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scans_dailyLet's get something out of the gate: I love Barbara Gordon in almost any incarnation. I love Batgirl in almost any incarnation. There is only one specific intersection of the two, however, that makes it into the ranks of my Favorite Female Character.
That specific intersection, of course, being the one played by Yvonne Craig on the Adam West show.
Now, Craig's Batgirl is iconic, but not particularly talked about in fandom (save for dark, sex-obsessed corners of the Internet that shall not be mentioned by name here). Most fans regard her as a gimmick tacked on in the show's third season as a way of reviving its flagging popularity (and hiding its rapidly shrinking budget), and not a particularly successful one at that. The more charitable of them do note that she was the first superheroine to make it into big-time American media, something that could've only been a boost to the feminist movement at the time.
And yet? Craig's Batgirl might have flat-out been one of the funniest characters on the show.
I know that while few people here outright hate it, not everyone sees the Adam West show the way I do, but I've always regarded the Adam West show as a comedy first and everything else second. Anything on there could be forgiven if it were funny enough, and to be honest? Some of the stuff on there was pretty damn dark (in one of the S3 King Tut episodes, Batman and Robin find a woman tied in a "Thuggee Position" that will supposedly kill her in a minute; they then spend several minutes pontificating over this fact, all while the poor woman is making the most over-the-top suffering faces imaginable).
What does this have to do with Batgirl? As a famed Clown Prince of Crime will tell you, every comedy act needs its straight (wo)man. Batman and Robin might have filled this role admirably in the first two seasons, but by Season 3, they had become every bit as over-the-top as the villains they fought. They weren't so much the "sane" characters in Gotham so much as another pair of lunatics with a particularly code of lunacy that was obsessed with helping people instead of harming them.
The dynamic needed something new. It needed...
Next to the deliberately, exaggeratedly "square" Batman and Robin, the '66 Batgirl seemed like a character who had stepped through a time machine two, three decades in the future. She was smart, she was spunky, and she fought for truth and justice without ever sacrificing (much) of her dignity - not too removed from the superheroines of today.
Next to Robin and even Batman himself, she seemed less like another costumed peer and more like a cool big sister. It wasn't a coincidence, surely, that the only other character on the show who knew her secret identity was the one other unshakable pillar of dignity: Alan Napier's Alfred.
That's not to say, of course, that she was invincible. She wound up in scrapes and perils as much as her male counterparts did (to the great pleasure of those aforementioned unnamed dark Internet corners), and she was handcuffed - almost literally - by the fact that the network execs refused to let her either throw a punch or get punched, meaning that Yvonne Craig had to stick almost entirely to high-kicks straight out of ballet.
Together with her dignity, Craig's Batgirl retained a notable sense of cheer (which almost every incarnation afterward retained to varying degrees). Batman and Robin, even in their most lighthearted incarnations, went about crimefighting with at least a slightly grim sense of duty: try to make small talk with West's Batman or Ward's Robin, and you were more likely to get a sermon on the value of staying in school than any pithy wisecrack about their latest adventure. Batgirl, though? She kicked criminal ass and did it with glee.
In today's DCU, this kind of attitude would almost certainly be used to set up some kind of dramatic, angsty, possibly torture-and/or-death-filled defeat to demonstrate that Crimefighting Is Not A Game, Dammit. In the world of Batman '66, though? It's a perfectly legitimate attitude, and perhaps the sanest one.
Craig's Batgirl is in on the joke. Sometimes, she'll play the hammy, overnarrating Cape to the hilt...
And sometimes, she'll subvert the hell out of it...
... all with her knowing little winks at the audience.
So, with all due respect to Oracle, to Cassandra Cain, to Stephanie Brown, and to the countless other women who've been tangled up in the mantle of Batgirl one way or another, all of whom I'm rather fond of ...
My favorite female character, at least for the time being, is '66 Batgirl. Crimefighter...
Fashion patrol...
... and dedicated practitioner of the Batusi.
(Due to this being mostly a comics community, I've correspondingly stuck to Batgirl's appearances in the Batman '66 digital comic. Once more hi-def clips from the actual Adam West show become available on the 'net, I might stick a few links to them on this post.)
Whoops, almost forgot. There's always this little beaut. It's not BG's best moment, but it is the funniest.
(While I'm at it, I'd like to bemoan the tiny number of appearances that BG has had in the comic so far - I'm not saying they need to match the show's habit of putting her into literally every story, but surely they can do better than putting her into three when the comic's done more than two dozen stories?)
That specific intersection, of course, being the one played by Yvonne Craig on the Adam West show.
Now, Craig's Batgirl is iconic, but not particularly talked about in fandom (save for dark, sex-obsessed corners of the Internet that shall not be mentioned by name here). Most fans regard her as a gimmick tacked on in the show's third season as a way of reviving its flagging popularity (and hiding its rapidly shrinking budget), and not a particularly successful one at that. The more charitable of them do note that she was the first superheroine to make it into big-time American media, something that could've only been a boost to the feminist movement at the time.
And yet? Craig's Batgirl might have flat-out been one of the funniest characters on the show.
