InsaneJournal

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batcookies (batcookies) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-04-21 17:06:00

Entry tags:

char: batgirl/oracle/barbara gordon, char: batman/bruce wayne, char: jim gordon

The Origin of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl

Now, I love Babs as Oracle, and Cass as Batgirl, but that doesn't mean I have no love for Babs' time as Batgirl. Especially these stories.

This first story is Flawed Gems (Secret Origins #20), by Barbara Randal. It's an old friend. We go way back (It's also a very large comic, also including the origin of the original Dr. Mid-Nite, so I've kept the pagecount kosher)

This second story is Folie a Deux, from Legends of the DC Universe 10-11, by Kelley Puckett and Terry Dodson. It's a recent find, one I bought just a few weeks ago, and I'm kicking myself for not knowing about it sooner.

Cutting out a lot, much about Jim starting to have suspicions about what Babs is doing with her free time... he's not an idiot. He pretty much knows, he's just not sure how to feel about it. It's a slightly different take on her background, so Babs is starting some "Batgirl" stuff while still in college.

The private lessons seem to be going well, but Jim finds out about them, and decides it's finally time to speak up and put an end to things.

But then he gets shot while trying to stop a robbery... while Batgirl's watching...

The bad guys seem to have an inkling that things have gotten out of hand, and settle for tying up our heroes.

She does it, using everything Batman taught her about misdirection, and then carries Jim to a hospital herself... then "Batgirl" vanished.

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sistermagpie
2009-04-21 09:24 pm UTC (link)

I continue to be fascinated by the way my own preferences for Batgirl seem to be directly opposite the way the comics improved her. It's like they looked back and said, "Wait, we forgot to make it clear that she looks up to Batman because how can she be a girl superhero if she's not spunkily complaining that he's treating her like a child (because she is one, but wants to be older, isn't that cute).

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	mysteryfan 2009-04-21 10:18 pm UTC (link)
	This. (Reply to this) (Parent)

batcookies
2009-04-22 12:12 am UTC (link)

I honestly don't think you can get around looking up to Batman.

If you don't look up to Batman, then why the hell are you dressing like him?

That said, I think it bears noting in the first one she loved superheroes when she was younger, and made up superheroines, but the one she gravitated to was "Supergirl". She ended up studying more about Batman because she was moving to Gotham, but initially her thoughts were "what heroine would I like to be? Who else? Supergirl!"

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	parsimonia 2009-04-22 12:40 am UTC (link)
	I think it can work in that she admires what he does from afar, what he's come to represent for the city, and how much he's helped her father, but when she actually meets him and he's all "Go home, little girl", she kind of re-asses in the moment based on his condescension. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	batcookies 2009-04-22 01:07 am UTC (link)
	Certainly... but isn't that more or less what we see here? (Reply to this) (Parent)

	mysteryfan 2009-04-22 01:13 am UTC (link)
	and he's all "Go home, little girl", she kind of re-asses in the moment based on his condescension. See, I just ignore that. It's the re-con version. Spunky kid Babs who has to fight against mean old Batman. Who wants to keep her down because she's a girl and he's a man. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	batcookies 2009-04-22 01:31 am UTC (link)
	I disagree. He goes "you're not ready for this, go home" to almost everyone that tries, from Terry (Batman Beyond) to Helena. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	mysteryfan 2009-04-22 01:57 am UTC (link)
	I think there's a special flavor of 'sexism that Babs must fight to prove her worth' in certain versions of her origin. I think sometimes Batman is portrayed as part of a system keeping her down. IMO. (Reply to this) (Parent)

sistermagpie
2009-04-22 09:20 am UTC (link)

Sure he always said that to everyone, but it gets exaggerated in every version, and more and more central to Barbara's story. What I get from the original story is that Babs is an adult who respects Batman for the things he's done and for the experience he has, but still as one (younger) adult to another. When Batman first asks her why she's dressed the way she is she assures him she's going to a costume party--because as a rational adult she understands where he's coming from in thinking random people shouldn't be running around doing this. She didn't choose to dress like him to fight crime, she's on her way to a party.

In their next encounter, yes Batman is still telling her to go home but her conflict with him is far more a conflict of equals. She thinks he and Robin have interfered with her attempt to rescue Bruce Wayne. They tell her to go home and she just says "the hell I will," finally getting pushed into annoyance at his attitude.

In later versions they make Babs younger and the conflict with Batman, which was originally just an irritation that distracted her from her goal of saving the victim, becomes this huge central drama. To the point where the story for me becomes more about Babs proving herself to Daddy Batman and getting what she wants than Babs saving anybody. In YO it even starts with her own father not giving her the gold stamp of approval and ends with her taking Dick's vow--which to Dick actually was a vow, but to Babs is a prize ceremony showing she's made it into the club and gotten approval from a different male authority figure at last.

So yeah, even the first version had the "go home" thing, but as people they related as one adult to another. Later versions make it more and more child vs. father-figure and approval. It's not until she becomes Oracle that she regains her original position regarding Bruce--a position I still feel is far more natural for the character. When I watch her dealing with Bruce or the boys as Oracle, I see nothing that indicates she ever had this kind of past with him.

I think the later versions also get ham-handed in their attempt to be feminist, with Barbara seeming to think she has to get an older man's permission for any career she wants and the male characters sometimes acting like parodies of outdated sexist stereotypes.

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	mysteryfan 2009-04-22 11:06 am UTC (link)
	IAWTC. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	parsimonia 2009-04-22 12:05 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah. I mean, on the one hand, I can kind of see it coming from Batman, but on the other hand, I think he'd be a bit more understanding of someone wanting to fight crime (especially at this point, when Babs is the first person after Robin to want to join the fight), even if he thinks she shouldn't do it at first. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	mysteryfan 2009-04-22 01:09 am UTC (link)
	I actually love the looking up to Batman part. And it's present in every Babs origin. It should be there. It's the how can she be a girl superhero if she's not spunkily complaining that he's treating her like a child (because she is one, but wants to be older, isn't that cute) part that I don't like. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sistermagpie
2009-04-22 09:38 am UTC (link)

Right. Original Babs, for me, I think shows just how mature she is by recognizing Batman's greater experience and not assuming any time he says no he just doesn't understand. The whole "I'm not a kid!" is of course a signpost that she's a kid. Original!Babs starts out respecting Batman's wariness about her as a crimefighter and only gets annoyed when she sees a bias--and she ends up saving him. Where as later, as a youngster, she just disagrees any time he says no with more spunk than brains. And it turns out she's right to do that because he's manipulating and testing her all along.

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