Batgirl Cover
Artist: Rafael Albuquerque
Year: 2015
Date of Action: March 16, 2015
Region: North America
Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion, Violence
Medium: Design
Confronting Bodies: DC Comic Fans
Description of Artwork: This is a DC comic variant cover, meaning it is optional, featuring the Joker with one arm around Batgirl holding a gun and the other smearing his signature smile in blood across her face.
The Incident: DC Comics recently released the variant cover for upcoming 41 issue of the Batgirl comic. The cover, created by Rafael Alburquerque, featured the Joker and Batgirl and was meant to be a homage to a previous 1988 Batman story. After the image was released followers and fans of the comic became upset by the content of the cover and took to twitter to express their thoughts. The hashtag #ChangeTheCover was used to try and get DC Comics to see their comments and have the cover pulled. Fans and editorialists were upset with the image showing the female heroine as helpless and/or a potential sexual assault victim.
Results of Incident: On March 16, 2015 DC comics announced that Rafael Alburquerque, artist of the cover, asked DC comics to pull the cover. The cover for this specific June issue will be replaced with different artwork.
Source:
• http://www.cnbc.com/id/102520004
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/17/dc-comics-pull-batgirl-joker-cover-after-protests