It is a classic example of the “Women In Refrigerators” syndrome - where a female character is murdered, raped or otherwise brutalized just to provide cheap motivation to the male characters. The Killing Joke īarbara Gordon was Batgirl at the time, yet she was summarily dispatched by the Joker with a single shot to the spine in a way that would be hard to imagine happening to a male hero. Although it is not explicitly stated in the text, many fans assume that Barbara was raped as well. In The Killing Joke, the Joker is convinced that all it takes is “one really bad day” to drive anyone crazy He attempts to prove his point by shooting Commissioner Gordon’s daughter, Barbara, in the spine - paralyzing her - then takes nude photos of her bloodied and writhing in pain, and displays them to Commissioner Gordon in an attempt to drive him insane with grief. Although flawed, it is widely considered one of the greatest Joker stories ever told.īut as great as the story is at exploring the origins of the Joker and exploring the twisted relationship he has with Batman, there is one character that was almost unbelievably slighted by the plot: Barbara Gordon a.k.a.
The Killing Joke is a 1988 graphic novel written by industry legend Alan Moore and drawn by British illustrator Brian Bolland. Willow Wilson summed up the feelings of many fans.īut although the cover is problematic on its own, many viewers were even more upset at the story that it referenced: The Killing Joke. On the surface level, critics argued that the cover portrays Batgirl as a victim. Three days after the cover was unveiled, Albuquerque issued a statement that he was requesting that DC cancel the cover and DC complied. As the pressure to change the cover gathered steam, the inevitable backlash from fans who liked the cover started up, leading to - I am not making this up - death threats towards people who were critical of the cover.
Within hours of the Batgirl cover being released, critics were rallying around the hashtag #ChangeTheCover. Included in those covers was a variant cover for Batgirl #41 by artist Rafael Albuquerque. On March 13th, DC Comics released a preview of 25 Joker-themed variant covers for their June books to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the character.
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