Hi Gail, I'm a big fan of your work and so happy that you bring feminist/LGBT consciousness to comics. But I was troubled by Alysia's reveal for several reasons. Most importantly, I felt like her story was dropped into the comic in a way that paralleled he

Hmm.

Well, first, spoilers, although I think most people are aware at this point.

Well, in this case, I think the fact that that one page is being reprinted over and over makes it sort of difficult to see in context, which is that Alysia has been trying to tell Barbara this thing almost since the beginning.

It’s not anyone’s fault, but if we’re only talking about those few panels, we miss that this isn’t Alysia’s first attempt to convey this information to Barbara.

I think you raise an interesting point, but in context, it seems to me to be two women opening up and sharing their souls a little bit, which is pretty common in my experience when you have someone you trust. It’s rarely ‘parallel,’ and I’m not 100% why they would be ‘automatically equal experiences.’ There’s nothing in the text to imply that.

I will say that I didn’t want to have Alysia’s revelation come at the same time as Barbara revealing she is Batgirl, as that, metaphorically, would pretty clearly imply things about ‘secret identities’ that could be pretty insensitive and tasteless.

In context, the story goes…Alysia tries several times to tell Barbara, but there’s always a rush or an emergency or an interruption of some kind. When they are attacked and Alysia is put in danger, she STILL offers to go with Barbara no matter what danger Barbara is in.

Barbara hasn’t had a non-costumed friend like that at this point in her life. So she tells Alysia as much as she can about her life except for the one thing she holds back (that she’s Batgirl), she THINKS to protect her roomie. Alysia, who has been trying to tell Barbara all along, opens up herself.

I think most people have had a night like that. I don’t think it was ‘dropped into the comic,’ unless you have only read those two pages. Alysia’s talked about wanting to tell Barbara something important for months now.

Hope that makes sense.

Gail