always with the Dick jokes (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
irrelevant) wrote2011-06-09 02:56 pm
irrelevant) wrote2011-06-09 02:56 pm
Entry tags:
I'm probably going to regret this. oh well.
I recently wrote in a comment that my reactions to the DC reboot are a mixed bag. Some of them are positive, some neutral, some negative. But nothing has affected me more than the Batgirl debate, and my unhappy reaction there is on behalf of both Barbara Gordon and Stephanie Brown.
So for what it's worth, my two cents.
I’m just going to say it: I have no problem with Babs getting her walk on again. And maybe that sounds ableist as fuck, and maybe it is in a way. But if you’re backing up your 'Babs should not be Batgirl' arguments by saying Babs Gordon wouldn’t seize the opportunity to be able to walk again, I think you a) are lying to yourself, and b) don’t really understand the character.
I’ve been chronically ill for nearly twenty-three of my thirty-five years. I don’t know what it feels like to not be able to use my legs, to know that I will never walk again. But I do know what it feels like to spend several months out of a year unable to get out of bed without assistance.
I know what it’s like to have to crawl to the bathroom and then sit crying on the floor because I don’t have the energy to pull myself up onto the toilet. I know what it’s like to not be able to take a bath for over a week, even with help, because I physically can’t.
I don’t remember what it feels like to be healthy. But I do know that if I was offered, free and clear, the opportunity to be healthy again, I’d take it, hands down. And you can’t tell me that Barbara Gordon, who was once Batgirl, doesn’t want to walk again. You can’t, because it would be a lie.
Which is absolutely not to say that she isn’t just as fulfilled and happy as a disabled person as she would be with the ability to walk. She is, and she demonstrates that every day of her life. She’s also just as kickass – if not more so – as Oracle as she was as Batgirl. When she lost the ability to walk I think her brain kicked into overdrive to compensate. Sure, Batgirl was always the smartest girl in the class, but Oracle is in a category of her own. She’s amazing, and so much more than Batgirl ever was. But would she want to walk if she could? Yes, I think she would.
And now we come to the sticking point. Do I think Babs would go back to being Batgirl if she could walk? Do I think it’s even a good idea? No to both of those things.
I think Babs would stay Oracle. I think Oracle would step up her game to a whole new level. She’d still be the most formidable brain on the planet, but she’d be available for field action as well, and that would make me happy for her.
Not because she’d be a better crimefighter or a more fulfilled and accomplished human being, because I don’t think that’s even possible. What I do think is: she’d love to be able to fight again the way she once did. It would make her happy.
And that’s it. That’s why I’m all for Babs walking again. Because it would make her happy. But do I think putting her back in Batgirl’s suit is a good idea? Oh hell no.
Not only would it be a step back for her as a person and a career crimefighter, it would strip her, effectively, of Oracle, and all Oracle means. I don’t think she’d want that, honestly. Oracle is needed, far more than Batgirl, and I think she understands that.
And then there’s Steph. Oh, Steph. Even though Babs was the first Batgirl I read about as a kid, Steph is my favorite Batgirl ever. She’s… my god, I don’t know how to put into words how happy she makes me. From her eggplant accents to her snarky sarcasm and her gooperangs, she’s the best thing in comics right now. Batgirl is the title I look forward to every month because I *know* it’s going to be awesome. I HAVE NO DOUBT. And it always is, every time.
Right now, Stephanie Brown is the best thing DC has going for it. She is the best part of the DCU, hands down. And for them to jettison her as Batgirl, when the title has proved so awesome and so *popular* is just… seriously, what the *hell* are they thinking?
They’re doing it again, just like they did when she was Robin: making her some kind of stopgap, and that… god, it makes me want to cry and hurt things and – and–
Yeah.
So I don’t know. I’d like to think that this is all some kind of elaborate fakeout. That Oracle will be around, and walking, and that Steph will still be Batgirl, and maybe that the title will revolve around the two of them and Cass – with many guest appearances courtesy of Damian, because that would *rock* above all things – but…
I don’t see that happening. Because I’m not that lucky. Because DC is just not that smart. So I’m going to be hurting and chewing my nails to the quick and feeling all kinds of raw until September. After which, presumably, I’ll just be hurting.
eta: In other, better news Jaime is IN. See what I mean? So much happy and unhappy in one place. DC really does love to jerk me around.
So for what it's worth, my two cents.
