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thebigapricot ([info]thebigapricot) wrote in [info]scans_daily,
@ 2009-07-26 14:49:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:char: batgirl/oracle/barbara gordon, char: black canary/dinah lance, creator: amanda conner, creator: terry moore, title: birds of prey

Babs Walks!


With the new Batgirl about to make her debut and consensus that it is not Barbara Gordon, I thought I would share an BoP tale where Babs gained the use of her legs. The story was written by Terry Moore with art by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti. Got to be good, right? A not very dial up friendly 13 and half pages from issues 47-50 of Birds of Prey.


This story comes from four of what I would call the "lost issues" of BoP. These run from Dixon's departure after issue 46 until issue 56 when Gail Simone took the Birds in a "Bold New Direction!" as the cover said. After Moore's run, Gilbert Hernandez took over for 6 issues (50-55).

Let's just say the topic of Barbara Gordon/Oracle walking again is a touchy one. Many articles, forum entries and blogs have been written about it over the years. Bluefall's meta on The Killing Joke is terrific and you should check that out. The debate is this: Should she be cured and return to the streets as Batgirl? Or should she remain paralyzed, the belief being that she has become much more than what she once was in her Oracle persona? Pick your weapons.

That's why I found this story so strange. Seriously, after 50 plus issues with Dixon and the knowledge that they were going to get a new writer (the news about Simone is in the back of issue 49) DC said to Terry Moore "Oh hey you want to let Babs walk? Sure go right ahead".

Don't get me wrong. I love Terry Moore. Strangers in Paradise? Love it. Kachoo + Francine 4Ever. But something is off about the tone here. And am I wrong? I mean isn't it strange that they went with this? Anyway, off we go.

Babs nabs an invite to a demo of some Lexcorp medical breakthrough. Look at Babs working out. Love it.



Dinah drops her off in DC and is ready to head out on her vacation.



Look at Babs' tricked out chair! And how cute is Dinah as drawn by Amanda Conner? And how cute a couple are they? Oh well.

So at the LexCorp conference Talia introduces Dr. Atticus Blackaver of Altavia. He introduces Madison, a 17 year old fellow Altavian who will be the guinea pig for his discovery, drumroll, The Chaotic Code! The girl clearly is a little uncomfortable and tries to catch the Babs' eye.



Now meanwhile Canary is outside getting kidnapped. I am not including that part of the story here. But just know that Amanda Conner does a "pissed off" face better than just about any artist alive and there is a lot of Dinah with that face. Pages and pages, really.

But back to the conference. After they inject Madison she cures a senator of her heart condition. A miracle. Babs is skeptical. So what better way to overcome that than to have Madison work her magic on Miss Gordon?



Well something has happened.



"Dinah, I need a minute?" What about "Hey Dinah, I can feel my legs. No really Dinah, it's a miracle."

Some thugs break into the conference and try and kidnap Madison. Wrong day, wrong place boys.



And despite the realization that this is probably short term Babs proceeds to basically say everything that you might imagine her to say if she was suddenly able to walk.



Also on this page is her saying "I don't want to go back. I can't. Not after I've felt this way. It's not fair." And my favorite "Life just gave me a kiss and reminded me that barriers can be shattered. I believed it once and now I know it." So what do you make of that? Is she referring to her becoming a superhero as Batgirl (mind you this is over a silhouette of her swinging through the air). Or is it a reference to her role as Oracle and being able to build a important fulfilling life after her shooting? Well, as you think about that, back to Babs, literally, on the run.





She calls Ted and gets a private plane to take them back to Gotham.


You really don't see much of Babs' ass in BoP. But you sure do in this arc. And you get a lot of Canary's too including ass cleavage in couple of shots. Jeez, I don't think even Benes showed that. Really Amanda.



Now the next page is interesting and I think captures some of the problems I have with this story.



You see, Barbara knows that this isn't going to last that long. And she knows that the bad guys are coming after them. And while it's funny to see Babs with her nail gazing and "What evs" look when Madison says she's tired to me it's the wrong note. I would think that Babara would be more intense. And who do you think she would call and tell that she can walk. Her dad? Dick? Maybe get call back Dinah? And do you think we could see those calls? Whoops, too late.



Madison offers to restore her again. Now think about this. Barbara has just had a terrific experience. She's walked for the first time in years. We saw her reactions. But Babs thinks and says no. She realizes that she probably won't survive it. In fact she now realizes how dangerous this might have been so she doesn't pursue it. Hmm.



Well at least she got a hold of Dinah. The plane lands and the Doctor boards to get Madison.




Oh Doctor you so underestimate this woman. I mean look at those gluts! (hah, you thought I was going to say ass, didn't you?)

Dinah steals a motorcycle and is off to save her gal.

But first she has to have a knock down cat fight with Talia who refers to Dinah at various times as "Blondie, Obnoxious Party Girl and White Trash." Well, you can certainly see where Damian gets his charm.

