shit that the Justice League has got. What’s the difference between that and having a super-high-tech chair? I get that some people would feel uncomfortable with being turned into a cyborg and have tech inside their body, but being okay with using all kinds of sci-fi-tech and then drawing an arbitrary line when it comes to your chair just feels like… They wanted her in a traditional wheelchair and desperately tried to make up an ad hoc reason for why she has one.
In some forums, people are completely missing the point of the problem with the cover and illustrate their lack of understanding by stating that nobody complained about this cover. Since you know, they’re so the same thing.
@Dvärghundspossen – IKR. I really liked the fact that as Oracle, Babs was representative of people with disabilities, but the way they just handwave away the reasons why she’s in a normal wheelchair as opposed to a Batwheelchair doesn’t make sense.
I actually think that it would be a very Batfamily thing to do to add all sorts of gadgets and upgrades into Babs’ wheelchair.
Is anyone here still in the pipe concerning video games? Is it true that demos are harder to come by these days?
@dvarghundspossen
Science is basically magic and magic is science in these universes. So Dr. Strange could indeed build a flying wheelchair for her, but Reed Richards could only build one that operates within the reach of his personal mana field. It’s how things work.
Whenever I hear that Gamergaters have a new issue, I think “what would be the most insensitive, dickish take on this possible?” I have yet to read further and find they were more reasonable than I thought they would be. They have managed to be far more imaginative in thinking up new ways to be an asshole than I could foresee, though.