Artist Bill Walko has done some really nifty images. Check out his Deviantart page. He's got quite a few really nice Teen Titans illustrations and I was DELIGHTED to see his take on The Power Squad, the aborted all-female super team that I discussed here.
Looks like I'm not the only one who found this idea delicious! Here are a couple more images from his page that I particularly enjoyed!

Modernized Wonder Twins!
The Spider Friends!
The Herald and Bumble Bee! (This was later integrated into a larger Teen Titans group scene, which you can see on his site.)
Best of all... Jem & The Holograms!
This one is entitled "Who Is He Kissing:"
I like how Rio actually looks Latino here! All of his stuff is super adorbz! I think I'm actually going to order prints of a couple of these!

Lady Biznazz

First up, this image of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman popped up yesterday and basically no one gives a shit. I certainly don't. I just hate these Nolan Batmovies. I hate how boringly realistic they are. What I love about Captain America and Thor is how they embrace their source material and don't apologize for it. They're realistic to a degree, but are colorful and fun at the same time. But anyhoo, as for Catwoman, I mean, she's just wearing black clothes. That's it. It's not as stylized as Michelle Pfeifer's cut-up raincoat from Batman Returns. It's not as stylish as Julie Newmar's (et.al.) from the 60s. It's not a purple dress or catsuit. It's not as functional looking as Darwyn Cooke's design from the most recent comics. It's just, like, a black motorcycle suit with high tech goggles and apparently a flared domino mask that does, in fact, look like the 60s version. I.e., it's perfect for the Nolan Batmovies. Moving on!
Artist Kelly Turnbull took this alternate cover for Justice League #1 (left) and Wonder Woman's ridiculous pose and depicted her co-stars in both costumes that mimicked hers and in the exact same pose. I didn't quite get how sexual it was that her lasso was hanging between her legs, until I saw the guys in the same pose. DC really seems to be stepping backward in time, with its recent handling of its female characters. I hope it's just a coincidence and not truly indicative of how they plan to move forward. Also, I don't know what's going on with Wonder Woman and her trunks. First every image of her in the upcoming comics featured her in long tights, now all of a sudden, every image has her in shorts, including artwork that had already been shown! It's been re-done to depict her in shorts. But why those stupid navy boots?! I HATE them!

Finally, from DC Women Kicking Ass, and interview with Jack C. Harris, DC's go-to writer for female heroes in the 70s (Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Isis) wherein he reveals that around 1980, he and artist Trevor Von Eeden pitched a team book that would have starred Supergirl, Batgirl, Vixen and The Enchantress!
This would have been my favorite comic book EVER had it happened! I already loved Supergirl and Batgirl. I was never aware of The Enchantress until she popped up in the mid-80s in Suicide Squad, but she was a minor magical character that Harris had used as a villain in Supergirl. Vixen, at this point, I don't believe had ever actually appeared in a comic, since hers was aborted before it saw release. I think this period was before she finally popped up in Superman. But we all know how I love the sistahs, so you know I'd have been all over her, if this book had happened!
You've got a nice mix of powers there. Batgirl and Supergirl would have filled essentially the same roles as their male counterparts do in the Justice League, basically Batgirl = Smarts, Supergirl = Power. The Enchantress brings a magical angle and Vixen mystical, animal-based powers. I think they'd have blended well together. (Also, it would have been the most racially balanced super team around, since Enchantress is Asian and Vixen is black.)
The name Power Squad is generic as all hell, though. Could have been why DC didn't pick up the proposal? I will say at least, that it isn't some silly female centric name like Girl Gang or Sheroes or Femme Fighters. But it just isn't "Pow!" enough. If I couldn't see the cover and that it was an all-girl team, if I just had to base my interest on the title alone, I probably would have passed.
Maybe DC passed simply because they thought women couldn't sell comics. I think, at the time, that was kind of true. Supergirl had her own book off and on, but it was inconsistent and Batgirl had her own strip that ran in other Batbooks, but never her own series. Wonder Woman was the only one who had her own series that ran nonstop and I've read that it wasn't that big a seller, it's just that DC HAD to produce a monthly WW comic to retain rights to the character. But combine two household names like Supergirl and Batgirl and add two more female characters to the mix, I think that might have gained more attention than the characters could on their own!
I dunno. This whole concept captivates me. For one thing, and not to sound arrogant, it's unusual that there is an idea like this that I don't already know about! I love it when I can get schooled on comics from my era. And the whole "what if?" aspect... what if this book had been successful? Would things have turned out differently for Supergirl and Batgirl in the 80s? Would Supergirl have survived Crisis and would Batgirl never have become paralyzed... and therefore never become Oracle and therefore never founded the first REAL all-female super team Birds of Prey?! (Okay, so in that case, maybe it's best that this never really happened...) It's just neat, that's all. I know I'd have loved this comic as a kid, but it never happened, so...

