Gail Simone No Longer Writer of Batgirl, and When Babs Met Ollie

[espanolbot]

Gail just confirmed over twitter that the new Batgirl editor, Brian Cunningham, that she is no longer the writer of Batgirl, despite her refuting rumours that she'd been replaced just earlier this week. Hm.

I will admit that despite my not being as much of a fan of her current Batgirl run as I've been of her other work, this still kind of saddens me, if only because she always seemed to be having a ball when it came to her writing and promoting this work.

And right after the all-female team-up book she'd spent a year working on was rejected right out of the gate when she pitched it too (probably because she wanted to use Steph in it).

Wonder why it happened, it wasn't as if she wanted to leave or that the book wasn't successful...

On the topic of Batgirl, here is a part from Birds of Prey that involves Babs and men's relationships with her. Though I'm pretty sure Simone didn't write this version of Babs, I kind of prefer this one to the one in her current solo series, sorry.











In addition, here's a page from the Batman 15 preview, which I'm actually looking forward to quite a bit...
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=14496

Comments

[kirke_novak]

Yeah I saw the news earlier. My twitter feed exploded in disbelief. To be honest, while I didn't read Batgirl (good luck trying to force me to read anything Batman related) as far as I understood, it was one of the best selling DC books. Why fire a popular creator then? Only two things come to mind: a) you found someone BIG to write it or b) the creator refused to follow an editorial mandate. Judging from an exchange on her twitter (someone asking if she didn't fridge enough women, Gail replying with "funny you should say that") I strongly suspect it's the latter. We're they trying to have her kill off a female character for drama? Were they tried to force her to put back Babs in a wheelchair in a very unpleasant manner? I think we will find out soon enough...

Oh and she was fired by EMAIL. Pure class, DC, pure class...

[jaybee3]

Not surprised though. DC sold the title (and Barbara's recovery) to fans with the idea that Gail was writing it (literally the press releases mentioned her again and again) and now they no longer need her they can go in the direction they wanted. Batgirl never SEEMED to be a Gail Simone book to me - it was humorless, plodding, kept going back and back to the Killing Joke and the Barbara in it didn't even seem like the same Babs Gail wrote just prior to the reboot. It seemed/seems like an entirely Editorial driven enterprise (compare to Batman where Snyder seems to do what he wants largely).

[lonewolf23k]

Wow, it's amazing how not surprised I am. It's as if DC is repeatedly aiming to shoot itself in the foot now.

[zechs80]

I've already commented on the Miss Simone issue on three various websites already. But I really want to comment on that Batman preview here. That page you posted espanolbot. Dang that is a creepy page.

I LOVE IT! Even if I'm not too fond of leatherface Joker.

[turtlefu]

I'm happy in a sad way, because Gail is a strong enough writer to get far, far away from the creative vortext that is DC Comics.

[icon_uk]

We're having a discussion about this over on no_scansdaily (Where non directly scans related items like news of this sort should really go)

[mrosa]

She's not a writer I'm interested in, but I understand she's a popular writer and has a loyal female readership which DC badly needs (or perhaps doesn't give a shit about), so this is a very awkward idea.

And in the same week Karen Berger is stepping down from Vertigo. Horrible timing. I think the very audible corners of internet female fandom are going to get even louder in the days to come.

[shadur]

And no matter what you think of her quality as a writer, firing someone by email is just an utter asshole move.

[silverhammerman]

That's a pretty creepy preview. I like the part at the end with the punching. Punching is always fun. Of course Joker will have to escape so we can get another issue out of this, but I'm really enjoying seeing him get a good face punching for the time being. And it's kind of awful and amazing how Capullo shows Joker's mask-face kind of flapping as he gets punched, I mean, it's still a stupid look for the Joker, but I thing Capullo draws the shit out of it.
And yeah, Gail Simone being taken off Batgirl like that sucks.

[darkknightjrk]

This really saddens me. I'm one of those in the minority that has truly enjoyed the hell out of Simone's Batgirl, and feel it's the best Barbara that I've read in YEARS. Hopefully, whoever they get to replace Gail is just as good.

[kirke_novak]

So I had this page opened, put my iPad down to fiddle with my iPhone, looked back... and the page scrolled up so Joker was staring directly at me. I nearly jumped. Quickly scrolled down again, put my iPad down, double checked it didn't return to the Joker pic, left the room, then came back... and it scrolled up again. This is not good.

[darkknightjrk]

Clearly the Joker has control of your iPad. O_O

[mrstatham]

Frankly, when it comes to Batgirl, nothing of value is being lost, but I'm increasingly of the opinion that the way DC have dropped her from the title is absolutely appalling - do these people not even work in the same office? - but none of the stuff Simone's done for the New52 has been her strongest work.

