Too Close for Comfort: Spider-Girl #85 and Batgirl #41


The outrage has long since passed on the recalled/canceled Batgirl #41 cover. But reader Ryan H. sent this other cover over that was published in June of 2005 that the now famous Batgirl cover seems to be an homage to. Separated by about 10 years, it is easy to see that the Batgirl #41 by Rafael Albuquerque is very similar to Spidergirl #85 by Ron Frenz.
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Copies of Spidergirl #85 are cheap on eBay and can be found for less than $3 in some cases.

14 thoughts on “Too Close for Comfort: Spider-Girl #85 and Batgirl #41”

  1. They’re both homages to this infamous 1971 National Lampoon cover:
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  2. The threat is similar to the National Lampoon cover, but the character poses in particular are the correlation between the Spider-girl issue and the Batgirl unprinted variant. And thinking on that National Lampoon cover, I remember that was very similarly used for an homage on the cover to Justice League Europe#22:
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  3. That Batgirl cover really continues to be notorious. It’s a shame there aren’t actual printed copies of it, like a traditional recall, where some scarce books slipped through the cracks. Now it’s a very common theme among artists to put their spin on the situation with different characters, or draw their own interpretation of the Joker/Batgirl cover to get it out there. DC retracting the cover has actually caused the “controversial image” to be seen more frequently than if they’d just let it run as-planned, lol. I personally commissioned an artist to draw me an homage to it featuring other characters, who previously caused similar notoriety, but I haven’t shared it with anyone yet. 🙂

    1. Ah, the good ‘ol days.. When there was some “news” and you just had to tell your best friend, that meant you jumped on your bike and peddled over to their house a half mile away to tell them.. none of this fancy smart phone crap or facebook.. 😉

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