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Entry tags:	comics, gender in comics

"Cripple The Bitch!"
I was just reading the three Batman: The Killing Joke-related entries on When Fangirls Attack.

I am so honestly torn when it comes to that book. The controversy, for those who are unaware, is that this is the story where Barbara Gordon was crippled by the Joker. The problem being that it's done in a way that doesn't deal with or address what Barbara has to go through because of this. Instead it focuses solely on what it does to Jim Gordon. Another case of using a woman in a book as expendable fodder to motivate the male characters, a theme that would sadly become more common in later years (likely inspired by this exact story, in fact).

And not only that, but how does Batman react to the whole thing once he has the Joker captured? By sharing a laugh with him.

So what's to be torn about such a horrible story? Well, it's Brian Bolland beautifully illustrating a story by Alan Moore. And that little point makes me want to turn around and defend the book, because I'm a big fan of the genius work of both.

For example, that it lead to the creation of Barbara Gordon as Oracle, probably the coolest handicapped superhero ever. Well, except that Oracle was pretty much created primarily out of John Ostrander's complete disgust with The Killing Joke.

My overall stance on the book is that it has pretty, pretty art which I still enjoy looking at, but that the story was a mistake. In fact, Alan Moore openly dismisses the story nowadays, though I've never seen him give specific reasons (or, at least, specifically address the victimization of Batgirl).

I think it's pretty obvious that his reason at the time for asking to be able to cripple Batgirl was because he wanted to write a story that would have long-term ramifications -- something fairly rare in the DC universe -- as well as to shock and disgust the reader. The problem being that, nowadays, it disgusts for the wrong reasons -- because it was one of the earliest instances in comics of violence against women used to get a reaction out of a male character (the whole theme of the putrid Identity Crisis), a cliche that today is called Women In Refrigerator Syndrome. I'm kind of curious what Moore's reaction would be if asked how he felt about inspiring this tired cliche...I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up just one more reason he dislikes the story himself.

But I don't think the Women In Refrigerator Syndrome aspect is even as offensive as an anecdote I've heard regarding the making of the book. Brian Bolland tells this little story in his recent book The Art Of Brian Bolland:

"Back in Northampton, Alan had to check with editor Len Wein how DC would feel about him crippling one of its key character, Batgirl. Len phoned back. His precise words are not printable here, but the gist of it was that it was okay. The Joker had, after all, to be shown to be a seriously nasty piece of work."

The words that Bolland is too much of a gentleman to reproduce, but which have been retold in various circles, were: "Cripple the bitch!"

And that pretty much sums up the attitude that allows female characters to continue to be mistreated in comics (at DC in particular, it seems).