Scans_Daily

Well, it depends to some degree on the characters. Diana I can't ascribe any pity to here, just because she's Diana. Perez notwithstanding, there's no way she hasn't known disabled veterans of Doom's Door her whole life, and even without that experience, she'd have enough respect for a fellow warrior to know better. Plus, note that she's here mostly to comfort Zee; her interactions with Babs are much more equal.

Zee absolutely does come across as pitying, and I think the problem is, neither of these two are particularly Barbara's friends. Apart from Supergirl, Babs didn't have any pre-Crisis female friends on the scene, and of course, Kara got retconned out of existence. So they can't really be girlfriends out for a good time on behalf of one of the girls (which would be fine, it's not pity when your buds take you out after you get dumped, it's friendship) - they can no longer be assumed to be getting anything from it themselves or having any obligation through friendship, and pity becomes the only real choice.

I think JMS was going for the friendship thing, based on the interaction between the three when they collect Babs in the first place, but obviously the weight of canon is against him.