Originally Posted by
thwhtGuardian
It was 100% due to the real time gap, there's no way to see it otherwise. She was introduced as being older simply because she had to be in order to not contradict the past continuity, but there's no reason for her to have to be older.
Frank Miller's All Star Batman and Robin is far from my favorite book but he got that Batgirl and Robin were intrinsically linked so debuting together makes a lot of sense.
For my druthers Batman's time line I'd go with:
Year One: The Redhood Gang part of Zero Year and Year One
Year Two: The Man Who Laughs,Batman and the monster men,Batman and the mad monk, Riddle Factory, secret origins #36, Legends of the Dark Knight Special #1,Penguin: Pain and Prejudice, Batman: The Dark Knight: Chasing Madness, Legends of the Dark Knight (vol.2) #30-32, Snow,Long Halloween.
Year Three: Dark Victory, The Gauntlet
Year Four: Robin Year One and Batgirl Year One
Year Five: Waid's World's Finest, Robin and Batman and Worlds Finest Teen Titans
Year Six: Batman Family and Black Case Files
Year Seven: Nightwing Year One and Jason Todd becomes Robin
Year Eight: Post Crisis Jason Todd stories, Batman The Cult, Death In the Family
Year Nine: Batman Killing Joke, Siege,Otaku,Duel
Year Ten: Tim Drake becomes Robin
Year Eleven: Robin Unmasked, Bullet for Bullock, sorrow street
Year Twelve: Knightfall
Year Thirteen: Contagion
Year Fourteen: no mans land
Year Fifteen: Under the Hood, RIP, Battle For the Cowl
Year Sixteen: Dick and Damian as Batman and Robin
Year Seventeen: Return of Bruce Wayne and Batman Inc
Year Eighteen: Nowish