I’m just going to say it: I have no problem with Babs getting her walk on again. And maybe that sounds ableist as fuck, and maybe it is in a way. But if you’re backing up your 'Babs should not be Batgirl' arguments by saying Babs Gordon wouldn’t seize the opportunity to be able to walk again, I think you a) are lying to yourself, and b) don’t really understand the character.
I’ve been chronically ill for nearly twenty-three of my thirty-five years. I don’t know what it feels like to not be able to use my legs, to know that I will never walk again. But I do know what it feels like to spend several months out of a year unable to get out of bed without assistance.
I know what it’s like to have to crawl to the bathroom and then sit crying on the floor because I don’t have the energy to pull myself up onto the toilet. I know what it’s like to not be able to take a bath for over a week, even with help, because I physically can’t.
I don’t remember what it feels like to be healthy. But I do know that if I was offered, free and clear, the opportunity to be healthy again, I’d take it, hands down. And you can’t tell me that Barbara Gordon, who was once Batgirl, doesn’t want to walk again. You can’t, because it would be a lie.
Which is absolutely not to say that she isn’t just as fulfilled and happy as a disabled person as she would be with the ability to walk. She is, and she demonstrates that every day of her life. She’s also just as kickass – if not more so – as Oracle as she was as Batgirl. When she lost the ability to walk I think her brain kicked into overdrive to compensate. Sure, Batgirl was always the smartest girl in the class, but Oracle is in a category of her own. She’s amazing, and so much more than Batgirl ever was. But would she want to walk if she could? Yes, I think she would.
And now we come to the sticking point. Do I think Babs would go back to being Batgirl if she could walk? Do I think it’s even a good idea? No to both of those things.
I think Babs would stay Oracle. I think Oracle would step up her game to a whole new level. She’d still be the most formidable brain on the planet, but she’d be available for field action as well, and that would make me happy for her.
Not because she’d be a better crimefighter or a more fulfilled and accomplished human being, because I don’t think that’s even possible. What I do think is: she’d love to be able to fight again the way she once did. It would make her happy.
And that’s it. That’s why I’m all for Babs walking again. Because it would make her happy. But do I think putting her back in Batgirl’s suit is a good idea? Oh hell no.
Not only would it be a step back for her as a person and a career crimefighter, it would strip her, effectively, of Oracle, and all Oracle means. I don’t think she’d want that, honestly. Oracle is needed, far more than Batgirl, and I think she understands that.
And then there’s Steph. Oh, Steph. Even though Babs was the first Batgirl I read about as a kid, Steph is my favorite Batgirl ever. She’s… my god, I don’t know how to put into words how happy she makes me. From her eggplant accents to her snarky sarcasm and her gooperangs, she’s the best thing in comics right now. Batgirl is the title I look forward to every month because I *know* it’s going to be awesome. I HAVE NO DOUBT. And it always is, every time.
Right now, Stephanie Brown is the best thing DC has going for it. She is the best part of the DCU, hands down. And for them to jettison her as Batgirl, when the title has proved so awesome and so *popular* is just… seriously, what the *hell* are they thinking?
They’re doing it again, just like they did when she was Robin: making her some kind of stopgap, and that… god, it makes me want to cry and hurt things and – and–
Yeah.
So I don’t know. I’d like to think that this is all some kind of elaborate fakeout. That Oracle will be around, and walking, and that Steph will still be Batgirl, and maybe that the title will revolve around the two of them and Cass – with many guest appearances courtesy of Damian, because that would *rock* above all things – but…
I don’t see that happening. Because I’m not that lucky. Because DC is just not that smart. So I’m going to be hurting and chewing my nails to the quick and feeling all kinds of raw until September. After which, presumably, I’ll just be hurting.
eta: In other, better news Jaime is IN. See what I mean? So much happy and unhappy in one place. DC really does love to jerk me around.
no subject
I - I have stopped reading most of the titles I was following because I reached the rage burn-out stage, and have gone straight to too tired to care. DC have hit the reset button on me before, and it took several years for me to get over it, to learn how to love these characters, and maybe it will change in the future, but I have reached that point where I've dropped all the titles I was following because I honestly don’t want to get burned again. Sure, in a year or so’s time I’ll probably pick a few titles up again, but I remember the anger and I just want to love.
no subject
I agree with you one hundred percent on the Batgirl-Oracle thing. If Barbara is able to get out of the wheelchair and into the frontlines? I absolutely think she'd do it. But I don't think she'd do it as Batgirl. Honestly I think she's grown past Batgirl, at this point. She's the leader of her own team now; there's no reason to take, what in my opinion, is a step back in rank.