A Very Special Discussion about DC’s Relaunch:

Barbara Gordon, Batgirl Again

Yesterday, DC announced that one of the relaunched titles in the DC Universe come September is Batgirl, written by C!TB favourite Gail Simone with art by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes. This is the stickiest matter of these newly announced titles for me. I adore Gail Simone. I adore Barbara Gordon, both as Batgirl and as Oracle, and I have ever since I was a little boy. One of the biggest questions I had in my head when DC announced this whole thing was: What will happen to Barbara? Will she still be in her wheelchair? Yesterday, we got our answer: Barbara will be Batgirl once again. Simone has spoken already about her delight in continuing to write her favourite character in comics, and I’m definitely excited I’ll still get to read her take on one of my favourite characters for a while longer.

But at the same time, I cannot in good conscience ignore the genuine hurt and frustration experienced by people like Jill Pantozzi, who wrote about the importance of having somebody in comics in a wheelchair for someone in a wheelchair herself. I definitely wish that there could be a way that Jill and people like her could not be hurt, because I understand how that kind of hurt feels.

I’m Metis, one of Canada’s recognized aboriginal peoples, and the reality is that there aren’t very many roles for my people in popular culture. In DC’s universe, the only aboriginal characters I can think of are Man of Bats and Robin Red, little-seen members of the Batmen of All Nations and, presently, Batman Incorporated, as long as it lasts. On Marvel’s side of things, there’s Danielle Moonstar and Warpath, both of whom are deeply connected to the traditional culture of what’s more or less analogous to Canada’s First Nations. The thing is, though, I’m not First Nations. My family isn’t connected to life on a reservation. We’re something else, and that something else isn’t really a part of even the small part of mainstream comics that aboriginal people fit into. In my personal life, I’ve had classmates announce that all “Natives” would spend any money they got on was alcohol and cigarettes and not be corrected or reprimanded by anybody, not even the teacher. A significant portion of my country believes and will openly state that they dislike and resent aboriginal people, and sometimes even to my face because they don’t realize my heritage.

Like I said, I understand that kind of hurt not seeing someone like you in culture can bring about, even if my own difficulties are hardly on the day-to-day impact of persons in wheelchairs. I agree that comics desperately need more diversity and I can understand how removing Barbara Gordon from such a source of her strength and the inspiration she provides to others [Ed note: Seriously, read Jill’s piece, it’s brilliant] can create such an emotional response in people.

The thing is, I’m not sure there’s a great option here, at least on the topic of causing hurt and offense. The Killing Joke is, more than 20 years later, still a remarkably polarizing work due to the decision to have the Joker paralyze Barbara. To some readers, the fact that Barbara, almost alone (excepting the Calculator’s daughter Wendy/Proxy) in modern comics, remains disabled after a significant injury and in the face of a world where magic and science can create marvels much more complicated than repairing a spinal cord, is offensive, an example of “Women in Refrigerators” and the generally disproportionate treatment of the genders in mainstream comics.

I can imagine that some people are as happy to see Barbara walking again as they were offended when she wasn’t. They could be happy right now, but that doesn’t mean that differently abled persons like Jill don’t rightfully feel hurt by the decision; I will not tell anybody how to feel.

So where does that leave DC? No matter what they do with the character, people will be offended. Rightfully offended. This die was cast when they published The Killing Joke and again when they first had Barbara become Oracle. They’ve made their bed, and they will lay in it. At this point, all they can do is move forward; I sincerely doubt Simone or DC will cripple Barbara once again, and even if she did, that would be an awful decision because it would be grotesquely offensive to repeat a violent crippling out of some bizarre idea of fan service. Barbara is going to be Batgirl and that is more or less that.

Luckily, there’s still an ace in the proverbial hole: Gail Simone herself. Gail is easily one of the, if not the, writers in the mainstream comics industry most dedicated to representing diversity and respect for all people, whatever their identity or condition. She’s also one of the finest writers in the industry, period. If anybody can make this relaunched Batgirl work, it is her, and I am heartened by this response to the issue she tweeted:

That’s the best it can be, I think. Simone will make the best comic she can, which is pretty fucking great, and I trust she will tackle the issue and the character that she loves respectfully. I look forward to reading it, I’m still excited to read it, but my exuberance is tempered by the reminder that this is not a simple case of “make good comics.” This is a matter of deep, personal importance for people, a matter of respect, and I have to keep that in mind. I hope that the industry can grow to a place where diversity can be better represented, even if Barbara Gordon is no longer in a wheelchair. I hope that Batgirl is a great comic and that it doesn’t cause any more hurt than it already has. People deserve that much. It’s only right.