No worries. After all, I 'ranted' first, and my scenario did take things way over the top.
Encountering that scene years ago was an unexpected and deeply unpleasant reading experience for me, and revisiting it always makes me seethe. So I'll happily concede that the revenge portion of my scenario would (and should) never happen in the actual comics. Though I would have found it satisfying on a purely cathartic level, it would indeed be a big time character derail for Babs.
I guess what I was really looking for was more of a karmic smackdown for Tarantula. Yeah, I know she went to prison -- but that just doesn't feel like enough for me. YMMV.
At the end of the day I'd like to believe that only what was shown on panel actually took place, but, IMHO, Dick's take on it in later issues makes that a little hard to buy. And though Devin's somewhat contradictory comments on the event probably shouldn't be taken as canon, for me they underline just how fundamentally misconceived the storyline was.
Probably the best I can hope for at this point, is that the plot will never be revisited, Tarantula will be consigned to character limbo, and the incident will fade from continuity. I'd settle for that.
Unlike some of the detractors elsewhere in the thread, I actually liked most of Devin's DC work. Maybe that's part of what infuriates me. It just amazes me that she thought that this was an appropriate storyline in any way, much less that her editor(s) was/were apparently willing to go along for the ride. That's just a mindblowing amount of fail, and it's all the more jarring to me that it came from a writer whose prior work I'd mostly enjoyed.
Anyway, sorry for the ramble and thanks for taking issue with me so politely. It's a rarity on these here intarwebs, but a very welcome one.