The Four Color Media Monitor

Warner Todd Huston's written about the official revelation that Alan Moore's Batman: The Killing Joke one-shot from 1988 was originally going to feature Barbara Gordon being raped by the Joker. That part was ultimately nixed by the editors at the time, and Moore himself later said he was glad they didn't give it approval. But:

...the comic had a big influence on the Batman storyline. It set the stage for Barbara Gordon to become a character named Oracle, not to mention helping push comic books towards darker, adult-oriented subject matter.

Indeed. Years later, Dan DiDio and company forced Identity Crisis upon an unsuspecting audience, which had stealthy left-wing blame-America tactics injected alongside some of the most disgustingly crude, misogynist writing ever seen in a comic book. DiDio and Brad Meltzer went far beyond what Moore ever did, and I'd really appreciate it if Huston would give that some focus next. People have a right to know about that miniseries too, because that was a screed in every sense of the word.

Labels: Batman, dc comics, misogyny and racism, violence, women of dc