I like DC characters; I just hate DC: Oh my god

I like DC characters; I just hate DC: Oh my god:

daggerpen:

Sudden realization.

When I heard that Cass’s Batgirl series was going to be cancelled so they could bring in Batwoman, I thought it was the weirdest thing ever. Kate and Cass are really very different chars with different costumes and different appearances

But I just realized.

1. I’ve heard…

This is an interesting theory.  I’m not sure of a LOT of the details, many of these were either not during my time or didn’t filter down to BOP.  So I don’t know the absolute truth of some of it.

Let me respond with what I do know, respectfully, see how it balances out. I know this stuff is very important to a lot of people, not sure how much light I can shed, but a little bit, maybe.

Responding point by point.

1) If that’s true, that Kate’s costume was intended for Barbara, that is news to me. Not saying it’s not true, but it was never pitched that way or shown to me.

2) Yes, there was  a delay. I hear different stories as to why, but I do know that the original Batwoman title had an entirely different creative team, Rucka and J.H. Williams III came later. 

3) I can say without question that Barbara regaining some movement in her toes was not any part of this theory, absolutely not. It was a story about the joy of a seemingly small victory, completely not connected to putting her back in the cowl, that was never the plan at the time.

4) Well, this stuff is always a little tricky, because it’s hard to accept that commercial forces don’t align with our tastes, but much, much later, I was told that readers and DC editorial felt that the book had veered too much from its original concept, and sales were dropping. The reader response at the time was growing more tepid, for whatever reason, it was felt people were losing interest. 

5) This is true to my memory, BUT it’s pretty incomplete. Okay, they felt it was time to have a new Batgirl. The name Batgirl is important for licensing reasons, as well as story reasons. Barbara was not the first choice to replace Cass, my own MISFIT character was, Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe. 

I begged them not to do that, I felt a Batgirl who could teleport was not a good idea for a number of reasons (Gotham has gone more meta-friendly since then). Barbara was brought up as another possibility, but I was against that as well. Having a 35 year old Barbara back in the Batgirl suit just seemed really troublesome (I get that a lot of people feel the same way about a 21 year old Barbara, just telling you what happened). To be blunt, this is where the theory gets a little weak…Barbara was considered along with several other possibilities and not considered for very long, it didn’t take much to talk them out of it. 

Now, this HAD come up in the past, but it was always brought up, like, hey, what if we did THIS, and then I and some others would point out why we shouldn’t do it and that seemed to be that. It was never a big priority, as far as I knew. If they’d wanted it to happen, it would have happened, with a different writer. I think in the six years or so I wrote Bop, the idea came up twice, MAYBE three times (I think it was twice). 

The thing about Proxy is 100% true, and we actually were thinking of carrying on that storyline even without Barbara being Batgirl, just having Proxy be Oracle for a while, which would have been a very interesting story. I would like there to be an Oracle in the DCU now…I know several of us have pitched it. 

That’s about all I know for sure. Some of this theory might hold water, some of it is definitely  incorrect. I can guarantee putting Babs back was never a huge priority, it was never once brought up as something that NEEDED to be done, it was always brought up with several other possibilities that were considered with equal validity. As I said, if they’d wanted it to happen, they would simply get new writers and make it happen, that goes on all the time in publishing.

The thing about Steph and Cass not being allowed back, I don’t get at all, and it makes me sad. However, recent interviews I’ve read seem at least to be entertaining the possibility of their return, so I have my fingers crossed. 

I hope this helps, dp!