I know that while few people here outright hate it, not everyone sees the Adam West show the way I do, but I've always regarded the Adam West show as a comedy first and everything else second. Anything on there could be forgiven if it were funny enough, and to be honest? Some of the stuff on there was pretty damn dark (in one of the S3 King Tut episodes, Batman and Robin find a woman tied in a "Thuggee Position" that will supposedly kill her in a minute; they then spend several minutes pontificating over this fact, all while the poor woman is making the most over-the-top suffering faces imaginable).
What does this have to do with Batgirl? As a famed Clown Prince of Crime will tell you, every comedy act needs its straight (wo)man. Batman and Robin might have filled this role admirably in the first two seasons, but by Season 3, they had become every bit as over-the-top as the villains they fought. They weren't so much the "sane" characters in Gotham so much as another pair of lunatics with a particularly code of lunacy that was obsessed with helping people instead of harming them.
The dynamic needed something new. It needed...
Next to the deliberately, exaggeratedly "square" Batman and Robin, the '66 Batgirl seemed like a character who had stepped through a time machine two, three decades in the future. She was smart, she was spunky, and she fought for truth and justice without ever sacrificing (much) of her dignity - not too removed from the superheroines of today.
Next to Robin and even Batman himself, she seemed less like another costumed peer and more like a cool big sister. It wasn't a coincidence, surely, that the only other character on the show who knew her secret identity was the one other unshakable pillar of dignity: Alan Napier's Alfred.
That's not to say, of course, that she was invincible. She wound up in scrapes and perils as much as her male counterparts did (to the great pleasure of those aforementioned unnamed dark Internet corners), and she was handcuffed - almost literally - by the fact that the network execs refused to let her either throw a punch or get punched, meaning that Yvonne Craig had to stick almost entirely to high-kicks straight out of ballet.
Together with her dignity, Craig's Batgirl retained a notable sense of cheer (which almost every incarnation afterward retained to varying degrees). Batman and Robin, even in their most lighthearted incarnations, went about crimefighting with at least a slightly grim sense of duty: try to make small talk with West's Batman or Ward's Robin, and you were more likely to get a sermon on the value of staying in school than any pithy wisecrack about their latest adventure. Batgirl, though? She kicked criminal ass and did it with glee.
In today's DCU, this kind of attitude would almost certainly be used to set up some kind of dramatic, angsty, possibly torture-and/or-death-filled defeat to demonstrate that Crimefighting Is Not A Game, Dammit. In the world of Batman '66, though? It's a perfectly legitimate attitude, and perhaps the sanest one.
Craig's Batgirl is in on the joke. Sometimes, she'll play the hammy, overnarrating Cape to the hilt...
And sometimes, she'll subvert the hell out of it...
... all with her knowing little winks at the audience.
So, with all due respect to Oracle, to Cassandra Cain, to Stephanie Brown, and to the countless other women who've been tangled up in the mantle of Batgirl one way or another, all of whom I'm rather fond of ...
My favorite female character, at least for the time being, is '66 Batgirl. Crimefighter...
Fashion patrol...
... and dedicated practitioner of the Batusi.
Whoops, almost forgot. There's always this little beaut. It's not BG's best moment, but it is the funniest.
(While I'm at it, I'd like to bemoan the tiny number of appearances that BG has had in the comic so far - I'm not saying they need to match the show's habit of putting her into literally every story, but surely they can do better than putting her into three when the comic's done more than two dozen stories?)
no subject
Date: 2014-12-01 04:32 pm (UTC)Whilst I agree that the comic hasn't made enough use of her, the stories where they have, have more or less done exactly the same thing that the TV series did; sideline Robin and put Batgirl in the role Robin would normally have. In fight scene's he's frequently off panel when she's fighting. It's like there's some Gotham law that a Duo is the most that may actively/effectively engage in crimefighting at any one time. Oh sure you CAN bring a third, but they won't contribute much.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-01 08:48 pm (UTC)But yeah, I get what you're saying; juggling three crimefighters and making sure none of them get the short end of the stick is something even serious superhero writers have problems with. I am heartened, however, by Jeff Parker's recent interview statement that he'll be including more Batgirl in future stories - maybe as recent as the next issue, if certain sources can be believed.
(One could take a page from most Shonen manga and have the Dynamic Trio go up against a trio of supervillains so everyone has a specific villain to tango with, but that might carry its own set of logistics problems.)
no subject
Date: 2014-12-02 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-01 04:51 pm (UTC)Mod Note!
Date: 2014-12-01 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-01 08:31 pm (UTC)Growing up watching the earliest re-runs of Batman, every girl I knew basically worshipped Batgirl. The secret closet, the motorcycle, the high kicks... nothing was ever cooler. For the small number of appearances she actually made, Yvonne Craig's Batgirl had a huge impact on my generation of girls. I'm delighted to see this tribute!
no subject
Date: 2014-12-01 08:54 pm (UTC)That aside, you're very welcome! I just hope that sometime in the future, they'll actually do a crossover between Batman '66 and Wonder Woman '77 where Babs and Diana team up.
Guy can dream...
no subject
Date: 2014-12-02 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-01 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-02 12:14 am (UTC)Yvonne Craig did a wonderful job with her serious crimefighting alternating with a sense of fun. I always loved that Batgirl was an 'independent contractor': able to work with the Dynamic Duo but also on her own.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-02 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-02 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-02 06:58 am (UTC)Someone somewhere said that about Batgirl. Only I have no idea who or where.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-02 07:03 pm (UTC)