ORACLE Is Stronger Than BATGIRL Will Ever Be

[newest_gloss]

 For those that do not keep up with the world of comics, DC is rebooting their universe and among the changes being made is Barbara Gordon aka Oracle getting out of her wheelchair and becoming able-bodied to fight as Batgirl again. The announcements are here and here.

ORACLE Is Stronger Than BATGIRL Will Ever Be
By Jill Pantozzi

Who’s your symbol for

Comments

DEEP FEELINGS ABOUT COMIC BOOKS

[cephiedvariable]

Additionally, Babs is entirely her own Superhero with her own franchise/superhero family built around her as Oracle. Ostensibly she's still part of the Batfamily, but the whole BoP line is an independent entity unto itself of which she is the pillar and the focus. She has a unique and prominent place within the DCU doing a job that is not only invaluable to the entire universe but literally a job that only she can do. As Oracle, she is one of the most capable, dangerous and important people in the entire comic line.

Making her Batgirl again strips her of all that and makes her a bat sidekick again. :/ So not only are they robbing disabled people of an important symbol but completely dressing down one of the most important and well written women in all of comics.

Gross.

I am really hoping this reboot thing is just a publicity stunt event and not something they intend to make permanent. Augh.

Re: DEEP FEELINGS ABOUT COMIC BOOKS

[fornikate]

well, you said everything i was thinking!

Re: DEEP FEELINGS ABOUT COMIC BOOKS

[iteari]

Well said!

[reservoir]

In addition to how disgusting this entire thing is, in comics continuity, she had STOPPED being Batgirl before she was even paralyzed.

Even for those who don't read comics normally, her story of recovery/claiming her new identity in Oracle: Born of Hope was really moving and wonderful. It didn't shy away from showing moments of ableism in an effort to condemn them (and as such may be triggering).

For anyone who wants to read other pieces, womenincomics@blogspot rounded up most of the posts about this: http://womenincomics.blogspot.com/2011/06/barbara-gordon-reboot-focused-megapost.html

Someone said on tumblr that Batgirl was limited to what she could directly impact, while Oracle had limitless abilities to help people around the world.

[popehippo]

[misandry]

...among the changes being made is Barbara Gordon aka Oracle getting out of her wheelchair and becoming able-bodied to fight as Batgirl again.

WHAT

RAGE

COMICS, WHY? WHYYYYYYYYYY god it's shit like this that makes me fucking embarrassed to be a comic fan. when they aren't gratuitously killing off minority characters multiple times within the same month and pretending like adding one black dude to a title makes them KINGS OF DIVERSITY!!!, they're pulling shit like this.

[subluxate]

There's another article about this here.

I'm not a comics fan, but even so, Oracle has been an important symbol in the disabled community. Having a major character who was paralyzed was a huge step (no pun intended), and erasing that is just a blow. She's been so important because she's not just a token; she's a genuinely important, powerful character, and a lot of that seems to have been spurred by being shot, so removing that part of her removes the idea that disabled people are capable of being important and forceful, and it reinforces the idea that disabilities are a thing to fix. For some of us, yes, they are (whether this is because of pain, an ableist culture, whatever--it's the truth). For others, our disabilities are just a fact of life, another thing to deal with, but we keep going on as much as we can--and Oracle has been hugely important in that respect, because she got more badass after she was paralyzed.