SHE is the most iconic Batgirl. I think this distinction has a lot to do with being created in the 1960s, during the Women's Movement, so even though she was created for a TV series, you have this intelligent, educated woman, who has this quiet career as a librarian, implying Library Science was her major in college, but displaying talents that infer she took minors in engineering, chemistry, fashion design, computer science, political science, criminology, physics, criminal justice, psychology, philosophy, motorcycle maintenance & repair, gymnastics and martial arts. She took a lot of classes - ergo, she has a lot of class.
She was MacGyver before there was a MacGyver.
And of all the action heroes, what MacGyver lacked in wit he made up for in his talent for building crude, yet intricate and effective gadgets out of whatever ordinary items were at hand. In the Batman TV series and in comics, Batgirl's arsenal and motorcycle were depicted as equal in appearance to Batman's assortment of gadgetry, but I think a modern interpretation of this distinction between someone using homespun equipment and another using materials manufactured upon request via special order would be rendered more obvious...you'd see the wires, the nuts & bolts, the framework, the things found here & there, etc..
This could be why I'm ambivalent about Batgirl: Year One. Chuck Dixon & Scott Beatty's re-imagining of Barbara's earliest adventures, told within the context of stories from the 1990s - lots of foreshadowing the Birds of Prey stories and eventual retirement and emergence as Oracle - reads like a comedy of errors. Modern Age Barbara Gordon didn't know what she was doing when she was Batgirl - that's the conclusion we get from it, that and Dixon's Batman is a very manipulative human being, opting to watch from afar with spy cameras. It's also odd that Jim Gordon would be against his daughter being a police officer, but turn a blind eye to her being Batgirl (assuming he's figured it out or hasn't)...that contradiction doesn't fit whichever incarnation of Jim Gordon they're using. I love Marcos Martin's artwork, though. The images are epic - they sing. The scene near the end, where Batgirl is brought into the fold by Batman & Robin near the gravesite of Bruce's parents is mythical..it's like she's been knighted. With not-so-subtle tweaking, this allusion is more on-the-nose..
The Batgirl of Batgirl: Year One couldn't be the same confident character who appears in all those Silver & Bronze Age tales recently compiled in a handy, oversized 2-volume omnibus:
This is the Barbara Gordon who became a congresswoman and relocated to Washington D.C., a popular era recently revisited in this ad for Snickers candy bars, created to coincide with Batman's 80th anniversary:
Barbara "Ocasio" Gordon
In 1983, Barbara loses her re-election, due to her nocturnal activities keeping her distracted. Her adventures more bizarre and synthetic - the rogues gallery now includes voodoo shamans, snakewomen, mad scientists and cybercriminals. Reality is in flux because of the Crisis. She takes an early retirement sometime after appearing in public to deliver a eulogy for Supergirl:
Her retirement is short-lived after she is shot by the Joker in The Killing Joke. Paralyzed and wheelchair-bound, she languished for a time before becoming inspired to find a new way to put her knowledge and skills to use. She became Oracle.
As "Amy Beddoes", Barbara worked with Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad, then built a rep as an expert information specialist and computer hacker. She also functioned as a spymaster in all but name only by forming the Birds of Prey with Black Canary. Around the same time, she became a member of the Justice League when it's roster had ballooned to 16 members:
It's gone on record that these accomplishments occurred during a three year period, longer than her two years as Batgirl, though in real time, both appeared in print roughly 20 years equidistantly. Presumably, Barbara had moved on and healed, mentally and spiritually, though she remained in the wheelchair...
There's an ongoing debate that this strained logic and character logic. As a fictional character, Barbara Gordon exists in a realm where her friends and allies have been depicted suffering from equally career-ending injury and death, yet have their fates reversed, either by magic or science fiction..yet she remains in the chair...presumably to please people in real-life who are disabled, who live vicariously through the character. Other characters assumed the Batgirl identity - Helena Bertinelli, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown...curiously, Barbara continued to appear as Batgirl outside the main continuity, in cartoons, tie-in comics to the cartoons, video games and other merchandise. In 2011, she became Batgirl again as part of a major line-wide revamp, referred to as New52 ('52' being the number of titles launched as the lineup premiered...I suspect any future stunt like this will be 'New20' based on recent circumstances). To this day, fans of Oracle hate this..but it would be tasteless to strip away a character's ability because they liked them better in a wheelchair. It has nothing to do so much with the quality of the writing now, but that they really want her back in a wheelchair. If they thought Barbara Gordon was a more realistic and interesting character as Oracle, then how realistic would it be to imagine a person in real-life willingly go back to being in a wheelchair after regaining mobility simply because everyone around her said, "We liked you better in the wheelchair." Tasteless. Utterly tasteless.
