Well, supposedly they're still doing a Batgirl movie but who knows what direction that will go in.
Well, supposedly they're still doing a Batgirl movie but who knows what direction that will go in.
Batgirl is usually more independent than Robin was at the start of his career. The fact she's not a young kid Bruce Wayne adopted and trained to fight crime makes her being younger a lot more acceptable, IMO.
She isn't Bruce's responsibility, at least not initially.
In a movie adaptation, I'd want her to have a solo career before actually crossing paths with Batman. Kind of like Ms. Marvel. Carol inspired her but had no control over Kamala's choices.
I don't think the wider Batfamily is the issue, just certain aspects of certain characters. Batgirl being more independent from Batman, starting out on her own, and usually starting in her late teens/early 20s avoids many of the issues with adapting Robin. In many ways Batgirl's an easier sell - especially now that the fear that women led superhero movies can't do well has been somewhat disproven to the studio execs.
She isn't his responsibility when she first appears, but she is wearing his symbol and it beggars belief that she doesn't get killed on her first night out. And later, as Frontier pointed out, she is a member of the Batfamily so she is his responsibility and she wasn't trained to be a superhero, especially in Gotham.
We all know how Batman trained. We also know that every Robin trained extensively under Batman. Batgirl had no such training. I know that the answer is that it's comic books, but if we're talking about Batgirl's early career, I think this is also a thing to talk about.
It depends on what continuity you're looking at.
I know in Post-Crisis she had self-defense training (and maybe a black belt?), but Jim wouldn't let her join the police force, and she ended up lucking into her first big victory as Batgirl through grit and moxy. Then Batman started formally training her, which is usually the case for modern adaptions.
I actually want a movie (and honestly, a comic book) to explain that. I only saw Batgirl Year One the motion comic, but I think it kind of skimped on the training stuff too? Her dad is a cop in the most crime ridden city in the US, it makes sense that he'd have taught her self defense, and had her in a self defense class. I'm sure there's a karate class or judo class that Babs could have been in since she was a child. Add in say a gymnastics class or track and field in high school to help with running and leaping from rooftop to rooftop and you've got a good base to help buy into it.