Fun discovery!

Wonder Wednesday - Happy Birthday Burt Ward

Happy Birthday to Burt Ward, who is most famous for being included on my list of the Hottest Men In Tights ever!
Okay fine, that's not really why he's famous. He is most famous for playing Robin, the Boy Hostage...I mean Boy Wonder on the classic Batman TV show which aired from 1966-68, not to mention the spin-off theatrical movie.
Burt still spends the bulk of his year appearing at conventions for loyal devotes of the series, so you can still get out there and meet him if you want!

Wonder Wednesday Part 2 - This Looks Ominous

Well, this is all kinds of interesting/disturbing/ominous. Comic Book Resources did a poll on all 52 new DC Comics and had fans vote on whether they were likely to buy them. (I wish I'd known about this ahead of time and had participated, but alas...) These fans (10,181 of them, all together) selected whether they were Absolutely, Very Likely, Likely, Unlikely or Not At All (Likely) to buy each individual book and the results are somewhat to be expected... mostly.

Well, first of all, it does this Aquafan's heart proud to know that none other than Aquaman actually scored in the Top Five books fans were Absolutely going to buy! Jigga wha--?! After all those "talks to fish" jokes? After "Whitefish?" Suddenly Aquaman is outpacing The Flash (yeah, corny pun WAY intended) and the other luminaries of the DCU as one of the Top FIVE MUST-READ books coming out?! I may faint!

The number one title, not surprisingly, is Justice League of America, since it will star all of DC's big name heroes... and Cyborg and they have stated that this is will be the line's flagship title, so 57.7% of fans say they will Absolutely be buying this title. (5,870 voters!) The 14.7% who voted Not At All, probably went down the list and voted that on every single title. The other Top Five titles were Action Comics, Green Lantern, Batman and Aquaman, in that order. Not too surprising, except I find it odd that 55.9% of voters are Absolutely going to buy Action Comics, whereas 30.2% are Not At All going to buy Superman (versus 27.2% who voted Absolutely)! And a similar thing happened with Batman and Detective. 47% say they are Absolutely going to buy Batman, but 36.1% say they are Not At All going to buy Detective, versus 25.4% who voted Absolutely! What am I missing here?

As for the Bottom Five, it's not that surprising that the genre books flopped with voters. I, Vampire was the lowest rated, with 68.5% voting Not At All. (But what about Twilight?!?!) Following that up were OMAC (66.9%), Voodoo (64.2%), Hawk & Dove (63.8%, and I guarantee you, it's due to the Liefeld artwork!) and Sgt. Rock and the Men of War (61.7%).

On a sigh-worthy note, though except for Batwoman (33.8% Absolutely), EVERY female-led title wound up in the Not At All category. Wonder Woman (29.3% Not At All... it's gotta be the suit!), Birds of Prey (48.2%), Catwoman (44.8%), Supergirl (47.6%), the afore mentioned Voodoo and most shockingly Batgirl (33%). As controversial as the Batgirl issue has been, you'd think people would pick it up just for controversy's sake!

And Batwoman has her own built-in fanbase and I think everyone realizes that her book has NOTHING to do with this relaunch and will be basically the book it was always intended to be all along. I am really puzzled by Batgirl, though. People seemed to want her back in that role for EVER. I know a lot of people are upset about her leaving the role of Oracle, but THAT MANY?!

Even more disheartening, if not alarming, EVERY title showcasing minority characters wound up in the Not At All category. EVERY one! (Well, once again, not counting Batwoman.) Even Green Lantern Corps, starring John Stewart and Guy Gardner! EVEN GREEN LANTERN CORPS!!! Green Lantern is the #3 Must-Have book and Corps is in the Not At All pile?! WHY?! HOW?!

