DC to REBOOT???

[drychlick]

have we go again lol

 

[SiorX]

One of my favorite comic book columninst/bloggers is a lady named Jill Pantozzi, who writes for Newsarama. She is a natural redhead who is confined to a wheelchair, so as you may imagine, she felt a special kinship with Barbara Gordon as Oracle.

I had a feeling that she wouldn't take the news about Babs donning the cape again well.

There are some good points in that blog. I can understand how someone in her situation would view this that way. Indeed, I think she makes a good point about Babs as a character.

I'm of two minds on this right now. My instinct actually tracks a lot with Jill's in her blog post. It's not just about Oracle, it's what the character symbolizes in terms of strength over adversity. Still, another part of me is interested to see if Babs becomes the "Bagirl" division of "Batman Inc.", where she is "Batgirl Prime" while Cass is "Hong Kong Batgirl" and Steph temporarily becomes "UK Batgirl" you know? It could be good, it could be bad. Time will tell.

I'm really trying to be open minded about all this, but it still goes against the grain for me personally.

'Batgirl Inc' would be interseting. And it'd mean we'd still get to read about Steph and Cass. I still wouldn't be won over on it though. If they're keeping current Babs, she's been operating her own organisation on equal footing with Batman and Superman for years. Going back to being called Batgirl, especially when there's a Batwoman of the same age running around, would seem pretty infantalising in that context.

I've also just seen that Bryan Miller hasn't been approached to write any of the relaunces after he finishes up his current run on Batgirl. Which is an enormous pity.

 

[JRS]

One of my favorite comic book columninst/bloggers is a lady named Jill Pantozzi, who writes for Newsarama. She is a natural redhead who is confined to a wheelchair, so as you may imagine, she felt a special kinship with Barbara Gordon as Oracle.

I had a feeling that she wouldn't take the news about Babs donning the cape again well.

Jill is very cool lady I follow her on facebook.
And I agree with many things she is saying in her article.
They could have easily picked up a different lady for Batgirl

I am happy though, that there will be Batgirl and Batwoman in the reboot(not sure which one to start following.must see).
And Catwoman is again going back to he own book, that is very good news

I just hope that DC will make most of these "new" titles available on their standard subscription list, because the previous Batgirl..and many others never made it there
(finding comics shop from Czech is bit difficult, and so on..)

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Tim is going to be a stuffed trophy in the Batcave like Jason before him. It's his death thats going to be the impetus for Dick returning as a darker Nightwing. The fact that Tim doesn't have his own book while even Jason Todd has one leans heavily towards the death option.

I think that's unlikely. Tim is one of DC's more popular characters.

 

[JoeZhang]

While I'm not particularly interested or concerned about the 'death' of Oracle, I think that the character has more of a uniqueness than simply another character in a bat-themed gimp suit.

 

[Mr Light]

On the one hand I think it's great to have a wheelchair bound hero feature so prominently in stories. On the other hand... this is the DCU. There's futuristic alien sci-fi tech and magic everywhere. So you'd think after all these years something could have healed her by now, or given her a mech suit that allows her to move.

 

[JoeZhang]

this is the DCU. There's futuristic alien sci-fi tech and magic everywhere. So you'd think after all these years something could have healed her by now, or given her a mech suit that allows her to move.

But that's an in-universe rationale, which is difference for the rationale for making such a change - one of the stated aims for the reboot is to make the comic line more diverse and appealing to a wide-range of readers, how you do that by removing the only prominent disabled character is not quite clear to me.

 

[Icemizer]

I have no problem with original Batgirl returning to action. I believe the character or Oracle had been played out. Much like charles Xavier there is only so much you can do with someone stuck in a wheelchair in the comics medium. I do agree with JoeZhang however that Oracle was a better representative of a diverse universe than Batgirl will be and probably a good inspiration for young people who have to be in wheelchairs as well.

 

[SiorX]

On the one hand I think it's great to have a wheelchair bound hero feature so prominently in stories. On the other hand... this is the DCU. There's futuristic alien sci-fi tech and magic everywhere. So you'd think after all these years something could have healed her by now, or given her a mech suit that allows her to move.