As for that Joker page - hell yes. It's creepy as hell and reinforces what Capullo was saying about him being truly scary in terms of what he's putting across. There is just something really creepy and disgusting about Capullo's take that none of the others are really getting.

[doomisay]

"do these people not even work in the same office?"

For the most part, no. This isn't the 60s where everybody is working out of the "bullpen".

[janegray]

Here is hoping Gail can get a new awesome job soon.

[nezchan]

She made an interesting comment on Tumblr that suggests she may be considering doing some original creator-owned stuff.

[rijsg]

I hope Simone gets a new comic to write soon. I don't like her Batgirl as much as her other stuff, but it was pretty fun. I'm not too surprised, though. I dunno what the sales are like but I very, very rarely hear any good reactions to Batgirl. Sometimes it feels like I'm the only person who likes it. So this isn't exactly surprising.

Also I CANNOT WAIT THREE MORE DAYS FOR BATMAN! It's by FAR my favorite DC comic right now, I love everything Scott Snyder does, and the Joker story is just too perfect. That page, man. AMAZING. GET HERE NOW, WEDNESDAY. NOOOOOOW.

Sales Figures

[dragonbat2006]

The title's been outselling Wonder Woman.

[lencannon]

Hahaha, jesus Christ.

Who wouldn't she kill for you DC?

Here's a twitter conversation between her and Mike Nelson

Mike: did you not put enough women in refrigerators or something?
Gail: Funny you should say that.

[zechs80]

I think the Magic 8 Ball says Barbara's mother.

[icon_uk]

That's perhaps the creepiest I've seen that Joker look, but it's still not the Joker to me.

Wouldn't perpetually minute pupils mean he'd be effectively blind even in fairly bright light?

[rijsg]

Possibly, but it wouldn't be the first time Scott Snyder's Batman wasn't medically accurate. Or Batman in general wasn't medically accurate.

[captainbellman]

What did I tell you? She didn't want to play ball with Scott Snyder's crapy "event" story and its total reliance on drifting characters, so DC booted her. Bloody typical.

[darkknightjrk]

Considering Snyder was one of the people who wished her well, I don't think that's the case.

Mod Note

[salinea]

This discussion is already taking place at noscans_daily and the scan posted isn't relevant to the topic being discussed. Please modify your post or it may be subject to deletion.

Re: Mod Note

[espanolbot]

Figured that they were both Bat Book related, but I'll find a Batgirl-related thing to make sure it fits properly.

[beoweasel]

I'm sorry, this Joker just isn't terrifying. Grotesque? Certainly, but being grotesque isn't the same as intimidating.

You think Joker may be getting a lot of conjuntivitis now?

[capt_satellite]

He must be taking butt-loads of anti-biotics now. Great. Joker has better health insurance than I do.

Re: You think Joker may be getting a lot of conjuntivitis now?

[jlroberson]

Well, if you've read Peter Milligan's FACE, then you have a list of just what ol' Jokey should have died from by now.

Ouchie!

[capt_satellite]

He must be going through one hell of a lot of Bactine and Neosporin. He doesn't strike me as an aloe-vera kind of guy.

Seriously....if DC gives Ms. Simone the shaft again, I am THROUGH with DC.

[jlroberson]

Do not stand in the way of the Snyder.

[espanolbot]

As people have said, Snyder and Simone are on good terms and she had already started on the next storyline when she got the news she's been sacked. Chances are that her "Recovery" arc wasn't approved by the new Batgirl editor (healing after a traumatic event? Nope, get back to work you lazy superheroine!) so that got her shown the door.

[ablackraptor]

...Anyone else notice in the First panel that Ollie is doing the infamous TnA pose?

[jlbarnett]

I just want Babs out of the Batgirl suit. Okay... so she's up and about and proved she could do it. Let's have her decide that's the only reason she was doing it, that she can do more as a hacker and mentor to other heroes

[b_dangerous]

I was seriously under the impression that the book was completely editorial mandated from the start. Especially when you consider that the new 52 is by far one of Simone's worst books. She did a wonderful job with Birds of Prey and utilizing Babs' character, only for this book to pop up and completely nullify it.

And while nothing of value was really lost, it saddens and confuses me that she'd get the axe this way. It really makes me wonder what kind of stuff was going on behind the scenes.

[kraesil]

DC did something stupid again, so I'm de-lurking.

Omg, DC. WTH ARE YOU DOING?!?!? You are absolutely not doing you or anyone else any good with your throwing popular titles/characters out the window. Too late to scrap the DCnU, but are you seriously trying to alienate everyone?