The Source received a few good words from writer Gail Simone on the news she is working on the new Batgirl title, featuring Barbara Gordon.
“Barbara Gordon is pretty much my everything. Because of the Batman TV show, she was the reason I fell in love with superheroes. Because she was a redhead who could kick ass, she is the reason I fell in love with comics. She was always forward-looking as Batgirl, a girl who was smarter than the male characters, who had class and elegance and style, as well as tough-as-nails grit. For a long time, there was simply nothing else like her in comics, and for me and a lot of other readers, her every appearance was joyful and explosive.
For many years, I got to write the character as Oracle, and there is to this day, no character who means more to me. This is classic Barbara as she was originally conceived, with a few big surprises. It’s a bit of a shock, to be sure, but we’re doing everything we can to be respectful to this character’s amazing legacy, while presenting something thrilling that a generation of comics readers will be experiencing for the first time…
…Barbara Gordon leaping, fighting, and swinging over Gotham. Now, when citizens of that city look up, they are going to see BATGIRL.
And that is absolutely thrilling.”
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So, apparently the fabled new “diversity” does not include people with disabilities. Oracle, along with Jason Rusch Firestorm was another completely natural, fully realized character that fit the “diversity” model that they have changed. I don’t get it.
Well the original Firestorm, Ronnie Raymond was brought back to life following Blackest Night, so it doesn’t seem like a huge surprise that they might bring back a previously “natural, fully realized character” that maybe they liked better or maybe there’s more to the new Firestorm than we know so far. A lot of creators do seem to like to bring back their favorite characters or villains or whatever as soon as they get a chance with the book, it just seems that if a “diverse” character gets replaced that there’s more ascribed to it than probably should be. And is there something about Firestorm that I don’t know, because I thought Ronnie was back, but that Jason and Ronnie were either still fused or were both now active separately, or they somehow alternate, I’m not certain how it’s going to play out. Then again, I’ve only seen the one little image and blurb, but maybe you’ve seen something else saying he’s being totally replaced by a white guy or something and I missed it. I am a little behind on this.
Her hand reminds me of a starfish.
Anyways, I don’t really like the regression. I could care less about Stephanie Brown losing the job, because Batgirl is so much easier or acceptable to be replaced than Oracle. To me, taking Babs out of that role is the real bummer about all this.
Disappointing, regardless of the talent involved. DC has something special in the character of Oracle, creating not just a positive role model for the disabled but simply an excellent character evolution as well. Remember last year when she was voted the “most kick-ass woman in DC” over Wonder Woman? There was a good reason for that. It is a shame to see it all cast aside so readily and easily; so much for DiDio’s promise of Barbara never walking again…
Are they heading toward retelling everything?
I have missed the sassy, teen redheaded Batgirl! Once Urtha Kit left the show she was the only reason to watch the 1960s Batman TV show. It’s interesting how DC manages to incorporate really good ideas from stuff that was reportedly “not in continuity” into the main books. Batgirl was the best idea to come out of the TV show. Elements from Frank Miller’s “Dark Knight” and from “Kingdom Come” have also crept in. And the non-continuity shooting of Babs Gordon by the Joker was in “The Killing Joke” was quickly incorporated, giving rise to Oracle and Birds of Prey. Both of which I liked, but there’s whole generations out there who never knew Barbara Gordon/Batgirl as she was originally conceived, and so the tragedy of Oracle was greatly lessened for those not in the know. If only we had a comic book store here in town I might actually give Batgirl at look-see. My favorite episodes of Batman: The Animated Series was the two episodes where spunky little Batgirl falls to her death on Commissioner Gordon’s car, and he wigs out and starts hunting down and killing everybody who matters to Bruce Wayne in revenge. They were the most shocking episodes of the entire series and I am surprised that those haven’t entered into continuity yet. The more I read about DC’s “reboot” the more I like what I am seeing. But only if they make the new stuff their true continuity and don’t bring back the old story lines in six months or so. DC supposedly cleaned up their multi-verse after “Crisis” but within a matter of just a few issues after, writers and artists were ignoring the reboot and suddenly drawing the Flash (or Supergirl or Green Lantern or Green Arrow or Insert Hero Here) they liked best instead of the only one who survived the “Crisis”, which made the whole thing moot.
It’s writen by Gail Simone, I’de read shampoo instructions if she wrote them!