In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to choose between Barbara Gordon as Batgirl and computer hacker extraordinaire Oracle, mentor to the next generation of Gotham’s female heroes. In a perfect world, DC would never have allowed such a misogynistic storyline as The Killing Joke to see the light of day, let alone become canon. In a perfect world they would have multiple disabled characters who rocked as hard as Oracle, multiple female characters as powerful, brilliant, charismatic and just plain awesome as Babs as both Batgirl and Oracle. We wouldn’t have just one woman embodying all that, we’d have many. Just like there are many variations on amazing male characters (and I don’t just mean the boggling variations on bat men that get to be Robin, Nightwing, and even Batman himself at various times). But we only have one Barbara Gordon, and is she, and female readers, really best served by regressing her to an earlier time at the expense of her entire adult life from that point AND at the expense of the very existence of Cass, Steph, Wendy and Misfit? All the while kicking real disabled readers in the teeth by taking away the most prominent disabled character and saying “you can’t have her, she belongs to the fanboys who long for the young girl from the 1970s”? Astonishingly, somebody powerful at DC actually thinks the answer to that question is “yes”.
Undoing Barbara’s disability will not fix the misogynistic choice by DC’s PTB that led to the development of Oracle (by some very different, very wonderful writers, let’s not forget). And you know what, DC needs to live with that decision, every single day. Just like women live with the effects of men’s violence against them every. single. day. Barbara overcame and became stronger than we possibly could have imagined. Maybe that’s not the heroine some men at DC want to be on their roster. Maybe they should grow up.
(Okay, so I did have a rant about this after all. But Jill Pantozi’s OP-ED on Newsarama is much better, so please do read that if you haven’t already. And if that doesn’t convince you, try this piece on the legacy of Barbara Gordon that was published last month.)
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Oracle is an inspiration for all people with physical disabilities. To throw all that overboard just so Barbara can be Batgirl again is a HUGE blunder. Honestly if DC wanted more Barbara Gordon Batgirl stories, they should have released some original “classic” Batgirl stories in minis (i.e. Cat and the Bat) or backups in Steph’s title where Babs reminisces to Steph about her pre-Oracle crime fighting days.
My thoughts exactly: reprint those old stories, put out a continuation of Batgirl: Year One or do a “Batgirl: The Early Years” series, whatever, while publishing the current day adventures of the batw-women. There is no reason to not do both.
Even if Barbara Gordon weren’t a wheelchair user, why would anyone want to throw everything else that she is? This incident has made me finally realize what’s going on with Dan Didio, Geoff Johns, and whoever else is calling these shots. It’s not about us. It’s never been about us. It’s about them and what they want, and damn the business and what’s best for it.