The Hall of Shame is as follows: GLC (34.4% Not At All), The Fury of Firestorm (42.6%), Mister Terrific (55.5%), Batwing (32.9%), Static Shock (60.2%!), Stormwatch (41.8%, starring gay members Midnighter and Apollo) and Blue Beetle (46.7%). I'm really stunned by just how SOUNDLY so many of these were trounced, especially Static Shock!

The one mitigating factor is that the MAJORITY of titles seem to have wound up in this category possibly because fans are just pissed off in general and are opposed to this relaunch and like I said before, I'm sure a bunch of people voted no on every title. Sigh! I guess no matter how DC may try to diversify, straight white male comic fans ONLY want to see themselves represented and can ONLY relate to characters that are like themselves. Welcome back to the 50s!

Wonder Wednesday

Newsarama did a list of the Top Ten characters/concepts missing from the DCnU relaunch. I've already touched on this, but they do a good job of compiling the glaring omissions and why they're so glaring. Check it out!
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dcnu-missing-revamp-characters-110514.html
This image by Tom Feister from ComicArtFans.com.

The Batgirl Debate

No news from DC's reboot has generated as much controversy as the decision to return the currently disabled Barbara Gordon to her iconic role as Batgirl. And even life-long Batgirl fans, like myself, can't help but take the news as bittersweet, considering what it means. Here are some excellent essays detailing reaction to this.

First, an article from DC Women Kicking Ass which highlights the initial decision to paralyze Barbara Gordon in the first place and examines subsequent aborted plans to return her to the Batgirl role.

http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/6317684058/returntothetights

Then an earlier, very personal, passionate write up, shortly after the news first broke.

http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/6268505475/fewwords#disqus_thread

And speaking of personal and passionate responses, this article by Jill Pantozzi from Newsarama REALLY had me feeling torn on the suject.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/oracle-is-stronger-than-batgirl-110606.html

The whole affair is nicely summed up by Andy Khouri in this article:

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/06/06/batgirl-barbara-gordon-disabled/

All of these articles are fantastically written and thought-provoking, so if you read my blog for more than pretty pictures or guys in the underwear, give them a read.

Now, some of my thoughts on the matter.

It's no secret, I'm thrilled about this. EVERY other change DC is implementing is at best "Hmmm, that might be interesting," but most of it is "Ugh!" or "I hope that doesn't suck as bad as it looks to!" or like I said on the first day, "Looks like I won't be reading monthly super hero comics anymore." To have the original Batgirl back, is the one bright spot.

Here's the thing that I think a lot of people miss: a lot of these characters AREN'T just comic book characters. That's where they originated of course, but many of them have transcended the medium and have imbedded themselves in our collective pop culture database, taking certain trappings with them. The Barbara Gordon Batgirl is one such icon. With Batman, everyone knows he's Bruce Wayne and that Dick Grayson was Robin, even if they don't read comics, that much is just common knowledge. People may not necessarily know Barbara Gordon or even what her relationship is to Batman. (It's hard for me to speculate on these things, as I don't know how non-nerds think.) But most people know there IS a Batgirl and the Barbara version is the one they recognize.

Growing up in the 70s, Batgirl and Supergirl, despite not appearing on Super Friends (although Babs at least appeared on Filmation's Batman cartoon series), were EVERYWHERE. If they made a pair of house slippers or a sleeping bag with Batman on it, you could bet your ass that they made one with Batgirl on it!

Even after she was injured and retired in the comics, Batgirl returned on Batman: The Animated Series. You have to keep in mind that this show reached millions of more viewers than the comic had readers. So to another generation, Barbara was once again introduced as the only Batgirl and proved incredibly popular, even starring in her own spin-off comics and receiving episodes of the show built around her.

It didn't end there. When Batman was relaunched in a new cartoon series, The Batman, they once again introduced Barbara as Batgirl. A variation of Barbara was even used in the much-reviled Batman & Robin live action movie.

Barbara just simply IS Batgirl in the collective conscious.

This can certainly be seen as a diss to replacement Batgirls, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown. I never read any of their books, due to my own shortcomings, I suppose, out of spite. They weren't the real Batgirl and I wasn't going to support them. I couldn't believe it when I read that Cassandra Cain was the first female of color to star in her own DC book! And Stephanie's current book is getting great word of mouth, but I don't believe that that has resulted in sales.

