The Killing Joke: Hard Pass.

So, this week in Doing It Wrong, it turns out that DC's animated adaptation of Alan Moore's Killing Joke story holds true to DC's long standing tradition of taking things Alan Moore did and making them worse. It's been leaked that the movie takes a Batman and Batgirl's relationship down a different road. Long story short....they fuck.

idk how to feel about this pic.twitter.com/gsBGHsYet5

— ☕ (@AcroNite7) July 22, 2016

It's not enough that DC would be so socially out of touch with their audience's current social issues that they would think it's a good idea to bring back an infinitely triggering story with questionable gender politics. It's not enough that they have to go the extra mile and strain an already borderline non-existent relationship with a creator they've alienated countless times over the years. But then they have to change a story to make it twice as problematic at a time when readers seem to enjoy Barbara Gordon as Batgirl (one of the few things the New 52 reboot got right in retrospect), kicking ass. Why open yourself up to even more feminist critique than this story already deserves (and make no mistake....it deserves a great deal of feminist critique)? Just for context, we're talking about a story where even Moore himself, who has a long history of writing super rapey books, admitted that the editorial team at the time should have stepped in and stopped him. We're at a point where we shouldn't still be having rudimentary conversations about using women as props to anger men into battle to slay the dragon.

It's not even necessary in a Batman story. The character has virtually every reason to be pissed off built into him already. He's a traumatized orphan fighting in the most crime-y city ever in the history of comics. And, really, that's just if the writers in question decide he even needs a reason which, according the Arkham game series, he doesn't. Now, you have to give him yet another pseudo-girlfriend to house all his commitment issues? DC seems to be wearing their inability to "get it" right for women like an awarded badge of honor. The Killing Joke is their acceptance speech.



My comic reviews for the week on Star Wars and the exponentially bad Green Lanterns are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing enjoyment. And don't forget my webcomic collaboation with Katie Coats, Neverland: the Untold. This week was a double page week to get us back on schedule so check out Pages 31 AND 32.