[Image: A screen capture of two Tweets made by DC Comics. They read:

• We’ve heard what’s being said about Starfire today and we appreciate the dialogue on this topic.
• We encourage people to pay attention to the ratings when picking out any books to read themselves or for their children.]

here are some samples of articles that came out about the DC reboot:

• “It seems DC is not only looking to boot Marvel from the coveted #1 spot, but also to garner a wider, younger audience”
• “Jim Lee’s costume redesigns that will “make characters more identifiable and accessible” to a younger audience”
• “DCE is attempting to attract a younger audience to their books.”
• “This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today’s audience.” — Dan DiDio, unless youth and younger audiences don’t count as part of “today’s audience”  

How do you take a character like Starfire, or really any female character in the DCnU, and give her pages like the ones in Red Hood and the Outlaws? Some of DC’s most popular mediums have been children’s cartoons. Teen Titans, Batman the Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Static Shock, Justice League Unlimited, Legion of Super Heroes, Young Justice and Batman: The Brave and the Bold have all been extremely popular both with children and adults. Did comic creators learn nothing from these experiences? 

A large number of people who read comics or who choose to get into comics are inspired by these children-targeting cartoons. They want to see more of these characters because they love them so much, but comics and continuity can be convoluted and difficult to understand. The reboot provides a great oppertunity to simplify things and make comics more accessible for who love a DCAU version of a character and would jump at the chance to read more about them. 

But image the disappointment when someone reads Red Hood and the Outlaws expecting (a perhaps slightly more adult version of) Teen Titan’s Starfire. Or someone who had been a huge fan of the Batman Animated series, only to read Catwoman and be completely put off comics forever.

Justice League Unlimited was extremely popular when it aired and continues to be a fan favourite; many of its plots and sub-story lines featured women working together, women working along side men without romantic context and women feeling empowered in themselves. It’s line up consistently featured characters like Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Vixen, Black Canary, Fire, Doctor Light, Stargirl, Supergirl, Zatanna, Huntress and even Big Barda and company got their own feature episode. Only a handful of these women made the cut on to DCnU teams and only two of them got their own ongoing titles. Why not take the popularity of this show and apply the same ideas to a comic? Why not appeal to this huge, eager fanbase that you’ve created, because they’re waiting for an excuse to give you their money. I can’t think of any reason; except maybe they want to perverse some kind of self destructive “these are how I wanted comics to be when I was 18-30 years old.” attitude, which enviably will cost them their readership and their profit. 

ETA: Luke made a good point, “TEEN+” doesn’t warn for “this tip toes along the line between ‘provocative graphic art story telling’ and pornography” or “read about our perfect sex object! an emotionally incontinent alien princess whose species are amnesiac by nature, whose wardrobe consists of self adhering nipple/clit pasties and who loves sexy sex sex!”or “Catwoman delivers a monologue: from her breasts!”