Dick Grayson going from Nightwing to Batman and then back to being Nightwing again isn't really comparable. The comparable situation to Babs would be that Dick went from Robin to Nightwing and then back to Robin.
To add to that, there are certain social expectations with the -girl moniker, which has continued to bite Babs in the butt.
Last edited by kjn; 01-27-2020 at 02:53 AM. Reason: clarity
«Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out» (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History [4.56.1])
Its not comparable cause Dick went from starring in multiple books with top tier creators, to one book with creators no one heard of. Babs went from being the Obi Wan in another Batgirl’s book, to the star of her own Batgirl book.
And say what you want about Burnside, but that kind of experimentation and new world building is something Oracle would no longer see. So while she lost history yes, as was the New 52, she eventually gained opportunities for new takes. Ideally I’d prefer they try new things with Oracle to further grow her as a character, but that wasn’t happening.
Last edited by Godlike13; 01-27-2020 at 01:34 AM.
Yeah, the Rebirth Birds of Prey series had Barbara and Dinah meet Huntress - and they had no history together, despite that they also mentioned that the old Birds of Prey team disbanded when Barbara got out of the chair and became Batgirl again (retconning out the New 52 run and seemingly restoring the original one - except for Helena's involvement!). And Batgirl of Burnside, when Steph showed up there, they didn't know each other. Babs, of course, had been a mentor to both of the other Batgirls.
Hopefully that'll all be fixed soon.
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My main difficulty with Burnside era Batgirl arc isn't that it wasn't good storytelling, I'm willing to take that on faith, it's the fact that from what I can tell, they could just as easily have tweaked it to use Steph, building on the successful and well regarded Batgirl (2009) in a more progressive rather than regressive way. Which IMO is a the most common, accurate complaint about Nu52.
Babs as Batgirl is/was fine. What wasn't fine was erasing her history and relationships (friendships and mentorships). Her helping Cass function outside of the cowl and mentoring Steph to be Batgirl were both quite big for her. And honestly, I'm open to a "League of Batgirls", with Babs as the head of them.
Nevermind.
Last edited by Godlike13; 01-27-2020 at 11:58 AM.
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"We're the same thing, you and I. We're both lies that eventually became the truth." Lara Notsil, Star Wars: X-Wing: Solo Command, Aaron Allston
"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
"There's room in our line of work for hope, too." Stephanie Brown
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If we're talking how her characterization was handled with Burnside, I would agree, but in general I don't think using the -girl moniker has to be a negative.
Supergirl going by Supergirl didn't infantile her character on her TV show.
It would probably be a reasonable attempt at placating all the Batgirl fans. Not that I see DC doing it.
"We're the same thing, you and I. We're both lies that eventually became the truth." Lara Notsil, Star Wars: X-Wing: Solo Command, Aaron Allston
"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
"There's room in our line of work for hope, too." Stephanie Brown
Stephanie Brown Wiki, My Batman Universe Reviews, Stephanie Brown Discord
What do you think will happen? One of the others takes over the mantle (like when Babs was Oracle)? Babs retires and joins the police (like in Batman Beyond)? The Futures End status quo?
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