Futher exacerbating things is that there's an untold story yet to be told...the tale of how Barbara Gordon went from contentment to uncertainty - enough to realize she hadn't moved on and that there was more to do, so much more, but not as Oracle..
We're left to speculate...maybe she felt guilt about dispatching other heroes into dangerous work on her behalf? Maybe she was in denial about her contentment? Perhaps the playing field had changed and she became disenchanted with her lot..am I describing a mid-life crisis? An existential crisis? We don't know. It was an editorial decision that wasn't given a story to carry it, just sketchy details. We know she underwent surgery (presumably funded by Bruce Wayne - it pays to know somebody with money) to have a bionic microchip implanted in her spinal cord. She didn't gain superpowers - she's not The Bionic Batgirl - she's just back to how she was before she was shot by Joker. Welcome Back, Barbara.
So..in the face of grumbling adversity from people hanging on to the past, through some incredible luck, Barbara's comeback in DC's continuity has gone on for 9 years..and there's a movie in development.
Now, here is where I let my imagination take over. I'm going to imagine a plot for a live-action "#BatgirlMovie". I'm assuming Christina Hodson's script is done and in the drawer, but I heard a rumor that the villain of the film is Bane..
The image is too convenient to
not use.
I'm guessing Hodson's story could be inspired by Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse, in reverse. Never mind why I would think that - Babs and Cass team-up to fight Bane. That would make them a new Dynamic Duo - not exactly Batman & Robin...more like The Green Hornet & Kato..
Full disclosure...if you're following this blog, you already know I've been rooting for actress Lily Collins to play Batgirl for some time now, after Hailee Steinfeld, Felicity Jones and Alexandra Daddario's careers kinda cooled-down, whereas Collins kept giving good performances in roles that continue to show her range. She's more interesting.
Okay...the film's plot is that "lost" untold Batgirl tale - how Barbara chose to be Batgirl. Maybe she's non-committal and has other obligations...like running for Congress. That's right. This movie is set during an election year.
My take on Barbara in this film is that she's suffering from imposter syndrome coupled with post-traumatic stress disorder - she has already undergone the surgery and regained her mobility, but she hasn't revealed this in public, only her father knows..and Bruce Wayne. In public, she's still wheelchair-bound and she's in a state where that feels more comforting and the microchip feels like a false-promise. In the meantime, she's been going out on patrol as Batgirl in milk runs. Her costume during this part should be an original design that resembles her current costume from the comics, plus nods to Yvonne Craig...
Meanwhile, Cassandra Cain is on a new misadventure. The news media is reporting that Batgirl has returned after a lengthy absence. Cass, a former protege of Harley Quinn turned Bird of Prey, suspects that Barbara Gordon is Batgirl, so....(and this is my next big leap in logic, here) she breaks into Barbara's apartment during the day and - as is this incarnation of Cassandra Cain is apt to do - steals Barbara's Batgirl costume after discovering the hidden room built in Barbara's apartment (another Yvonne Craig nod). When Barbara returns to her apartment, she discovers the theft and follows in hot pursuit into the night, quickly donning her Batgirl of Burnside outfit, only to discover that Cass has made alterations to the costume she stole...
villains in one film!
Cass is impressed. Barbara reveals that she's familiar with Cass' exploits with the Birds and offers to let her have the costume she stole if she earns it by helping her on a case...Killer Moth is back in Gotham, only he's working for Bane stealing components for a big, catastrophic stunt...and this time, Moth has henchmen of his own - The Jawbreakers..
Batgirl's motorcycle driving.
The components stolen seem connected to the chemical formula for venom...along with the chemical compound found in the Lazarus Pit...
Here's my idea for explaining why Batman is nowhere in sight in this movie..as well as how Bane fits into this puzzle...Batman is on a secret mission, investigating the League of Assassins:
As for Bane, he's trying to curry favor with the leader of the League...
