www.comicbookresources.com/tag/convergence This should help you

for Wednesday, March 18

DC COMICS
Batgirl #40
Batgirl Endgame #1
Batman/ Superman #20
Earth 2: World's End #24
Sensation Comics #8
Supergirl #40
Superman #39
Teen Titans #8

IMAGE COMICS
Red One #1
Secret Identities #2

MARVEL COMICS
Princess Leia #2

I think it puts the disconnect between editorial and marketing at DC/Warner in the spotlight. The variant covers do not run through the editorial offices, but through sales/marketing. The move to Burbank is supposed to make DC more synergistic, but I think this divide between editorial and sales/marketing promotions needs to be addressed before that can be accomplished. Joker sells, Killing Joke is a perennial best seller in the trade market so lets do a Joker cover that riffs that makes perfect sense to marketing, but not with the current direction of the book and the way the wind is blowing in certain segments of the vocal online fanbase. Now you can't please everyone all the time certainly, but you need to at least be aware of what the hot button topics are in your customer base if you are going to effectively market to them. If your editorial and marketing are working at cross purposes, you have no synergy no matter how many feel good retreats, seminars. workshops, etc. that you provide/inflict on your staff. 

As to the point of people not being able to see why some people are bothered by the cover, well I have found in general excluded groups have very little empathy for other excluded/target groups, so the outsider comic fan who likes what he likes and can't understand why anyone might not share his tastes may lack the empathy to see that a cover like that makes others feel like he/she has been made to feel in the past. It gives him/her joy and that is all that matters. It's not just outsider comic fans, but can be seen in several groups who have been marginalized. You would think that they would have the most empathy/sympathy for others enduring something similar, but the opposite quite often tends to be true. Some seem to have the chip on their shoulder that they endured/survived and it entitles them to what they like and those not in their group be damned, and if I can endure, they should have to as well, no one looked out for me, why should any one look out for them?

Thankfully we really don't see this attitude crop up here at the CCF, but I see it quite often in other comics forums and in other "geek culture" forums and sites. 

-M

How about a scan of the cover?

It's a very well drawn cover.

But given that Batgirl was retooled recently to specifically appeal to a younger, female audience, and that the creators said that they "really wanted to make this a book with a light tone, of fun and adventure and mystery, and let the rest of the Bat-family deal with the darkness," this doesn't seem quite right to me personally:




It's like if Marvel was doing an Avengers month of variant covers to celebrate the release of Avengers 2, and the variant for Captain Marvel was her in the process of being mind controlled by Marcus Immortus.

Obviously some fans of the book and character are going to be upset.

His stuff usually reads better in trade so it might be for the best but I just couldn't wait to see Nguyen's art after seeing some teases on his blog. He's one of my top ten artists and this is seriously one of his best out puts.

You are most definitely not alone in this:

13thdimension.com/the-worst-thing-dc-ever-did-was-publish-the-killing-joke/


It's a tough balance because, as terrible and tasteless as the original decision was to go ahead with The Killing Joke, it's now a classic and absolutely revered by many, so you've got fans who have been wanting for years to see Barbara Gordon back in the suit, and you've got fans who only know her as the victim in their favorite story and, therefore, want her back in the chair, or will at least sincerely appreciate a nod.

But then you've got the younger target demographic reading this comic who should not have to see something like this.