Barbara Gordon's Batgirl series is now selling in the low 20,000s. While those numbers aren't terrible, they're significantly lower than the stable 30k she used to pull from 2011 to a year or two ago. Clearly, something has changed. Heroes like Nightwing and Red Hood have maintained and even grown their numbers a bit, but Batgirl is slowly slipping.

I think it's clear that even though the Burnside reinvention gave her a nice, temporary bump in popularity, it hasn't caught on. I enjoy the series, but as a whole it feels very inconsequential and has kind of relegated Barbara to the fringes of the DC universe, where once she used to be in the center. This prolonged lack of prominence seems to have diminished her popularity as well. I haven't seen much excitement for the character in a while, and in some forums (like this one), it seems that she's not especially liked anymore.


Should DC continue this Burnside persona? Or is it time for a change? And what can they do to reinvigorate her character, with all the new Batkids running around? If she's outgrown Batgirl, and Oracle doesn't work in the current continuity anymore (what with everyone being a master hacker and Cyborg being a living computer), what role is there for her?