With all the supers and advanced tech in the DCU, one quite often has to ignore the fridge logic and just go with it. If one were to follow every power through to it's logical conclusion, lots of things don't make much sense. You have to be willing to suspend disbelief. There are plenty of handwavy mumbo-jumbo options they could offer as to why none of the magic and tech work on Oracle which would be no less ludicrous than some other characters' backstories.

Letting stuff like that go is just part of superhero comics, IMO. I mean, one of DC's top heros has maintained his secret ID for over 70 years by wearing glasses.

If TPTB feel that stories about Babsgirl are more interesting than stories about Oracle, then fair enough. I disagree with them completely, but it's a fair argument. Getting rid of Oracle because her origin/power set seems far-fetched, on the other hand, is a bit of a dodgy precedent.

ETA:

I have no problem with original Batgirl returning to action. I believe the character or Oracle had been played out. Much like charles Xavier there is only so much you can do with someone stuck in a wheelchair in the comics medium.

I disagree on that one. Oracle's a great candidate for cyberpunk and espionage stories. Sure, you don't stick her in a street-level kicking-baddies-in-the-face solo, but one can do other stories with comics.

 

[Captain Craig]

Tim is going to be a stuffed trophy in the Batcave like Jason before him. It's his death thats going to be the impetus for Dick returning as a darker Nightwing. The fact that Tim doesn't have his own book while even Jason Todd has one leans heavily towards the death option.

I think that's unlikely. Tim is one of DC's more popular characters.

Hound has an ax to grind with Tim and is only spreading his personal hopes for Tim. This is his 3-4th time tossing out his "Tim to be a stuffed trophy" slander. Nothing about the 'nets suggests anything other at this point.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

An amusing, if arguable, take that puts the Barbara Gordon change in a larger context:

It wasn’t that long ago that Alan Moore declared that DC’s current work was based on his own stuff for them years ago, and he wished they’d come up with something new.

Well, it’s tempting to think that people at DC, especially Geoff Johns, whose Blackest Night was singled out by Moore, might have taken this to heart. And why?

Well, at the end of Brightest Day, Swamp Thing – who Alan Moore famously revealed had never been Alec Holland, just a plant elemental with his memories – is now, most definitely Alec Holland.

The sentient planetary -sized Green Lantern, Mogo, created by Moore and Dave Gibbons in a Green Lantern back up strip, was blown up.

And now Barbara Gordon as Batgirl appears to be walking again, possibly as the Batgirl 2.0 avatar suggested by Grant Morrison. Moore and Brian Bolland crippled her in Batman: A Killing Joke.

Is This The De-AlanMooreification Of The DC Universe?

 

[Hartzilla2007]

There is the possibility that he is the sacrificial lamb that spurs on the reboot in the Batbooks and becomes what Jason Todd was before his resurrection: a stuffed exhibit in the Batcave. Not much of a loss since he is the whitebread amongst the Robins.

I whole heartedly disagree in the strictest most possible way. Tim was the catylayst for a great many positive things in the Bat books in the early to mid 90's. His continued presence has only served the 'family' well. If anything Todd can die again.

Nope. Tim is a boring clone of Dick Grayson.

I think you have Tim Drake confused with pre-Crisis Jason Todd.

Jason is interesting in his villainy

Not really I mean it was nice in Under the Red Hood but after that Bruce should just beat the crap out of him and drop him in jail then move on.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Tim is going to be a stuffed trophy in the Batcave like Jason before him. It's his death thats going to be the impetus for Dick returning as a darker Nightwing. The fact that Tim doesn't have his own book while even Jason Todd has one leans heavily towards the death option.

I think that's unlikely. Tim is one of DC's more popular characters.

Is he really? It would seem to me that he plays very much second fiddle to Dick. Currently Tim no longer has his own book post-Reboot. And Batman Inc promises a surprise ending before it goes on hiatus. Connecting the dots, I think it's obvious that Mister Whitebread dies and becomes the next dead Robin.

 

[SiorX]

Tim is going to be a stuffed trophy in the Batcave like Jason before him. It's his death thats going to be the impetus for Dick returning as a darker Nightwing. The fact that Tim doesn't have his own book while even Jason Todd has one leans heavily towards the death option.

I think that's unlikely. Tim is one of DC's more popular characters.

