eldarwannabe

Ok, fine. If Cassandra isn't going to be Batgirl, I want a TEAM of Batgirls. You heard me. Steph, Cass, Charlie...hell, go get Sin from wherever Green Arrow stuck her. Swarms of Batgirls taking care of Gotham while Dick keeps Damian from doing anything bad and Alfred runs the Outsiders and Tim goes and broods in foreign countries. We can even give the costume back to Helena, not that I'd think she'd want it anymore.

In face, why hasn't this been done with any heroes before? It would be brilliant for maintaining a secret identity, especially for the non-powered Batcrew. Even better, the Batcrew has worked on maintaining an air of mystique about themselves that lends itself to multiple behind-the-cowl characters. I mean, there's been a couple of Batmans, and as far as we know, the average Gothamite is none the wiser.

And, yes, there are two Green Arrows and lots of Green Lanterns, but they each maintain their distinctiveness on purpose. I'm arguing that the Batgirls should claim (at least publicly) to all be the same person.

If they're going to change my favorite status quo, this could actually be pretty cool.

(I could also totally see Steph getting into the DAAARK VEEENGEEENCE shtick with Charlie. Cass would still be silent and deadly. I would also like it if they retconned out every mention of Evil!Cass ever, while we're living in my fantasy world.)

(I also don't know if this idea is entirely a product of my brain, as it has been mentioned a few time on scans_daily and I honestly can't remember what came first. So disclaimer!)

EDIT: Apparently it was kingrockwell of InsaneJournal who mentioned it first on Scans_Daily. As that was probably how the idea started seeding in my brain, I'm giving credit.

I have to give a five minute powerpoint presentation for one of my business classes. Now, this presents an interesting dilemma. The topic was due last week, so I quickly scribbled, "The history of Barbara Gordon," down as my topic of choice. I had already begun planning it for another class's presentation (I ended up doing "how a comic book page is made," instead) so I thought now would be the perfect time to do it. At five minutes, I figured I could highlight her career as Batgirl, the Killing Joke and her evolution into Oracle, touching on a few other elements, like her relationship with Batman, the Birds of Prey and maybe maybe passing on the mantle to Cassandra Cain. I would frame this with a discussion of fan reactions to characters over the ages, and conclude with the discussion "should Barbara become Batgirl again, or is she better off as Oracle?" with a heavy bias toward staying as Oracle, of course. (I doubt anyone in my class has ever read any comic book with Barbara anyway)

I've already got a basic outline done. I would just have to flesh it out, then cut it down to five minutes. But I talk fast, and I'm using powerpoint, so pictures would make my storytelling easier. ("and then," CLICK BUTTON, "the Joker shot her." SEE EXCERPT FROM THE KILLING JOKE. EVERYONE GASPS. Or something like that.)

But then, I started thinking. How much will my audience get out of this? Sure, they'll know about Barbara, but this could be my opportunity to really tell people about comic books. After all, they have to listen to me. (Mwahaha) And while Barbara is the awesome, I'm not sure if she's as accessible as I'd like her to be.

So I got to thinking. Maybe instead I should do a presentation version of my earlier post about things people should know about the American comic book industry. I would give a brief explanation of what comic books are, (A MEDIUM) and touch a little bit on the history of comic books in the U.S. (because I am not an expert in the slightest) and then outline how to buy comic books and what is available now. Maybe I could close with recommendations. Or possibly talk about how the industry is doing?

The point is: I can make it interesting. (I'm a dynamic speaker, although that might not be obvious from my rambly postings. (Interesting Note: I tend to write in this journal more like the way I would speak the same information. In other words, I write for speaking, which can be different, and more casual, than writing for reading.) I'm also quite loud, which gets people to pay attention)

I'd aim the speech more toward the audience, and I might actually teach them something about a medium in the country.

On the other hand, I have the other one more written out.

And one my friends told me that I should do the Barbara one (and her opinion does count, because I'm going to be practice on her before I give the presentation in class) even though she doesn't know anything about either subject.

Oh, yeah, and the outline of my presentation is due tomorrow. No pressure to make up my mind or anything.

So, Batgirl.

A brief history for all and sundry. Barbara Gordon went to a costume party dressed up as Batgirl, saves Bruce Wayne and discovers that heroing is definitely for her. After years in the costume, she gets shot by the Joker, becomes paralyzed from the waist down, and instead of letting that stop her, becomes Oracle. Oracles is the go-to resource for EVERY superhero on the planet. She is a master of technology, and she knows stuff about you you don't even remember. I need to emphasize this - BATMAN goes to her for help. (or he did, before Grant Morrison got to him) She is no longer Batgirl, but to quote MightyGodKing she is "Probably the only example where a maiming with slightly misogynistic overtones wholly improved a character, without question, by giving her a unique role that has become so prominent and fantastically obvious in retrospect that nowadays people keep copying it. It’s a brilliant and fairly literal application of the old “brains over brawn” maxim, and it works perfectly.""

Cassandra Cain was raised by an assassin to become the perfect killing machine - she never heard spoken language, so her brain compensating by hard-wiring her for action as her native language. The way you can read other people through their words, she can do through pure body movement, where it's much harder to lie. She was sent on her first killing mission as a child, and once she realized what she had done, she ran away until she hit Gotham, and it was there that she found the channel she needed to focus her abilities while helping humanity. She took the name Batgirl with Barbara's blessing, and despite some recent awful storytelling, there is a lot of great stuff in her character.

