A lot of comics readers just miss the point. Barbara wasn’t Batgirl, she wasn’t Oracle, those were her vocations, her chosen ways to make a difference in the world. The character Gail Simone is writing today, the one who found a way to regain the use of her legs and then, in spit of what it might mean were she to do it and become injured again, went out into Gotham to make a difference as Batgirl again.
That, right there, that is the spirit of the character that Gail Simone is writing, that indomitable being, who will not give up, and who will always choose to do for others, that is Barbara Gordon, and that character has not been changed at all. Barbara is still that woman.
It troubles me that so many people went out of their way to say things like the character was downgraded, because tome it implies that that “disability” was what you were defining her as when it was simply another hurdle she jumped through to be who she is. Not the immobile legs, not the costume, not the red hair or the glasses, but that deeply powerful woman who, at this point, is probably a reflection of Gail Simone herself as well as the many strong and beautiful women she has had in her life, just as we all have, women who deserve to be seen not as particular jobs, or particular sets of skills, but as powerful forces of will…A lot of writers hated it, but I loved writing Oracle so much I can’t even stand it.Because she’s Barbara-Freaking-Gordon! The God Damn Batgirl and The Mistress Oracle
You see? THIS is what Orcale can do. Make somebody run just by telling them what she can know. No outright physical threats, just that she can *find* him. Anywhere. Sooner or later, she *will* find him.
Batgirl swings around in spandex beating up muggers that the ‘Real’ bat-family are too busy to deal with.
Yeah, I know she does more than that, but come on, anyone who thinks becoming Batgirl again is anything but a downgrade is, I think, deluding themselves. Or DC’s Editorial Department.
Um.
You know I did write this scene in this post, right? I know what Oracle can do.And the ‘downgrade’ thing, well, that’s a way of looking at it. Batman: Year One could be a downgrade, as well, I guess.
I never, never mind people saying they prefer Oracle to Batgirl for Barbara, or Steph or Cass as Batgirl, all that stuff is fine, legit, defensible, it’s just opinion, it’s all 100% okay with me.
I just thought that post was odd, considering I wrote the scene in question.
