"Life is too short so love the one you got cause you might get run over or you might get shot" - Sublime
Of course Barbara has been pushed to the background this past year. Despite all the condescending and patronizing quotes about how she was going to be sooo much more important out of the suit, and the center of the Batuniverse. Really, the same thing could have been said, for years, about Alfred.
These are superhero comics. And to paraphrase what Bryant said to Deckard in ‘Blade Runner’- If you’re not wearing the suit, you’re little people.
The good news for Barbara-as-Batgirl fans is that there are a couple of very expensive, high profile projects happening outside the actual comicBOOK world in the near future that will feature her in the role- the Gotham Knights video game and the Batgirl movie.
As the licensed property of a large corporation, it is very likely that that same corporation is going to want fans who enjoyed the character in those more high-profile projects to be able to also find that character in the books. So, despite the obvious wishes of some at DC, and a couple of very passionate fanbases, I believe that we will be able see Barbara swinging from rooftops in the books again, in the near future.
"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"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date."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
You guys think they’ll set up Tiffany Fox to become Batgirl?
Last edited by Will Evans; 08-15-2021 at 07:08 PM.
I'm going to start by saying that I love Babs. she's my Batgirl. I have all her books, and I think she's awesome.
That being said, we can't deny that Cass and Steph were also Batgirl. It was their identity as well, and striping it away from them was wrong.
By pretending they were never batgirls like DC tried to do, they stripped the characters from a lot of their meaningful stories and made them feel unimportant or even bland. It caused huge damage to them.
As a relatively new reader, I didn't find any of them compelling at all until I read their batgirl runs. it says a lot about the damage done to them.
Honestly, I think DC indeed wanted Babs to take a step back and let Cass and Steph be Batgirls alone so that they could get some prominence back. To get new readers to once again love Steph and Cass enough so that they'll follow them even if one day they'll change mantles again. However, they also don't want to lose Babs fanbase, so they are trying to balance it and make her Batgirl, and their leader, but not the "everyday" batgirl.
It's not ideal, and it can actually make Cass and Steph feel incompetent, but again, it's a balancing act.
Overall, I'm against shared mantles. Jace as Batman sounds like an awful idea, unless you kill the entire batfamily. Damian and Tim sharing a mantle also isn't ideal, but we all know that Damian is the prominent Robin, the face of the brand. It seems like that would also be the case with Babs, and honestly, it seems more like Cass and Steph fans should be frustrated that even when they are back to being batgirls, they are treated like class B batgirls.
Also; if Jace shouldn’t be Batman at the same time as Bruce, then neither should Steph and Cass be Batgirl at the same time as Babs. Pick ONE argument; not “it’s not ideal but” because you get what YOU want either way, despite having it before with Cass and Steph always being active heroes no matter what.
But Jace was never batman. If he'd been Batman for years before, removed from the mantle and his history stripped from him, and then struggling to find himself again, it would be a different situation. That's the reason I'm fine with Tim as a secondary Robin, even though I'm not a fan of the shared mantle and would deally prefer only Damian as Robin.
Anyway, claiming that Steph and Cass are nobodys if far from the truth. They are not Barbra, but they were important batgirls. Removing babs from the mantle is wrong, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. And even if the mantle is shared, she's still the main one.
Would you prefer a popularity contest to determine who would be the only batgirl, similar to DC round Robin? Or DC chosing only Cass or Steph? Or no Batgirl book at all? It's clear DC wants the batgirl book to be profitable, and salewise, babs alone didn't sell well enough. It's possible that all 3 together would sell enough.
It doesn’t matter, he’s Batman now. He’s still going to be Batman, because anything else is a demotion, unless you’re Cass or Tim who were ‘designed’ to be Batgirl and Robin—oh wait. Jace was designed to be Batman, just like Barbara.
Honestly, I want Barbara as Batgirl, maybe the other two in her orbit. Or a desperate book dealing with that: and the only reason Batgirl was cancelled was because of Tynion’s mandate. If not for him, Babs would have another shot at a solo. This is literally Tynion’s doing and they can’t back-track now even though he’s thankfully fucking off.
And since it’s Babs who’s always trending on Twitter…yeah. I’m not worried about who’s the most profitable Batgirl. If anything, having to share is what’s gonna **** over all three of these characters. (IF they share, because Tynion’s laid out their doom with Babs having to play chronic second fiddle.) Unfortunately, Babs is being removed: and if you support that financially then you are absolutely part of the problem.
If this book is going to be about Batgirls then we should be celebrating all three, because different generations grew up with different Batgirls, and in the future there maybe another batgirl at some point too. So why all the fighting about this?
I mean by the logic of some readers it should really just be Dick and Bruce and that's it, no extended family because it's too much for some readers.