InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I smell like a basking tomato"

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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The sad part is, I wouldn't put it past them...

parsimonia
2009-04-21 11:05 pm UTC (link)

God knows what they'll do to the poor woman next. :/

Vanhook and Kreisberg will collaborate on a story about Batgirl's first few adventures, where she sort-of-accidentally kills/maims/permanently injures an innocent bystander or crook-who-wasn't-all-that-evil. Batman saves her a couple times, and gives hypocritical lectures, tells her she doesn't have enough training, but leaves her in charge of Gotham while he's away taking Robin on a whirlwind martial arts training trip. While he's away, her accidental victim (or said victim's closest vengeful friend/relative) sets up an elaborate plan to destroy her.

Ever resourceful, she outsources her detective work to cops or other people she encounters instead of figuring things out herself, and she has trouble remembering things like street names and obscure cultural references that she would've memorized by the age of twelve. In the end, she nearly gets killed, Batman and Robin come back just in time and save her. Batman lectures her again, but also gives a little condescendingly and indulgently pat-on-the-head speech (after all, she's only a girl). Then she and Dick declare their undying love for each other.

I could go on, but I don't want to depress you any further. =(

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bluefall
2009-04-22 12:07 am UTC (link)

That is an unwholesomely plausible story summary. I feel for you, and the reason, sanity and basic human intelligence you had to suppress or sacrifice to put yourself in such an unerringly accurate DC mindset.

ghetto edit: Though... as I think on it, the undying love between Dick and Babs doesn't seem quite right. One of them would have to die immediately after, and this being a flashback about two living characters, that's off the table. Some kind of cheating or betrayal would seem more appropriate, or at least a bizarre, OOC suspicion or divisive personality shift..

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	parsimonia 2009-04-22 12:17 am UTC (link)
	Okay, how about they just sleep together, and then Dick skips off to the Titans (because he's so flighty!), while Babs stays at home in Gotham and swears she'll wait for him to return to her (because theirloveissotrue)? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	bluefall 2009-04-22 12:53 am UTC (link)
	I was thinking, Babs kept files on Dick's private life! Because Bruce asked her to! But he can't be with someone he can't trust, who hurts and distracts and undercuts him! So he goes and resurrects Terra. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	parsimonia 2009-04-22 12:28 pm UTC (link)
	Ding ding ding! I think we have a winner for worst retconned romance story! =) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	bluefall 2009-04-22 12:33 pm UTC (link)
	On the other hand, though, I think I just implied that Jason is a potential love interest for Tim? Not that Terra and Dick ever had a thing, but the implication of running off to resurrect her is a shade more loaded sexually. Me, I'm just glad Babs/Dinah isn't canon, and the brain trust is therefore exponentially less likely to fuck it up for cheap drama. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

parsimonia
2009-04-22 01:04 pm UTC (link)

On the other hand, though, I think I just implied that Jason is a potential love interest for Tim? Not that Terra and Dick ever had a thing, but the implication of running off to resurrect her is a shade more loaded sexually.

You gotta fill in the gaps for me, here, ignorant of much Titans history as I am. How does the Jason and Tim implication come into it?

Me, I'm just glad Babs/Dinah isn't canon, and the brain trust is therefore exponentially less likely to fuck it up for cheap drama.

Just wait until DC DIVAS comes out?

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bluefall
2009-04-22 01:27 pm UTC (link)

Oh, my scenario was a deliberate mocking of the ending of ROBIN, where Steph betrays Tim's trust at Bruce's orders, and Tim is all "we can't be together fuck off rar you're not trustworthy" and then goes and breaks the epically untrustworthy Jason out of jail. But Dick resurrecting Terra because he can't trust Babs sort of automatically adds an implication of Dick/Terra to the act - if your first act after leaving your girlfriend is to do something huge for another girl, the natural subtext is "this is a romantic choice, a change in partners."

But if the Babs/Dick scenario is a reflection of the Steph/Tim scenario, then the Steph/Tim scenario is a reflection of the Babs/Dick one, and Jason becomes equivalent to Terra...

... look, I didn't say it was a particularly strong implication. But if you can't tie yourself in knots making things slashy on S_D of all places, where can you?

Just wait until DC DIVAS comes out?

Don't even joke.

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	jlbarnett 2009-04-22 06:01 pm UTC (link)
	my scenario was a deliberate mocking of the ending of ROBIN, where Steph betrays Tim's trust at Bruce's orders, and Tim is all "we can't be together fuck off rar you're not trustworthy" and then goes and breaks the epically untrustworthy Jason out of jail. Did he plan on working with or even interacting with Jason? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	parsimonia 2009-04-23 05:39 pm UTC (link)
	If Jason turned over a new leaf and started playing by the Bat-rules, yes, I think he would've been open to it. The point of Tim springing Jason from jail was that it's supposedly what Bruce would've done/wanted, to give him another chance. (Reply to this) (Parent)

parsimonia
2009-04-23 05:30 pm UTC (link)

Ah, gotcha. I understood the Steph/Tim parallel, but didn't take it all the way to the get-out-of-jail-free trick for Jason. I think your scenario works perfectly, precisely because DC would be oblivious to Tim/Jason following the same pattern as Dick/Terra, and then we would all sit around pointing it out and having fun with it.

Don't even joke.

Oh second thought, Babs is probably too busy renovating the bathroom in her crappy apartment to be invited to all the "hot fun".

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bluefall
2009-04-23 08:35 pm UTC (link)

Well, that's what Selina, Harley and Ivy are for, I guess.

(It's really astounding the difference that a little marketing and a bit of name recognition makes. SIRENS and DIVAS could not have more obviously sprung from the exact same tired old marketing impulse, and it's not like there's really a meaningful difference in the cover art. But a different tack on the marketing blurb and a trust in Dini by the fanbase, and suddenly the two projects don't even connect - one's a trainwreck before it even starts and one's a potentially interesting pull pick.)

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parsimonia
2009-04-23 08:50 pm UTC (link)

I actually just read an article saying that very thing, and questioning a bit why there hasn't been more of a negative reaction to Sirens, when it's "usually" DC that people watch like a hawk.

I'd happily buy a Catwoman comic if it has decent art and writing, and I'll even let the writing slide a bit if I really enjoy the art. But that Guillem March cover just irritates me, and I can't bring myself to care about Sirens all that much.

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