angelophile:

dcwomenkickingass:

Gail Simone just confirmed it.

Writer Gail Simone sent us a few words about today’s BATGIRL #1 announcement:

“Barbara Gordon is pretty much my everything. Because of the Batman TV show, she was the reason I fell in love with superheroes. Because she was a redhead who could kick ass, she is the reason I fell in love with comics. She was always forward-looking as Batgirl, a girl who was smarter than the male characters, who had class and elegance and style, as well as tough-as-nails grit. For a long time, there was simply nothing else like her in comics, and for me and a lot of other readers, her every appearance was joyful and explosive.

For many years, I got to write the character as Oracle, and there is to this day, no character who means more to me. This is classic Barbara as she was originally conceived, with a few big surprises. It’s a bit of a shock, to be sure, but we’re doing everything we can to be respectful to this character’s amazing legacy, while presenting something thrilling that a generation of comics readers will be experiencing for the first time…

…Barbara Gordon leaping, fighting, and swinging over Gotham. Now, when citizens of that city look up, they are going to see BATGIRL.

And that is absolutely thrilling.”

This is the complete opposite of “thrilling”. Unless the new definition of thrilling is “ableist as all fuck”.

^ What he said. I honestly do NOT get how DC can see this as anything as slap in the face to a chunk of its audience. FFS, people have not been quiet about how important Barbara Gordon as Oracle has been to them. This was utterly unnecessary and pretty much confirms every suspicion that these decisions are being made by higher ups who could do us all a big favor by joining an LJ RPG and just letting the characters in the actual comics be.