Now, DC is doing a lot of big bat-events, and for a while now it's looked like Barbara will gain use of her legs again. I'm of two minds about this. One part of me thinks it's an awful idea. Not only is it basically removing the only handicapped hero from the DC roster (and in a medium that has been trying to be all "minority-conscious" what with the gay Batwoman and all, someone must realize that the handicapped population is a minority, pretty much. It's even a minority that transcends traditional barriers!) but it is also taking away the facet of her character that ALLOWED her to become great. Because she was going nowhere as Batgirl. Another part of me is yelling, "Come on, this is a medium where Batman broke his back and came back, people DIE frequently and come back a few years later, what's a paralyzed woman or two walking again?" And that is a good point. Another good point that I constantly bring up to myself: "It's a fictional story. Anything that makes for good storytelling can and should be used. Look at the Legion of Superheroes concept." And that is also a valid point. So bring back her legs - if you have a good story to tell with it.

So, she's gonna start walking again. I can handle that.

But what is she gonna be now that she can walk again?

I have a whole ramble about Oracle. I don't want to get into it now, but it looks like I'm going to brush the surface a little: In the 21st century, a character like Oracle is ESSENTIAL. To quote Gail Simone, in Birds of Prey 65,: "In the future, combat will be a matter of computers...wars will be fought in cramped, dark rooms by men with glasses. 'Assassinations' will become bloodless and distant." There's a lot of truth to that. People are dying now because some idiots on Wall Street made a lot of mistakes with a lot of virtual money. And Oracle, as computer-meastra extraordinaire is at the head of the curve. So frankly, even if she can walk, she can do the most good at the computer. I'd love a chance to see her walking around, orchestrating the superheroic events of the planet on her cell phone while volunteering at a homeless shelter or something. Or pulling our her laptop in the changing room of a department store and stopping an accidental nuclear launching in Russia. Because she CAN.

Unfortunately, Superhero comics have an unnatural obsession with action shots and dramatic poses. So Barbara is gonna put on some tights if she gets back her legs. (Even though she should probably get a couple of months recovery time and physical therapy, at least) And this is where the REALLY BIG problem comes in.

You see, there is some evidence that Barbara is going to become Batgirl again. If this happens, I might cut off DC cold-turkey. Seriously, I'll become a Marvel girl to survive. Because it's just degrading to the character, and maybe even women in general.

You see, Barbara is, at the youngest, in her mid-to-late 20s. She's a at least 2 years older then Dick Grayson and he's somewhere in his 20s. And no self-respecting 20 year old woman is going to run around calling herself "girl" anything. Frankly, you stopped getting referred to as a girl by 18, and DC has done a decent job in recent years establishing that she wanted to be called "Batwoman" originally - it just didn't stick. Which is fine. Batwoman doesn't really role off the tongue anyway. But now that Barbara is literally getting back on her feet, someone over at DC is wondering what superhero slot to shove her in so we can have action shots of her kicking guys. And so obviously they are going to REGRESS her back to Batgirl.

(Note that Barbara can't become Batwoman now even if she wanted to - there's another Batwoman in town.)

This is like telling Dick Grayson to put on the short pants again because his legs become magically hairless. Just because he CAN doesn't mean he SHOULD. If Barbara becomes Batgirl again it ruins and ignores years of character-building.

I don't mind (as much) if she becomes a new character. Pick some new Bird/Bat/Greek mythology reference and let her be that! Call her Chiropetra and be done with it.

I'd love for her to remain Oracle.

I can deal with her quitting the biz to learn waterskiing in Maui.

But putting Barbara in the Batgirl suit is showing that women never really do grow out of their status as girls. It shows the disregard DC seems to have for their female superheroes. It diminishes her as a character in a take-one-step-forward-and-eight-steps-backward kinda way.

The reason it took me so long to comment is that I DIDN'T BELIEVE that DC would be so idiotic as to allow that step to go forward, but the evidence is really piling up. I can only hope desperately that they'll realize how horrible an idea it is, and make some last-minute changes and stop this now. Of course, it might lead to some patchwork bad storytelling, but I'm far more OK with that then the alternate.

Listen, DC. I understand that a certain amount of character progression is actually not such a good thing. You want the people to be able to walk into the store and pick up a a comic and start buying. (So why did you kill Bruce Wayne again?) But let's be fair, We're on our third/fifth Robin, and he's showing signs of outgrowing the sidekick role. Despite the "Red Arrow" phenomenon, no one is suggesting we put Roy back in the Speedy outfit. Even though no one pays any attention to Garth, he's not going back to the Aqualad shortpants!

Secondary characters are the ones that are allowed to progress, grow and change. Frankly, a lot of the time it might be the only progression main characters are forced to handle. And in a decades-long story, that's a good thing. Characters do need to grow, at least a little bit, or the story is no longer interesting to today's audience. So let secondary characters grow up. Let Barbara come to terms with her limitations, then establish a new niche for herself. Let her walk again, if you must, but don't degrade her. Let her grow again from that experience, and move on to better stories.