Personally, I prefer Babs as Oracle, as the information hub of the superhero community.
The mantle of "Batgirl" should be handed back over the Stephanie Brown.
Batgirl
Oracle
Depends
It doesn't matter
She can keep both
Personally, I prefer Babs as Oracle, as the information hub of the superhero community.
The mantle of "Batgirl" should be handed back over the Stephanie Brown.
I think there's a problem - the "mantle" of Batgirl. Obviously mantles are meant to be passed on, so if you think it is a mantle then naturally you want to see her grow out of it and have her pass it on - mostly to the character you like better than her.
But I don't view it as a mantle. It's not a thing that's there to pass on to the next person. It was hers, it should have always been hers, and it was weird that someone else ever took it up at all. Let her have her thing.
Once The Killing Joke was made canon and Barbara was crippled with no hope of recovery (at least back in the last century), it became a mantle for somebody else to take over.
However, as a result of the New52 giving Barbara an opportunity to resume being Batgirl, and the pasts of Cass and Steph in that role was removed from continuity, then we're back to the mantle still belonging to Barbara.
(And with the "Linearverse", that all becomes even more confusing . . . )
For anybody who has not voted yet, . . . with 64 people having voted, we're currently at:* Oracle = 31 votes
* Batgirl = 17 votes
* She can keep both = 11 votes
* Depends = 4 votes
* It doesn't matter = 1 vote
NOTE: This thread/poll was started in January 2021.------------------------------With 70 people having voted,* Oracle = 36 votes
* Batgirl = 17 votes
* She can keep both = 12 votes
* Depends = 4 votes
* It doesn't matter = 1 vote
At the time, it was a good story though also for the shock value. I don't know if Moore knew they would do some good stuff with her or if she was just cannon fodder for that story. It really boosted her as a character, even made her a character of her own rather than derivative. If character after character can come back from the dead and more than once, she can walk again.
But I would prefer she be a team leader and more than she was before, sometimes leading the team and sometimes calling the plays remotely. I'd like this experience to make her Batman's equal in her own way.
Power with Girl is better.
Cassandra Cain is the first Batgirl to hold her own ongoing and if I've learned anything from trying to come up with an alternate code name for her in her own thread, it's that the only that fits her is Batgirl.
Steph as Batgirl was the Pepsi to Barbara Coca Cola. It's the truth. Turning Steph into Batgirl was DC going 'oh well, we couldn't do Babs as Batgirl again so we will just have someone who mirrors her the closest fill in the role'. It's not really fair to either to Steph who has her own unique identity or Cass who was the Batgirl cast aside by DC.
With 83 people having voted,* Oracle = 39 votes
* Batgirl = 22 votes
* She can keep both = 16 votes
* Depends = 4 votes
* It doesn't matter = 2 votes