Hey, Gail. I've asked this question to creators before but they've usually gotten really defensive about it. You're one of my favorite comic writers and you wrote the Secret Six with seemingly "crazy" villains, so here goes: Do you think Batman comics is h

I do, and I think I have made this mistake myself. 

It’s not just Batman, for a long time, mental illness has been shorthand for ‘evil’ in comics, in the same way that any physical difference has. 

In a way, it makes a character like Deadpool downright progressive at times. 

I am trying to be a lot more sensitive about it. I think if you look at the Batgirl Annual #2 with Poison Ivy, or the end of my Sensation Comics story, or Burden, or even the end of my Batgirl run with Knightfall, you can see that I am trying to step on that trope.

There are ways to have bat-villains, and other villains, be scary and not resort to trivializing and stereotyping. I think a lot of writers are waking up to this. I would be very surprised if Gotham looks the same in five years.