Then there's the Oracle factor. The disability issue is huge. People with disabilities are rarely depicted in ANY medium, comics, TV, movies, so to have one, particularly a woman with a disability, appear as strong and smart and all-around well-written as Oracle has, the loss to comics in general is huge! (She isn't the only hero with a disability, though, the most famous being Professor X.) Oracle did provide much-needed representation.

The argument though, is that Oracle is a comic book character. Period. She was on the short-lived Birds of Prey TV show that no one watched or remembers today, but that's it. Could they have utilized Oracle in other media? Sure they could have. They didn't. If Barbara appeared, it was as Batgirl. Batgirl is the icon.

They've made two Barbie Batgirls in the last ten years and several Tonner dolls. They've made possibly over a 100 tee shirts with Barbara as Batgirl, usually in the company of Wonder Woman and pre-Crisis Supergirl.

Speaking of Supergirl, she suffered a similar fate... well, technically even worse, she was KILLED. But DC had to have A Supergirl to keep the rights to the name, so they created a new one, an artificial, shape-shifting life form known as Matrix. Eventually this creature merged with a dying human girl named Linda Danvers (the pre-Crisis Supergirl's secret identity) and mystical energy becoming an Earth-born angel with quasi-mystical powers. Okay, seriously, it may not sound like it, but it was actually a good series. But it was complicated and to the uninitiated, too hard to grasp and most people were like, "What does that have to do with Superman?!" Nothing. That's why this version of the character was written out of the books and Superman's Kryptonian cousin brought back. Khouri's article points out that the reversal to the classic form of the character is inevitable. Batgirl's not alone... some other changes that didn't stick...
Hal Jordan went insane, became Parallax, KILLED most of the Green Lantern Corps and eventually died and was replaced by Kyle Rayner. He's better now. So are most of the people he killed. No harm, no foul.
Batman was replaced by the ultra-violent, overly-accessorized Azrael, who was intended as a parody of ultra-violent, overly-accessorized anti-heroes that dominated comics in the 90s. But ha ha! 90s readers ate him up and he proved so popular that even after Bruce Wayne took back the Batman name, Azrael got his own series! (He's since been killed off and replaced by a new Azrael.) Also, we all knew the Dick Grayson-as-Batman thing wasn't going to last.
In an almost identical move, Diana was replaced as Wonder Woman by a more violent counterpart, Artemis, rendered in the typically modest and reserved style of the 90s. And likewise, Artemis proved popular enough that she's still around, just not as Wonder Woman. (Because there's only one true Wonder Woman. Notice a pattern?)
Speaking of patterns, Green Arrow was killed off and replaced by his illegitimate son, Conner Hawke. The original GA has returned and last I heard, Conner was in a coma.
In a real head-scratcher, Aquaman was replaced by James Hetfield of Metallica who had his hand replaced with a harpoon. That whole Napster fiasco ended Metallica's career and the original, clean cut Aquaman returned with two real hands. (Although Black Manta recently amended that last part.)
In most people's minds, she never STOPPED being Batgirl. I don't mean this as a jab, and I know that the owner of the blog didn't create it, but even the artwork on the DC Women Kicking Ass masthead depicts their roster of current heroines in their modern costumes. There's Kate Kane as Batwoman. The current Supergirl. They're all dressed and depicted as they are currently in the comics. Except Batgirl. No Cassandra Cain. No Stephanie Brown. No Oracle. It features Barbara Gordon, somehow traveling through time to join this class photo in her iconic costume. It's not just that one piece of artwork either. Scroll through tumblr or deviant art and you see HUNDREDS of... well first HUNDREDS of images of Babs as Batgirl solo, as well as group shots of her as Batgirl alongside the MODERN versions of the Bat Family or alongside other DC heroines as they appear currently, BUT Barbara anachronistically as Batgirl.
It's hard to argue with reality: That to MOST people Barbara IS Batgirl no matter what else is going on in the actual comics. Yes, the loss of Oracle is immense. She is a symbol of strength and hope and one of the best-written characters in comics. She DOES leave a huge gap. But Batgirl is an icon. She transcends comics and if DC really does want to present the most recognizable versions of their characters, they have no choice but to make Barbara Batgirl again.