While Canary is battling Talia, Babs goes after the Doctor. Get'em Babs!



Madison's energy backfires on the Doctor and Talia. The Doctor dies. Talia just gets burned. Time to get out of here.



Cute, and that's the last shot of Babs' ass, promise. The story ends with Babs getting Madison into a special school where she'll be safe (you know if Sin had gone there ... well don't want to open that can here) but it ends with the girl getting flowers from Talia wishing her good luck.

Now here's the thing that kills me. There is never any discussion of this between Dinah and Babs. And this is friggin' Terry Moore. He has written, IMHO, so of the best scenes between two women that have appeared anywhere let alone in comics. You would think he would have chomped at the bit for a scene where Dinah asks Babs how she feels. Or how her experience has changed her. You know, what friends would talk about. But no. Nothing. Instead we get this in the next issue which despite having Moore and Conner listed on the outside is actually by Hernandez and Jones.


Huh? Would Dinah just say that after what happened last issue? Can't she make the connection and maybe see that Babs was maybe effected by what happened? And Christ Babs we just saw your ass for pages and pages, you are in great shape. You would have thought the editor would have caught this. But at this point she was probably focused on getting Gail ready for her run. Or maybe something happened with Moore?



And then the story goes on. And it is a ridiculous story involving an ape like robot. And the only reason they brought up Batgirl at the beginning is because the story has to do with the return of Killer Moth and if you don't know who he is you probably shouldn't have spent this much time reading a post about Barbara Gordon.




(Post a new comment)


[info]timemonkey
2009-07-27 12:20 am UTC (link)
What does reading about Barbra have to do with whether we know about Killer Moth? Barbra is a LOT better known and has a MUCH bigger fanbase.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]aaron_bourque
2009-07-27 12:34 am UTC (link)
Her debut mission as Batgirl is against Killer Moth.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]timemonkey
2009-07-27 02:28 am UTC (link)
Huh, never knew that.


I learned of Batgirl from the Adam West show and from Batman:TAS.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(no subject) - [info]kingrockwell, 2009-07-27 02:42 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]timemonkey, 2009-07-27 02:43 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]saralakali, 2009-07-27 03:17 pm UTC

[info]jeyl
2009-07-27 12:23 am UTC (link)
"Whose work is truly indespensable to other crimfighters. Most notably Batman and his comrades."

Not buying it.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]scottyquick
2009-07-27 12:29 am UTC (link)
Why?

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]timemonkey
2009-07-27 02:34 am UTC (link)
Because someone dedicated to knowledge and dealing with crime in more ways than just hitting people wouldn't be the greatest asset a crimefight has?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]jeyl
2009-07-27 03:17 am UTC (link)
Sure, she can take comfort in helping fight crime, but in the end, those who punch the bad guys out will never ever truly need her. But if they do, they'll get someone who isn't a girl.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(no subject) - [info]timemonkey, 2009-07-27 03:19 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]scottyquick, 2009-07-27 03:38 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]thebigapricot, 2009-07-27 03:59 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]kingrockwell, 2009-07-27 09:23 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]bluejaybirdie, 2009-07-27 04:42 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]jeyl, 2009-07-27 06:06 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]bluejaybirdie, 2009-07-27 08:01 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]jeyl, 2009-07-27 08:20 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]jeyl, 2009-07-27 08:23 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]sistermagpie, 2009-07-27 04:43 pm UTC

[info]ada_c
2009-07-27 05:05 am UTC (link)
Well let's not dismiss that Batman, Nightwing, and Robin are detectives. They certainly have more skills than just a good right hook.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(no subject) - [info]aaron_bourque, 2009-07-27 07:53 am UTC

[info]ex_octopusso248
2009-07-27 12:52 am UTC (link)
I really liked Moore's run. It rang true that Barbara's chair confines her in more than one way. She was a lot more emotionally available and fun when she was physically free of the chair. Conner's art works really well with the Birds and I wish we could have seen more of her working on it. All and all it was enjoyable filler between Dixon and Simmone. The Hernandez-Jones run was kinda iffy but included some implied Babs/Dinah and the character design for Babs was reminiscent of The Batman's Oracle, who I adore. Thanks for posting these scans, I was pondering doing so just ealier this week.

(Reply to this)


[info]jlroberson
2009-07-27 12:59 am UTC (link)
On one hand, my childhood crush on Babs makes me wish her legs would come back and she'd wear the(sigh) tights again. Strengthening the case is that her crippling is something Moore regretted doing almost as soon as he did it. Given he believes now that fictions are in a way alive, I imagine the regret would be compounded.

On the other hand, I also see that people in wheelchairs have very few good characters in comics to represent them. So restoring her legs now would now be insensitive, after--JESUS--over 20 years of this, wouldn't it?

