Scans_Daily

I think there's something of a difference in Steph replacing Cass against Babs coming back. I mean, for one thing, though Asian characters aren't exactly widely represented in comics, Babs is literally one of two well-known comic wheelchair users, and as Gail points out, the other guy gets up for a stroll every now and then.

I respect the idea of having characters that you can relate to, and that for Gail, clearly, Babs as Batgirl is an awesome character with much personal interest for her. I'm sure we all have characters that are like that, and if given the chance, we'd jump at being able to contribute to their legacy in such a way. But i'd like to think that if I was given the ability to write my favourite character in my favourite situation for them, i'd turn it down if it also meant screwing a lot of people over. Put another way; there's certainly lots of kickass female characters for Gail to love. Probably a higher percentage of redheads than in real life. Though it doesn't really work so simply as that, there's lots of characters that she could relate to, who she could get an enjoyable thrill out of being able to write. But, though certainly disabled people can't solely relate to characters with the same or similar disability (and vice versa, there's also a lot of non-disabled fans of Oracle), if that does have meaning for you, if someone does enjoy being able to read about someone like them in that way, then, well, I hope they like Professor X.

And of course, there's the other problem; inevitably, the status quo returns, and the status quo at this point is Barbara paralyzed. And I don't see that being done in any particularly nice way.