Okay, I've been rereading (and sometimes, first-time reading) a lot of BG series 1.
And man, that's a pretty good title so far. Some issues being phenomenal. I shall keep going.
But I did overreact in my um... reaction to this, upon rereading the entire issue.
And it's weird, because the first time I read this, a while back, I remember being kind of squicked about the body language in the art, then this repost triggered that response again. So that panel 1 and 3 do evoke a response in me.
And I do think the 'kiss or kill' is needlessly reader titillating.
But I do love this arc, and (despite the fact that I still think there's a weird level of sexualization of some sort, and I don't like it--but at least, if it IS there, it's very short-lived. And if I squint I can pretend I'm just imagining it.) that it's not as bad as I thought it was earlier in this thread.
So thanks to you and to Runespoor7 and Bluefall and this thread for making me look harder into the BG series 1. So much good stuff there.
I love her character so much. And I'm up to more than half of the series (not all in order, though) and I'm very happy with the way her interactions with Bruce are written, out of what I've read so far, 98% of the time.
So I'll cut this issue some slack and keep reading.
I'll know more after I finish the series, but that's my take at the moment.