You might've guessed what I'm up to, here...while the events of Batgirl are unfolding, Batman is battling Ra's Al Ghul, while Bane is trying to enter the League's ranks with a big, catastrophic stunt that would get Ra's attention..
It's perfect. Going back to what I wrote about this being like Spiderverse in reverse, my thoughts are that Cass would have picked up considerable fighting skills and experience points since the last time we saw her, so she would be thrilled to spar with the Bat-breaker. Barbara, on the other hand, wants to nail down the details of Bane's plan and solve that puzzle, first. Part of my understanding of what makes Barbara tick is that the war on crime is like a puzzle that can be solved. Naturally, she's always been more interested in the research & analysis element of crime-stopping. So this female Green Hornet & Kato briefly squabble and split-up, just as Barbara uses her considerable Detective abilities to deduce Bane's secret of the ooze...
It's at this point where Barbara experiences a flashback to the day/night she decided she wanted to regain her mobility/get out of the wheelchair. It's the next big leap in the narrative..I figure it's going to take a page out of the Stan Lee playbook..some simple incident in which Barbara felt responsible - she could've done something to save someone - not another superhero/vigilante, but maybe an average person fallen victim to a crime that Barbara witnessed. A mugging in the park. A holdup at a grocery store. A holdup at a bank. Something along those lines. She could defend herself, she could stop the perp, she could've saved the victim, but this time, to do all of the above, she needed to be extra. She needed to be Batgirl again.
A few days pass. Babs and Cass pursue separate angles of the investigation. This is a montage juxtaposed with scenes of Babs pondering if her priorities are stretched thin, what with her congressional aspirations and the new costume she's working on. Incidentally, Bane is the politician she's running up against. The incarnation of Bane being used is allegedly the one from the comics, who wears a full luchadore mask that hides his face and only bulks up when he activates the venom pump apparatus strapped to his back, so this reveal raises the stakes more. Bane is going to control and entrap Gotham from different angles. He's introduced his 'Ooze' as a "safe" performance-enhancing drug in the streets AND wants to use a position as an elected official to lobby for it's legalization, but the mystical properties within the drug are actually enacting an incantation that will wipe out everyone instantly after the number of sacrificials users reaches its quota. Hence, Bane's Master Plan: it's a mystic countdown to a Day of The Dead. Madre dios!
The final act is set at Gotham Airport, where Bane has his "Lazarus Venom" laboratory set up. Cass arrives first, but is ambushed by all the villains. Fortunately, Barbara arrives, wearing a new costume...and it's the one Jim Lee designed for her New52 comeback that was also used in the video games..
All hell breaks loose. Batgirl & Batgirl versus Killer Moth, the Jawbreakers and Bane. It just escalates to heights of absurdity that show off the budget. Cass pilots Bane's escape jet while Barbara fights Bane ontop of the plane (because the plane had the largest shipment of Bane's Lazarus Venom, which he was going to dump in Gotham's water supply in revenge for having just lost the election...of course). Barbara realizes she doesn't have to be stronger physically than Bane to defeat him - she uses all her gadgets to give Bane sensory overload, giving him a massive stroke from overexertion from being juiced up. Cass safely lands the plane back at the airport. Both Batgirls have triumphed.
On January, a few months later, Babs is settling in to her office in Washington, DC. It is shown that she is no longer hiding her regained mobility from everyone and is not using the wheelchair anymore. In Gotham City, Cassandra, in her Batgirl suit, sees the Batsignal light up in the sky and proceeds to swing over rooftops with a grapple gun towards it to "answer the call"...in Washington D.C., another Batsignal lights up the sunset sky above the Wahington Monument..and we see Barbara in costume, riding her Batcycle towards it. Both Batgirls are active and still at work. The End.
So that's how I picture the film playing out, given the actress I'm rooting for as the lead, with the rumored villain alleged by a website not known as a reliable source, but with the only news I've heard in months, with a potential co-lead vaguely hinted at by the screenwriter.
One thing for sure, one certainly I can guarantee will happen when this film gets rolling...
...is that when Chef Boyardee puts Batgirl back on their cans of pasta featuring the DC Comics superheroes, she'll appear full-size in the foreground, not itty-bitty-sized in the bottom corner...
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