Barbara Gordon: Batgirl, Oracle Appreciation 2020

[Frontier]

Agreed. And I think this question hits to a core problem with a lot of the canonical (that is, done by DC or its licensees) shipping. A single male hero is OK, or a male hero with other relationships that are at handled as being as important as a romantical relationship. But it's mostly not the case for the female heroes. A woman should, under these patterns, be attached to (and thus in some way under control of) a man.

DC is by far not alone in this, they have inherited it from culture at large. A good girl should have a boyfriend.

To be honest, I don't see this as something DC mandated or pushed but something that comes about because of who the writers of the Burnside era saw as their intended audience of girls and young adult readers, so you had shipping/romance and a bit of Shojo manga influence there (mostly when Babs Tarr was drawing the book).

I don't think Supergirl has this problem.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, Kara doesn't have a love interest.

[millernumber1]

Yeah, Kara doesn't have a love interest.

Kara also sadly doesn't have a title.

[Frontier]

Kara also sadly doesn't have a title.

Though not for lack of a revolving door of love interests.

[Digifiend]

Kara also sadly doesn't have a title.

Neither will Babs after next month. That's not the point - both Batgirl and Supergirl will almost certainly relaunch early next year. The point is, when Kara did have a book - which only ended a few months ago - she wasn't dating anyone.

[Hypestyle]

Yeah, Kara doesn't have a love interest.

at this point I'm surprised people haven't started shipping Kara and Barbara. Or has that happened already in someone's fan-fiction? hmm...

[skyvolt2000]

To be honest, I don't see this as something DC mandated or pushed but something that comes about because of who the writers of the Burnside era saw as their intended audience of girls and young adult readers, so you had shipping/romance and a bit of Shojo manga influence there (mostly when Babs Tarr was drawing the book).

I don't think Supergirl has this problem.

She came close to having a black boyfriend in both of her last runs.

The book got axed with the first one who was in a wheelchair

Bendis arriving and the book held hostage by crossovers derailed her and Ben.

Burnside was trying her and Luke and too many editors derailed that and sent that creative team to Image.

[Badou]

Kara also doesn't really have any notable love interests. I mean the Supergirl identity is pretty iconic and has been around for a long time now and I guess Brainiac 5 would be her most notable love interest? Which is a character that is completely irrelevant. So there doesn't seem to be this push to pair her off or give her a lot of token love interests for a story arc, even if they have done that a few times. Kara feels like a character DC has no clue what to do with in the comics. Probably more so than any of their notable characters, but that is a topic for her own thread probably.

Anyway, with Barbara they have to constantly look for excuses for why she and Dick just don't get together. Since when you look at it objectively there is really no reason why the two just don't. The hoops DC has to jump through to avoid it while maintaining some will they/won't they dynamic is ridiculous, and I say this as someone that doesn't want Babs and Dick together, but one of the common excuses they use is that Barbara is dating [insert character here] which means Dick "missed his chance". Then that same situation is reversed when Dick is dating some token love interest. It leads to a revolving door of pointless love interests that all feel shallow.

[Frontier]

Kara also doesn't really have any notable love interests. I mean the Supergirl identity is pretty iconic and has been around for a long time now and I guess Brainiac 5 would be her most notable love interest? Which is a character that is completely irrelevant. So there doesn't seem to be this push to pair her off or give her a lot of token love interests for a story arc, even if they have done that a few times. Kara feels like a character DC has no clue what to do with in the comics. Probably more so than any of their notable characters, but that is a topic for her own thread probably.

Anyway, with Barbara they have to constantly look for excuses for why she and Dick just don't get together. Since when you look at it objectively there is really no reason why the two just don't. The hoops DC has to jump through to avoid it while maintaining some will they/won't they dynamic is ridiculous, and I say this as someone that doesn't want Babs and Dick together, but one of the common excuses they use is that Barbara is dating [insert character here] which means Dick "missed his chance". Then that same situation is reversed when Dick is dating some token love interest. It leads to a revolving door of pointless love interests that all feel shallow.

Other than making her evil...But I agree that should be saved for her thread .

[kjn]

Yeah, Kara doesn't have a love interest.

On the other hand, she has an older cousin looking out for her.

There might be other factors that make it different in how writers approach Kara compared to Babs, but that's the first one that comes to mind.

Also, I think there is a lot more pent-up sexuality in the Batman set than there is in the Superman set.

[Frontier]

On the other hand, she has an older cousin looking out for her.

There might be other factors that make it different in how writers approach Kara compared to Babs, but that's the first one that comes to mind.

Also, I think there is a lot more pent-up sexuality in the Batman set than there is in the Superman set.

Superman isn't an ever-present figure in Supergirl, though, at least physically.

I mean, considering the amount of times these characters have had rooftop sex, there is definitely a lot of something sexual going on .

[Tsukiakari1203]

Superman isn't an ever-present figure in Supergirl, though, at least physically.

I mean, considering the amount of times these characters have had rooftop sex, there is definitely a lot of something sexual going on .

I think rooftop sex is a Batfamily kink. No one else's.

[Badou]

This whole Three Jokers thing got me thinking, does Babs have any male hero friends that she hasn't been romantically paired off with? I can't think of any. I know there is an Alfred but that doesn't really count, lol.

[Konja7]

This whole Three Jokers thing got me thinking, does Babs have any male hero friends that she hasn't been romantically paired off with? I can't think of any. I know there is an Alfred but that doesn't really count, lol.

In comics, I think she has never romantically paired with Tim.

In general, I don't think comic writers are so good to write male-female friendship without a "touch of romance".

[Badou]

In comics, I think she has never romantically paired with Tim.

In general, I don't think comic writers are so good to write male-female friendship without a "touch of romance".

I was counting all media adaptations. So comics, games, movies and so on.