Interesting Interview With Gail Regarding Barbara Becoming Batgirl Again

[espanolbot]

It's pretty interesting, and although it doesn't really change my mind about the "curing Oracle" issue I can at least see where they're coming from. Also Gail says that Steph and Cass should have a place in the new DCU, and if they're not being used they'll appear in Babs' new series,
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/gail-simone-dicusses-batgirl-and-oracle-110609.html

Gail also kind of implied that Babs won't be deaged when she puts on the costume, which takes care of THAT continuity snarl anyways. Though that now means that either Steph is going to step down as Batgirl at what is argueably the height of her career so far, OR... and this is the more unlikely reason... Babs fires her and takes her place.

The final issue of Steph's series looked like it was a final issue even before they announced the new line-up, so we should have seen it coming, I guess.

For legality from Nightwing Annual 2,

Comments

[greenmask]

That was misleadingly worded, too, the bit about Cass vs Steph. Sure, people love Steph now, and appreciate her as Batgirl, but that doesn't make retiring an asian character for a white blonde one any less sketchy, does it?

[angelophile]

Yeah, I didn't understand that argument. Liking Steph as a Batgirl, seeing the character treated with respect by a great creative team in a fab book doesn't mean that all criticism of DC sidelining Cass has suddenly disappeared. Gail knows that's not the case, since she was talking about picking Cass up for Birds of prey because people were clamoring for her. Liking Steph and the Batgirl title doesn't erase Cass' fanbase or the argument that DC were simply wrong to push her to one side. If readers buy into Babs as Batgirl again, it still won't make the decision to put her back in the batsuit any less ableist and questionable. I just don't get this implication that people eventually accepting=the right decision.

[salinea]

I don't think she's discussing the fact that the decision is questionable. She's trying to say that even if the decision is questionable and wrong and ableist, that doesn't mean the Batgirl title she'll be writing won't be worth reading.


That doesn't convince me to read it; but I think that's how I read her argument at least.

[swatkat]

Same here. And I do think she's right, actually - for all we know it might produce some great stories.

Whether I'll buy it is a different matter altogether.

[greenmask]

So it's a BND situation?

Stories of potential quality that are, for many, marred forevah by the horrible decision that "made them possible".

[fifthie]

In fairness there actually may be worthwhile stories about babs that can only be told with her healed, making it quite different from ombndmitime, where the passably okay stories are all ones that could all have just as easily been done with married pete and mj and everything that does rely on the retcon has been shitburgers.

[greenmask]

They could've told them in flashback though. Or Elseworlds!

[venatosapiens]

That is, after all, what Scans Daily is for.

[shadeedge]

Yeah, I agree with this. I think this is wrong, but i'm sure Gail's stories will be good at a minimum; i'm certainly a fan. If I didn't care at all about this issue, i'd likely be interested in picking it up solely knowing she was writing.

I think that's what makes not buying it all the more annoying. It's easy to avoid something out of principle if you don't like it anyway. But in this case it's a comic off my list that likely would be on it otherwise.

[angelophile]

I think that "worth reading" is pretty subjective. To me, personally, a book that strips away Barbara's identity and history as Oracle and sends out the message that the character is only valuable when she's able-bodied isn't worth reading, no matter who the creator or the quality of the stories being told. I know that may not be the consensus, but the suggestion that good stories might come out of it kinda misses the point, y'know? It's the line about how "I think everything is in the execution" that gets me. Because, really, the story of Barbara regaining the use of her legs could be the most beautiful story in the world, yet it wouldn't be any less offensive. That seems to be the only response to many of the cutting questions in that interview. Most answers seem to boil down to Gail saying that she thinks the stories she's going to write will be strong ones. I know there's not much else she can say, but... yeah.

[salinea]

I was only trying to paraphrase her argument more accurately; not defend it. I certainly don't disagree with you.

[angelophile]

No, I know, I definitely wasn't having a go at you, just rambling on the subject. Sorry if I seemed terse.

[salinea]

Not at all, I just wanted to be clear :)

[fifthie]

Kind of misses the point too since the Cass situation got fucked up long before the thing with Steph.

I mean shed fucking quit being BG already at the end of her original series, and that was fine and could have led to great places for the character... and then she came back all daddy-crazy, then drugged, then she was Batgirl again, then just odds and ends of mediocrre shit featuring a character who was never going to be allowed to be great again. Giving the costume up - which she'd already done pre-oyl - was the least bad thing dc did to her in like six years.

[greenmask]

This, too.