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There’s currently a controversy of sorts on the comic book blogosphere concerning the cover of Showcase Presents: Batgirl Volume 1. It’s a collected book of past Batman stories that contain appearances of Batgirl. Showcase books are printed on pulpy paper and are in black and white. This one is over 500 pages in length and priced at $16.99. Not a bad deal if old dopey comic stories are your thing.
The cover in question shows Batgirl fixing her makeup while Batman and Robin kung fu fight the bad guys. The implication it seems is that Batgirl is more worried about her makeup then fighting crime. The cover is based on a splash page from DETECTIVE COMICS #371.
The idea of a superhero, male or female, would be more concerned with his or her appearance then fighting crime seems silly. Then again, superheroes tend to care a great deal about their personal appearance. Otherwise they wouldn’t wear such elaborative and exotic costumes.
Is this cover insulting? On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate this at minus 3.
As a man, I don’t look at this cover and infer from it that men in general enjoy wearing funny costumes and fighting crime with prepubescent boys. Just because Batman is shown this way doesn’t mean all men are this way. Why then do some women look at this cover and insist that it is a disparaging statement about women as a whole?
I thought the Mary Jane statue and the Heroes For Hire cover were things worth complaining about. In fact I complained about them too. This cover is not worth complaining about.
SchoolyG
/ July 19, 2007I think the cover is pretty fucked up and offensive. That the publisher would choose this image over the thousands of other possible images shows how sexist comics truly are.
This is exactly the same as the Mary Jane statue that you wrote about earlier. It’s just that this instance isn’t sexual- it’s a non-sexual stereotype.
Rick
/ July 19, 2007It’s not the same as the Mary Jane statue. The Mary Jane statue depicted her in a grotesquely over sexualized way that is not seen in the comics. The Showcase cover on the other hand actually shows Batgirl that way she was depicted in the comics.
SchoolyG
/ July 19, 2007But it sends the same type of message. The problem is that there are so few representations of women in comics. If there were tons of other realistic portrayals of women in comics, then one or two like this would be seen as individual. But there aren’t- so this appears to be overly stereotypical. The only reason more shit isn’t raised over this is that 99% of comic readers are males who don’t find anything wrong with these types of representations.
Hey, I thought these posts were supposed to be on your new blog?
Rick
/ July 19, 2007Superhero comics are not the place to go looking for realistic portrayals of people – male or female. Batgirl should not be looked to as a representation of anything other then Batgirl.
I changed my mind about the other ‘comics only’ blog. I realized it was a stupid idea. :)
SchoolyG
/ July 19, 2007I don’t think the separate blog is a bad idea- but it would be more work for you. It would take more to get readers there, too. You already have this established.
Jesse Jace
/ July 19, 2007I like this blog with its current formula. There’s nothing wrong with mixing comic book news in with your other subjects. The way I see it, the more you mix it up, the more curious readers you will attract.
Rick
/ July 20, 2007Thanks for the feedback guys. My interests tend to be all over the place and I thought perhaps my blog suffered because of it. In hindsight, it turned out to be far too constrictive. One of the nice things about having a blog is being able to write about anything you want. It turned out having a ‘comics only’ blog was turning out to be a pain in the ass. Plus, I even screwed things up in the move and then the subsequent move back. I’ve lost some posts I remember writing. :(
Tony
/ July 20, 2007I echo schooly G. Also I like the mix. With my blog I try to write less comic book stuff but fail miserably so apprecite your efforts to mix it up. Bent corner is a Daily Read for me.