Quote Originally Posted by atomicbattery View Post
I read every issue of Birds, and I don’t remember those stories.

I ask you to imagine that you are an editor at DC, in a world where there has never been a Batgirl.
After a corporate dictate, you charge three writers with the task of coming up with a biography for the new character ‘Batgirl’.
They return with-
A deadly assassin, the mute daughter of two second-tier DC villains.
The daughter of a third-tier DC villain, who dons a superhero costume to stop her dad.
The daughter of Police Commissioner Jim Gordon, Batman’s greatest civilian ally.

Which one would you pick? Which would any editor pick? For audience shorthand alone. But the possibilities are so rich for powerful storytelling with Barbara that simply aren’t there with Cass and Steph. And the dynamic doesn’t work nearly as well with Barbara as Oracle. The dramatic tension leaks.
I’ll admit that the comics haven’t done much with these key relationships- Barbara and her father, Barbara and the Batfamily- since New52 or Rebirth (a lot of that has to do with a business decision- Batgirl was supposed to be the flagship title of the failed digital-first initiative, and thus autonomy, Burnside and separation from the rest of the Batbooks). There was some good stuff in the Fletcher-Stewart-Tarr Family Business arc, and Scott is getting to do some stuff now.

Maybe you need to go outside the books to broaden what you consider a Barbara Gordon Batgirl story. If you haven’t, as you said, watched the animated series, there’s one episode that shows all the power and emotion that Barbara brings as Batgirl that no other character can, and that no longer works as Oracle. It’s by Paul Dini, and it’s called ‘Over the Edge’ Batgirl is actually barely in it, but it’s all about her- how much being Batgirl means to her, but also her fear that the discovery could destroy her world. Dini got choked up talking about it in an interview with Kevin Smith on the old Fatman on Batman podcast, and I think it’s the most emotionally powerful episode of the series.

There’s a reason writers outside of comics keep returning to Barbara as Batgirl. It’s about her, and her dad, and Batman. I have always supported the Batgirl concept and bought every Cass and Steph book, but there’s so much more to material to mine with Barbara.
And it’s about to happen again. Lauren Faust’s incarnation of DC Super Hero Girls comes to Cartoon Network this year. And another generation of kids gets to meet Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.
Well, the majority of Gail Simone's stories involved her doing something more than giving orders. The majority of the argument you are presenting about Babs being boring as Oracle...ignores a huge chunk of her stories as Oracle.

Is this a trick question? Obviously the daughter of the villain.

As for Babs - it's not that her background doesn't provide good fodder for drama. It's that, for seven years, it hasn't been used to good effect.

I have watched "Over the Edge." It's quite a good...Commissioner Gordon episode.

I'm a fan of the new Super Hero Girls shorts by Faust. Doesn't mean I think they wouldn't be improved with Steph instead of Babs.