Following Gail Simone’s controversial departure from BATGIRL, it’s been announced that Ray Fawkes will take over the book for two issues.
Batgirl #18 (Solicit)
Written by RAY FAWKES
Art and cover by DANIEL SAMPERE and VICENTE CIFUENTES
On sale MARCH 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• The first of two issues by guest writer Ray Fawkes!
• Batgirl must face the man who sold her out to The Joker during “DEATH OF THE FAMILY”…her own brother, James Gordon, Jr.
• Can Barbara help him, or will this conflict be the final nail in her family’s coffin?
Fawkes is best known for his critically acclaimed ONE SOUL graphic novel and other works for Oni. He’s a hell of a guy and a good writer, so please, don’t hurt him, internet.
No matter if he is a good writer or a great guy, he’s dead in the water. The sales will drop like you wouldn’t believe it.
Wow, that cover art is pretty damn ugly. Somebody either needs anatomy lessons, or DC should stop recruiting fanboys from DeviantArt.
Yeah, critically-acclaimed, top-selling titles are usually the best place to replace a widely loved writer with someone that no one in your audience has heard of. Better yet to pair this person with an artist no one has heard of either. No slight on Fawkes or Sampere as I’ve never read any work from either one of them, but c’mon: DC editorial set them up to fail.
On the plus side, through the wonders of ComicBookDB, I’ve discovered that a comic book exists named “M.I.L.F. Magnet” that was drawn by our new Batgirl artist back in 2009. So at least that’s something.
“On the plus side, through the wonders of ComicBookDB, I’ve discovered that a comic book exists named “M.I.L.F. Magnet” that was drawn by our new Batgirl artist back in 2009. So at least that’s something.”
I thought you were joking. You weren’t. Here’s how that title was described:
” After a magical accident during a fight with a supervillain, a young & innocent hero named TASER, discovers that he now has a more specific kind of ability. Women of a certain age will just not leave him alone…24/7.”
Yeah, Batgirl is completely done for.
Poor guy. I wonder if his new employers were kind enough to send him a red shirt, or if he had to supply his own.
God forbid anybody actually reads the issue before passing judgement.
1. It’s a two-part guest writing gig. It gives DC: a) time to find the new regular writer, b) time for the brouhaha to die down.
2. Daniel Sampere worked on Batgirl #14, other New 52 titles, as well as “The Alchemist” graphic novel.
3. Vicente Cifuentes has been a regular contributor to Batgirl, and has many DC credits.
4. “MILF Magnet” was an adult comedy, a bit like a superhero “Alvin Purple”, published by Moonstone. http://www.moonstonebooks.com/milf.asp
Ket, what’s wrong with the anatomy? I’m trying to find fault, but I can’t see anything wrong.
Milf Magnet. God forbid anyone in comics do something like that. (Lost Girls, The Pro, everything Mark Millar writes)…
“4. “MILF Magnet” was an adult comedy, a bit like a superhero “Alvin Purple”, published by Moonstone. http://www.moonstonebooks.com/milf.asp”
” From super-groupies to dominatrix heroines, his day has gone from bad to totally screwed. Literally. And even the people who rescue him have an ulterior motive…
But now, this crazy ability will be put to the ultimate test, as a villainess holds the world to ransom, and TASER must make the ultimate sacrifice… ”
Yeah, and the problem is, as the solicitations makes abundantly clear, it’s adult comedy entirely geared towards male viewers, with women being objects. Hence why it seems such an awful, awful choice for Batgirl.
“Milf Magnet. God forbid anyone in comics do something like that. (Lost Girls, The Pro, everything Mark Millar writes)…”
Not read Lost Girls. The Pro was told entirely from the female superheroine’s perspective. Everything Mark Millar writes is crap.
Well at least the Internet is being nice to Fawkes. Maybe you should have suggested it be nice to the artists as well.
@Torsten – The fact that it is a DC book is likely more then enough evidence for KET to think something…anything is wrong with it.
@blacaucasian- I just love mindless speculation by clueless fanboys. Try again.
@Torsten – Looks more like a steroided Batman with a female head grafted on.
Torsten is probably right on this.
This is an interim team . They can come in and do the job while a new permanent team is put together. They have the dubious honor of cleansing the pallete for the book, leaving the new team (mostly) free of the situational baggage.
This is pretty common in emotionally charged environments, where replacing a well liked leader is done.
KET – My tongue was firmly in cheek when I posted that. Although, your constant speculation that I am both a)clueless and b)a fanboy is consistently amusing. I keep hoping that one day we can have an intelligent interaction between us without the constant name calling.
As far as the picture goes, I see body armor that’s maybe a little more built up then usual, but don’t really see anything manly. And there’s a lot of talented people on DeviantArt. I’m sure many of them don’t take the insult as you mean it.
Torsten: “1. It’s a two-part guest writing gig. It gives DC: a) time to find the new regular writer, b) time for the brouhaha to die down.”
According to Rich Johnston yesterday (so, y’know, take it with as much salt as you like), “Whoever the fill-in writer is, I am told they will now be taking over the book.”
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/12/09/gail-simone-off-batgirl/
But, of course, today Rich also mentioned that if Fawkes and Sampere start with a two-issue story on #18, that doesn’t mention who is doing #17, since Gail’s last issue is apparently #16.
>> Hence why it seems such an awful, awful choice for Batgirl.>>
MILF MAGNET is not working on BATGIRL. I expect the two books won’t even cross over.
Or are you possibly suggesting that no one who ever drew anything called MILF MAGNET could ever be allowed to draw anything else, like, say Paul Gulacy, whose cover for the book clearly renders it impossible he could have done a good job on MASTER OF KUNG FU, with its positive portrayal of Leiko Wu?
“Can Barbara help him, or will this conflict be the final nail in her family’s coffin?”
All this nitpicking of artist credits and no one went for “Well, it’ll almost certainly be the final nail in the book’s coffin”? For shame.
Everyone will forget about this in a month anyway. I’m going to stick around for this two issues and then make my decision if I should keep reading or not.
One Soul is excellent but really sad. However, if Batgirl gains the momentum and the comedy of “The Apocalipstix”, it could be so interesting.
I have not read any of Ray Fawkes’ work, but I have heard it is spectacular.
I’m with Heidi on this.
Someone asked what is wrong with the anatomy. Answer: there are some problems, but they aren’t really all that bad – IF you’re drawing a MALE character. The breasts are completely flat, and sorry, but no amount of claiming that they squash down from this angle or whatever will convince me that those aren’t male boobs. The six pack is also quite manly, not that I don’t believe a chick can have a nice six-pack – quite the contrary. But the hard reality is that estrogen causes a softening effect, and they simply would not be as hard-chiseled as these look.
The way her head appears… well, from this angle, I believe it would be almost impossible to pull your head back so far that you wouldn’t see the underside of the chin and some little bit of a neck (of course, a male character doesn’t really need a neck). Also, I would think you would see the left buttock, at least a small portion of it. This shot is 3/4 profile from beneath – that means you see a whole lot more of the bottom than the top, and here, you really don’t. The perspective trick of forcing the arms slimmer and smaller looks pretty obvious here, which means you’re not doing it exactly right, although it is serviceable.
In short, the drawing isn’t by any means the worst I’ve seen, it just isn’t very flattering.
Look everyone, let’s chill out. Yes, it’s unexpected that Gail Simone has been let go to write more of the Batgirl stories and it was out of the blue for her. Let’s see how Ray does, then we’ll make a decision if their good or not.
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