Batgirl - The Variant Scandal

Recently you may have heard about a variant cover for Batgirl #41 by Rafael Abuquerque being cancelled at the request of Rafael himself. This cover, which was meant to pay tribute to the incredibly popular and well known The Killing Joke written by Alan Moore, published in 1988 and for the 75th anniversary of the Joker (happy birthday Mr. J!). 

The cover that made twitter blow up

The Killing Joke, in which the Joker shoots Barbra Gordon (Batgirl) in the spine putting her in a wheelchair, is heavily referenced in the current run of Batgirl. The complaints tend to be that the cover is offensives and promote rape culture many having an issue with the frightened, helpless look on Batgirl's face. The reason the cover was eventually pulled at the artist request and due to threats that were being received. Oh, the threats weren't towards DC or the artist but to the people complaining about the cover now this aggravates me personally because it's not okay to threaten somebody for disagreeing with you ever, like ever, ever. So the people who decided they wanted to keep the cover ultimately were responsible for it being removed due to their own bad attitude. These threats have been condemned by both Rafael Abuquerque and DC Comics in official statements.

A reference to The Killing Joke in the current run of Batgirl

I understand that people can have different opinions on almost anything in life and that people find different things disturbing or unnerving so before I give you my opinion on the cover I showed the picture to five of my female friends whose knowledge of the Batman universe ranges from never seen a Batman movie to big Batman fan and asked them how the picture made them feel but gave them no other context for the image.
Person #1 focused mainly on how scared Batgirl looked using words like terrified and weird.
Person #2 recognised the characters, described the picture as being scary but not making her feel scared and that it looked like something that would be displayed as a piece of art
Person #3 said the image gave her excited nostalgic feelings of Batman from when she was younger but at the same time she felt weird because she felt like she was excited about something that could potentially be violent erotica.
Person #4 said the picture made her feel saddened, horrified, frightened and felt angry that a female character was being attacked and treated so badly. For her the image invoked feminist and protective feelings.
Person #5 (who knows the Batman universe fairly well) simply said "aww poor Batgirl".

Why does everybody pull this face when critiquing art?

No opinion is wrong and cover art, like all art, invoke different feelings in different people but in my personal opinion I don't think the cover should have been pulled because I think its great because it is so disturbing. This is a scary cover and the Joker is a scary guy, the cover works because it is so unnerving and frightening. I've read some people saying that this cover doesn't fit with current tone of the comic which I disagree with as in a recent arc of Batgirl involved The Joker kidnapping Batgirl's mother, cut off her ring finger, using that ring finger to propose to Batgirl while her mother sat weeping, tied to a chair with a nail bomb under it. I really don't think you can say that this cover is out of tone for the batman universe but admittedly below is a variant cover for Batgirl #39 but a fun, colourful cover doesn't change the content of the comic or Batgirl's violent past involving The Joker.

I think this is a great cover too

The cover has been pulled so it is gone now and won't be happening which is a shame but what is a real shame is the small minority that decided it was appropriate to threaten people for disagreeing with the cover and having a different opinion so on that note I will leave you with a quote from DC Comics official statement: "Threats of violence and harassment are wrong and have no place in comics or society."