Originally Posted by
godisawesome
I feel like Babs “going back” to Batgirl works better if it’s Batgirl with the greater skills, autonomy, and significance that you’d get combining her Oracle years with some of her original concept in the comics - when she was presented as a competitor to Batman and a formidable enough woman in her civilian ID to be a congresswoman.
Because when you do that, it doesn’t come off as “going back” - or regression - with the Batgirl ID.
But if you don’t do that, like the New 52 did, then it definetly comes off as regression to some fans.
And I think that somewhat stains the discussion, in the same way that The Killing Joke stains her transition into Oracle, and in the opposite way that Steph getting the Batbril suit was a progression for her given DC’s treatment of her earlier, or how there’s definitely a “mirrored” feeling between Cass and some* Babs fans regarding the ID as being the best one for the character because their highest profile was there.
I’m getting better at empathizing with Babsgirl fans, even though, yeah, I’m still a sucker for Post-Crisis stories that feature Babs as Oracle. But I still feel that one of the trickiest things about her is that the New 52 out her back in the suit the wrong way, and made her come off more like a “junior varsity” player when there was a strong argument to make that Oracle had become a “varsity” level position, even if not conventional.
Treating Babs with respect has been something DC has faltered with more than once... and arguably something they still struggle with now, because they wasted the opportunity to bind together the fanbase as best they could a decade ago, and now have a fractured fanbase, similar to the situation with Superman or Wonder Woman.