Not A Good Week For The Ladies…

Judging from WW’s look of cross-eyed disdain, she’s not too thrilled with the makeover either…

Double-barrelled stupidity from DC this week; firstly, in the release of a preview of Wonder Woman’s new costume, as ‘designed’ by David Finch, which the Amazing Amazon is supposed to don in her 41st issue;

The ‘Wonder Wolverine’ spiked bracelets (and they’d better be retractable spikes, otherwise she’s going to have a hell of a time doing anything non-violent) are repulsive enough, to those of us who remember Wonder Woman as an Ambassador of Peace, but the entire design of the costume is ugly and confusing, with too many disparate items battling with each other; the ‘shoulder shells’, what appear to be thigh-length hooker boots, and – what the hell is that flappy loincloth thing doing there? This is a costume of which even George Perez would say; “Whoa! Dial it back, that’s way too busy!”

But that wasn’t quite enough for DC this week; not content to screw over one of their iconic female characters, they have to take all the progress they recently made, and goodwill gathered, with Batgirl – which has recently been reinvented as a fun, positive, woman-friendly series, courtesy of   – and piss it all away !

It’s all to do with the variant covers of DC Comics in June; the theme this month is Joker, and the variant cover for Batgirl #41 harks back to the Alan Moore/Brian Bolland Batman story, The Killing Joke – in which, famously, Barbra Gordon was shot through the spine by the Joker, then brutalised and sexually assaulted, not because of anything directly to do with her, but solely as a means of striking at the Batman. This did result in Barbara’s reinvention as Oracle, a unique and inspirational character, but nevertheless, the means by which that was caused leaves a foul taste in the mouth even decades later.

The other released Joker-themed alternate covers so far released emphasise the comedy or inappropriate juxtaposition of the character with the series’ star; the Batgirl one, however…

Yep, that’s right. Take a popular character who’s riding on the wave of a recent reboot as an independent, positive heroine  – and reduce her to a snivelling hostage on the cover!

DC had managed to go a little while without doing anything too egregiously stupid; but now, it would appear, it’s back to Business As Usual for the Poo 52…