A little over a month, really, since my last post. I’m sorry it’s taken so long, but life happens and we had to take care of a few things before coming back to take care of BAM! Comix. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Now a LOT has happened in the world of comic book entertainment in the past few weeks that deserves some mention, so much that it’s hard to know where to begin. So I’ll just start with the first thing that pops into my head: the Batgirl Movie.

As nearly everyone knows, DC scrapped the new Batgirl Movie about three weeks ago after viewers at test screenings dubbed it “unspeakable” and “irredeemable”. It was so bad that DC refused to even release it to streaming services, which ought to tell us something. DC’s new boss David Zaslav, possibly believing that discretion was the better part of valor, preferred to take the NINETY-MILLION-DOLLAR loss rather than allow Batgirl to see the light of day anywhere.

Reports of “funeral” screenings have surfaced, stating that a small, select audience of mostly cast and crew were allowed to watch Batgirl before it was entombed in the catacombs at DC/Warner Bros. No word has surfaced, yet, on how it was received, but given that the audience was involved making the movie, it couldn’t help but be more sympathetic.

Not being a member of that elite group, I can’t venture an opinion on the (un)finished product. I can venture a couple of opinions based on the photos that started circulating after the project was cancelled. Needless to say, those photos did not instill me with any confidence that the (un)finished product would have been worth watching. Somehow, we went from this:

To this:

Not much of an improvement. Actually, I’d say it takes a few steps backwards. Let’s take a look at just a couple of the most important differences.

First, and foremost, Yvonne Craig’s Batgirl from 1967 is very obviously feminine. There is no getting around it. This is no faux-male. Batgirl 1967 is confident, fit, and feminine. She looks like she could easily kick your * on her way out to a hot date. And if you are the lucky man, you better stay in line or you might wind up wearing that high-heeled boot on your ear…or in it. Setting aside the campiness of the costume, she bears at least a passing resemblance to the comic-book version. Not to be too crude here, but she has, well, boobs.

And let’s go ahead and get something out of the way here and just admit that one of the reasons that teenage boys buy comic-books with super-heroines is the way they’re drawn. Full-figured, busty women are appealing to boys and men. It’s how we’re made. Is it unrealistic? Sure. But part of the growing up process for men is moving beyond the unreal to the real. We put aside the unrealistic image of comic-book women for the wonders of real women in all their gloriously different shapes and sizes, just as we put aside the idea that we can swing around a city and beat up crooks like Batman, replacing that unrealistic image of men by stepping into real manhood as husbands and fathers. But I digress. Moving on.

Now take another look at Leslie Grace’s Batgirl, 2022.

Sorry to do that to you twice in the same post, but you get the picture (pun intended).  Far from the fit, confident, and feminine Batgirl of the 60’s, we now have a skinny, androginous, hollow-cheeked, and rather confused-looking individual dressed in a quilted vinyl…something that is nearly as laughable as the glittery tights Yvonne Craig wore. Batgirl 2022 looks nothing like her comic-book counterpart. She is every bit as unrealistic as the comic-book image, just in the opposite direction. And here is the crux of the issue. Batgirl 2022 is not identifiably female.

What is the point of having a female superhero, a heroine, if you can’t tell she’s a female? For all her faults, Batgirl 1967 and the comic-book Batgirl are both females, and not afraid to show it. It looks like the makers of Batgirl 2022 did everything they could to eliminate every aspect of femininity. The only concession to the character’s sex is the obligatory long red hair, which looks as fake as it is. How are you going to give a young woman something to look up to, if what she looks up to doesn’t look like a woman? Or is the goal to de-feminize women in some bizarre attempt to get men to stop looking at women as the more aesthetically pleasing half of the human race? I think I know what the answer is.

Please note that I’m not knocking Leslie Grace. Depending on the makeup and costume, her photos on IMDB reveal her to be an attractive, feminine woman. But all of that is downplayed in her Batgirl costume. Batgirl 2022 is as unappealing as they could make her. The quilted costume looks like something purchased at a thrift store somewhere and is designed to erase any feminine characteristics.

Now, for my second problem with the picture. This has already passed the TLDR threshold, so I’ll make it quick. Barbara Gordon is white. So is her father, Commissioner Gordon. I know I’m not the first to make this observation, but if someone takes a black character and changes their ethnicity, making them white, for example, they are labeled as a white-washing racist. But take a white character and change their ethnicity, you are being equitable.

I’ve said before that if you want a Black or Hispanic or Asian or Green-Squiggly-Martian character, great! Create a Black or Hispanic or Asian or Green-Squiggly-Martian character! There are any number of Black, female, super-powered characters out there, ripe for big-screen development. Vixen, Monica Rambeau, Bumblebee, Misty Knight, Thunder and Lightning, Nubia, Philippus…all are established characters in the different comic-book universes. Take one of them and run with them. I hope you make millions of dollars doing so. Or, you could develop new characters. Burlon Lefall III’s Afrowoman is a concept just dying for someone to fund it and turn into a billion-dollar enterprise.

Just stop race-swapping white characters. It’s stupid. It shows a lack of creativity and the presence of a certain amount of envy. And it alienates the original fans.

Okay, that’s it for this rant. Peace out until the next one.