thank you so much for bring back cassandra cain <3 (yes i am a male reader who enjoys batgirl! :D for the peeps who think only girls read batgirl lol )

Ha!

The readership on Batgirl has always had a large male percentage, I truthfully never sat down and gave it much thought what the numbers are.

Male readers have supported my work since I started with Deadpool, and I know they are buying Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel. I don’t like seeing them stereotyped.  I talk a lot about women in comics and women reading comics, but I always felt like that was necessary because there was some toxicity out there, and still is, sadly. But I think it’s a tiny minority, and when I see a signing line for me, or for Scott Snyder, it makes me really happy to see that the readers are so varied…they just love comics. 

There are still some gatekeepers out there, but I honestly think it’s too late, the gates are open and a lot of different kinds of people love comics and that’s good for everyone.

About Cass…I’ve been trying literally since the night the NEW52 was announced to try to get Stephanie and Cassandra back. Every time I got a bit of leverage, I tried to use it to bring them back. I made pitches for many, many books and stories. 

The idea was never that I was the best person to write them, I just wanted them back. If they came back and someone else wrote them, that was fine. Having Scott or BQM writing Stephanie actually makes me happier than if I brought her back because then I get to read it. :)

Since I was leaving the book and we had a new editor, I was able to ask yet again to bring them back and surprisingly, this time, they allowed it, for which I was really grateful. 

I know it’s five years later, and for some, that doesn’t really count, and I understand that, but knowing how things work, my belief is that it helps make Cassandra’s reappearance much more likely. DC has noticed, I am sure, the excitement about her appearance. This is all good stuff.

I also want to say again, and I am no longer writing any bat-books…the new editors are taking seriously artistic risks on a lot of the bat-books. They are aiming for the books to be distinctive and daring, in terms of both writing and art. For me, this is wonderful news, and it leads to stuff like Gotham Academy and more. The stuff I have seen looks unlike any previous bat-books of the past several years.

So I am very hopeful for my favorite fictional city of Gotham, I think DC and the Bat-offices are up to some really exciting stuff, and if it’s as good as I think it may be, we may be looking at a completely new era of bat-books. I’m pretty thrilled about that, as a reader.