There’s been a lot of buzz recently about the decision by DC, in the upcoming reboot, to make Barbara Gordon Batgirl again instead of Oracle, taking her out of her wheelchair in the process and removing one of the only high-profile disabled superheroes. Here’s a round-up of some of the best writing on this:
-Jill Pantozzi’s personal account of her reaction really brings home how important Babs is, and her interview with Gail Simone (writing the new book) about the reboot is essential reading.
-Andy Khouri’s ComicsAlliance editorial provides a look back over what makes Barbara Gordon so iconic.
-The ever-brilliant DC Women Kicking Ass recaps previous attempts to get her walking again.
-And finally the Oracle Create-A-Thon, a tumblr set up in response to DC’s decision, collecting fanart of Oracle “to support visibility for disabled characters in mainstream comics, and comics in general”. Some amazing stuff in there.
And a couple of non-Oracle links to round you off:
-I just found this handy illustration, from last year, of a particularly irritating sexist trope.
-And I fell in love with Cliff Chiang’s rendition of Wondy as Joan Jett, with Black Canary, Zatanna and Batgirl backing her up.
I doubt this will be the last from GW on Barbara Gordon’s reboot – watch this space. And if you’ve got anything for us on this, just send it to submissions@girl-wonder.org.
One More Insult
It’s this week’s links, and the big story is DC’s explicit confirmation that the “target audience” for their giant relaunch is “men age 18 to 34″. You’ll hear much more from Girl Wonder on this – we are still co-ordinating our response, but this is exactly the sort of problem we face in mainstream comics today. A round-up of good responses:
-thegeekifiedgirl drops some stats and backs them up with a solid argument.
-It’s interesting to look at which books CBR’s readers are actually interested in buying.
-… and Johanna at Comics Worth Reading’s personal take on the new titles from earlier this month also merit a read.
-Maid of Might highlights the fact that this relaunch (like most other relaunches?) was allegedly meant to bring in new readers rather than the same-old gradually shrinking group DC had been catering to for years. She and DC Women Kicking Ass both remember getting male friends and partners into comics.
More on this issue soon. In the mean-time, keep sending in your suggestions for links!