Over 20 years. Geez, I remember the first time i read KJ in the car after buying it, when I was 19. I'm old old old.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]timemonkey
2009-07-27 02:30 am UTC (link)
Last time I talked to someone who was disabled about disabled heroes they were against it. Said they didn't read comics to be reminded to it.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


(Anonymous)
2009-07-27 02:39 am UTC (link)
That's a good point. But not all disabled people feel the same way, and some certainly do support the inclusion of a disabled heroine in the superhero genre.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]jlroberson
2009-07-27 02:52 am UTC (link)
Well, then, give her back her fine, fine legs...

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(no subject) - [info]aaron_bourque, 2009-07-27 07:54 am UTC

[info]kingrockwell
2009-07-27 02:40 am UTC (link)
I'm reminded now that I'm one trade short of finishing Gail's run that I still have yet to do anything beyond flipping through these "lost issues" of BoP, aside from [info]bluefall's post of the Hernandez/Jones run shortly before S_D1.0 went down. Thanks for the reminder!

I do really like the art in both, especially that Babs and Dinah are actually drawn with different body types, everything after has just looked wrong to me since, especially Babs not being so slender, and her hair is adorable! As far as the ass shots go, they're pretty much to be expected, from Amanda Conner especially (she's best known for drawing Power Girl, after all). It kind of brings everything full circle, since one of the great things about the Bronze Age was, whether you're into ladies or fellas, the Batfamily always had the best butts in comics.
I love the "I'd rather stand" bit. I really wish Conner or Jones had been a regular on the title.

The sitting-in-front-of-the-computer-thighs bit is really weird, since Babs has always kept up her physical therapy to prevent atrophy.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]sir_razorback
2009-07-27 03:47 am UTC (link)
Probably just an off-handed remark more than anything else.

Hell, I'd like to see her walk again, but decide to stay Oracle. I just don't think Joker deserves a long-term victory like that.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(no subject) - [info]tavella, 2009-07-29 01:26 pm UTC

[info]thebigapricot
2009-07-27 04:14 am UTC (link)
Yeah I just don't get the comment on her thighs. She was just seen working out four issues before and, as you said, was regularly seen keeping up her therapy.

I do think Conner's Babs is absolutely adorkable.

Aw, I still think the Batfamily has the best butts -- Nightwing's appearance in the Secret Six recently was proof enough for me.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(no subject) - [info]kingrockwell, 2009-07-27 09:28 am UTC

[info]bariman1987
2009-07-27 08:29 am UTC (link)
The sitting-in-front-of-the-computer-thighs bit is really weird

There was another gag about that in an early issue of Batgirl, I believe. A telepath has just rewired Cass's brain to accept speech and Babs is testing it with word association. After "window," she tries a harder word, "cellulose." After a moment's thought, Cass points to Barbara's thighs. Babs protested a bit.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(no subject) - [info]kingrockwell, 2009-07-27 09:12 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]runespoor7, 2009-07-27 06:11 pm UTC

[info]innerbrat
2009-07-27 03:12 pm UTC (link)
Does Dinah actaully know that Babs ever had the use of her legs? I can imagine Babs keeping it fully to herself.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]jarodrussell
2009-07-27 03:29 pm UTC (link)
Yes, Dinah knows she was Batgirl.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(no subject) - [info]innerbrat, 2009-07-27 03:35 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]jarodrussell, 2009-07-27 03:42 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]innerbrat, 2009-07-27 03:44 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]jarodrussell, 2009-07-27 03:48 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]innerbrat, 2009-07-27 03:51 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]jarodrussell, 2009-07-27 03:54 pm UTC

[info]thebigapricot
2009-07-27 05:17 pm UTC (link)
I agree that Babs can be secretive and you're right that her later behavior makes the possibility that she wouldn't tell her very real. But here the question is how did she not know? Dinah and Babs drop Madison off at her school together. The story of Madison's escape would have had to have been a point of discussion. And when Dinah and Babs are reunited, Babs does not have her chair with her. It was left in Washington when she escaped with Madison. And finally when Babs regained the ability to walk it was in front of a number of people (it was a demonstration). They know who she is and there is a discussion of what happened.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]jarodrussell
2009-07-27 03:29 pm UTC (link)
I like the symmetry of this, as well as the more recent Brainiac Virus.

A surprise assault put her in the wheelchair, and we're now at two surprise cures almost getting her out. Maybe one day someone will beat a cure so violently into her it'll stick.

(Reply to this)


[info]parsimonia
2009-07-28 12:04 am UTC (link)
My thoughts on yaoi Barbara Gordon relating to this matter.

I have to say that while Amanda Conner is great at facial expressions, I just don't dig her style.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]thebigapricot
2009-07-28 12:51 am UTC (link)
Excellent post. I share many of the thoughts you express even to changing my mind about whether Babs should walk. My mom was in a wheelchair the last years of her life so I can relate alot of what you said about your experiences with your dad. Thanks.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(no subject) - [info]parsimonia, 2009-07-28 01:06 am UTC
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