What should DC Comics do about the ORIGINAL BAT-Girl ?

[Oberon]

Yes! I was big with DC and Marvel in the '70s. I even remember the DC implosion. This particular story peaked my interest, as I was around 22 and *remembered* the Bat-girl before Babs.

Now I've always liked Babs too, btw, but I just want Bette to have some kind of place in the sun. Is that so wrong? (I knew you get it Major)

[Oberon]

I'm pretty sure I never even saw all of those 6 appearances, but my point is - and its true for everyone - -

is sometimes a character just is right, for you. She'll never be a minor character to me. Especially since her backstory has been considerably fleshed out.

And Morrison, while not totally clarifying her role with the original Batwoman, made it clear she was there back in the beginning.

I can't see how an original character/persona is minor. There were no Bat-girls or Batgirls before her. Roberta was a girl wonder.

[Oberon]

ten lonely characters: double post!

[Ascended]

I think it's probably best to just build up the Bette we have now.

Modern Bette is just a remix of the pre-Crisis Betty, and the similarities and overlap are pretty extensive, with 'Bette' having the advantage of contemporary writing and development. 'Betty' would need a lot of work to differentiate her. And then you'd have to ask yourself three questions: "Are the changes enough to make Betty a distinct and different character from Bette?" "If so, is it even 'Betty' anymore at all?" And "Why are we adding to a overpopulated mythos that already has Bette, Steph, Babs, etc etc?"

I like Bette. I'd love to see her used more (I think she'd make a great sidekick for Nightwing, myself). Hell, I just spent some time in DCU Online getting the new Flamebird set of armor (it's not Bette's, its Kara's from One Year Later. But still a Flamebird!). But I don't need to see a Betty who is only moderately different from Bette, who shares much of the same origin and backstory fundamentals, and would potentially pull from what little panel time Bette already gets.

[Ascended]

double post.

C'mon CBR, you can IT better than this!

[Godlike13]

If Grayson was still around i always that would have been a cool place to reintroduce the Betty version.

[Oberon]

1) Yes, the Flamebird armor that Kara wore in Kandor was awesome.

2) your basic idea is right and I agree. I don't feel it hurts to have the slight nod towards "Bat-girl" but let's focus on the Flamebird, because that is what we have now.

Do not demote her to slight mentions and slighter appearances.
Quite frankly I have no idea why Bette seems to take Kate's abuse of her - it seems that one of the fall back tropes of their relationship is that Kate is often condescending to Bette and also seems distracted when they're together, like she's thinking of anything else but her cousin.
( in my mind this plays to a possible 'thing' in their relationship that has yet to be explored ).

So yeah, she deserves to be Nightwing's partner or occasional partner. Maybe she blows West Point, or some mystery also is Dick's master.

[MajorHoy]

I don't feel it hurts to have the slight nod towards "Bat-girl" but let's focus on the Flamebird, because that is what we have now.

Personally, I don't think her "Bat-Girl" past can exist in current continuity without really stretching out the timelines too far.
I prefer to let her start as Flamebird and progress from there.
Buy, if we can bring back a separate Earth where many of the older stories could have still occurred (like how the pre-CoIE Earth-2 once was), that would be where Betty's/Bette's "Bat-Girl" adventures could have still taken place.

It all depends on what DC finally decides in terms of when/how old Dick was when he first became Robin, and then how long he kept that identity before switching to Nightwing.

[Aahz]

Personally, I don't think her "Bat-Girl" past can exist in current continuity without really stretching out the timelines too far.

It wouldn't stretch the timeline more than it allready is, and since Kathys time as Batwoman is afaik continuity, adding Betty back as her sidekick wouldn't really change anything (and her 6 appearances would probably translate to something like a few month or maybe only weeks in the Batman timeline).

[hotroddii]

Why can’t she be the Batgirl of the West Coast?

Gotham is overcrowded.

[Oberon]

MajorHoy, it is certainly more me than you or others who probably wouldn't favor the Earth 2 slant. But I would accept that and try to read them if that happened.

I do think that the time line is already "whatever"/ goes. Dick was / is the same age as Bette or close, as established in the original continuity.

We have to accept a lot of things with the timeline. Its more ludicrous to me that there were/have been 4 Robins, with one almost always on the horizon.

I noted in the slight panels in Batman INC a few years back, that "Bat-girl" was only named by Dick as such.
So we can say in this revision, that she never used the name or allowed others to name her.

But just dropping Flamebird into the '90s and beyond did seem to work. There were only an occasional mention "Bat girl! Been there, done that" when she briefly fought Cassandra in one of those tales.

Lets face it - although DC treats her shabbily, she is a legacy character, surviving or being reinvented 2 or more times since her original incarnation.

Let's do it right, without too much looking behind.

And yeah, the West Coast needs a Batgirl too, perhaps?

[Ascended]

If Grayson was still around i always that would have been a cool place to reintroduce the Betty version.

Considering how Grayson turned the original Kathy Kane into a evil super-spy (or whatever it was; been ages since I read those issues) it wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that this version of Kathy had a assistant/partner/whatever in Betty. But at that point.....you're basically dealing with a brand new character with an old name. That someone else is still using.

Seems better to just move forward with Bette, to me. I'm sure a good writer with a good story could make Betty work today. I just don't think it's needed. Hell, we barely see Bette to begin with, what kind of mileage are we gonna get out of Betty?

[Cmbmool]

I really want to see DC pull out something to remind readers of the ORIGINAL BAT-GIRL. Wouldn't you ?

[Ascended]

I do feel like its a viable concept that doesn't get enough use. Hell, Bette is barely a character as it is.

I think there might be some potential in spinning her as the "average" hero. She might be a highly talented athlete, but by vigilante standards she struggles to keep up. Sort of like a high school varsity player trying to hang with Olympic athletes; for all Bette's skill she's "only human." (I know the other Bats are human, but you get what I mean).

Anyone remember back in the Dixon days, he wrote Tim Drake along those lines? I thought it was really interesting to see a guy who just wasn't able to naturally flip and spin their way across rooftops as easily as I walk to the fridge and had to really work hard at everything.

[Restingvoice]

OP answer

Well, I know DC's not gonna do anything since they like Barbara as the one and only Batgirl, but what I like ideally is similar to what Morrison did to Kathy. Restore her position as the first and give her a different back story or motivation so she'll be a cooler character than just a Robin love interest. Then they can give her a good exit, joining Kathy in Spyral for example, or keep using Bette but bring her to the forefront and older as the progenitor to the Bat-Girl mantle, or have her retire and be a mentor figure for subsequent Batgirls.