Is he really? It would seem to me that he plays very much second fiddle to Dick. Currently Tim no longer has his own book post-Reboot. And Batman Inc promises a surprise ending before it goes on hiatus. Connecting the dots, I think it's obvious that Mister Whitebread dies and becomes the next dead Robin.

We've not got the complete list of reboot titles yet though, and at the moment I think Teen Titans is particularly notable for its absence. It could be that's where Tim will be at.

Kind of curious to see what they're going to do with TT, actually. If the idea is to make the comics more familiar to those coming to the books from other media (which is the rationale I've been hearing for Babs-as-Batgirl), what do they do about giving Teen Titans a recognisable Robin?

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Five more titles (from EW):

This morning we start off with two highly intriguing combos: Scott Snyder, who’s been doing such strong work on American Vampire, will write a new version of Swamp Thing, and Jeff Lemire, author of one of comics’ finest current books, Sweet Tooth, is taking on Animal Man. Since re-workings of Swamp Thing and Animal Man are so closely associated with other, earlier writers (Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, respectively), these re-re-imaginings are bound to be both fascinating and, perhaps inevitably, subjects of debate. Other new supernatural/fantasy/horror-themed books that will be announced by DC Comics today and scheduled to publish in September include:

• Justice League Dark, what DC terms “a band of supernatural heroes” — John Constantine, Deadman, Shade the Changing Man and Madame Xanadu (wouldn’t it be cool if they really were supposed to be a band?) – written by Peter Milligan.
• Demon Knights, super-heroism set in medieval times, a premise that would have me yawning except that it’s being written by Paul Cornell, who did such a terrific job recently on Knight and Squire, and on Lex Luthor in Action Comics.
• Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE, which may be the most below-the-radar promising of all. The writer is again Jeff Lemire, taking the Frankenstein monster and turning him/it into an action hero alongside other fictional monsters in the service of a government organization: The Super Human Advanced Defense Executive. This giddy mish-mash has the potential for either delicious cleverness or disastrous offal. Either way, I’m in for issue #1.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Interesting that Milligan is writing what is basically another Shadowpact, but with bigger names.

Since he is covering the magic angle, I wonder if his red lantern book will also deal with it. From my reading of the GL Rage of the Red Lanterns, the Red Lantern powers seem to come from magic specifically blood magic.

I think that's unlikely. Tim is one of DC's more popular characters.

Is he really? It would seem to me that he plays very much second fiddle to Dick. Currently Tim no longer has his own book post-Reboot. And Batman Inc promises a surprise ending before it goes on hiatus. Connecting the dots, I think it's obvious that Mister Whitebread dies and becomes the next dead Robin.

We've not got the complete list of reboot titles yet though,

We have the complete list for the Batbooks already. No Red Robin.

 

[SiorX]

Interesting that Milligan is writing what is basically another Shadowpact, but with bigger names.

Since he is covering the magic angle, I wonder if his red lantern book will also deal with it. From my reading of the GL Rage of the Red Lanterns, the Red Lantern powers seem to come from magic specifically blood magic.

Is he really? It would seem to me that he plays very much second fiddle to Dick. Currently Tim no longer has his own book post-Reboot. And Batman Inc promises a surprise ending before it goes on hiatus. Connecting the dots, I think it's obvious that Mister Whitebread dies and becomes the next dead Robin.

We've not got the complete list of reboot titles yet though,

We have the complete list for the Batbooks already. No Red Robin.

Did you just stop reading at the comma? There were more words that made up the rest of that sentence.

 

[Myasishchev]

On the one hand I think it's great to have a wheelchair bound hero feature so prominently in stories. On the other hand... this is the DCU. There's futuristic alien sci-fi tech and magic everywhere. So you'd think after all these years something could have healed her by now, or given her a mech suit that allows her to move.

That's absolutely true; but, if you go just slightly farther with this line of thought, there's no really good reason for there to be any crime or even accidents or suffering in the DCU. There's a Superman and four Flashes. The most drama you could realistically expect to pull out of that set-up is Bart whining that he got Australia.

So it's a real slippery slope.

Point of interest: I realize, belatedly, that Spinally Intact Batgirl is yet another victory for the Campaign to Fuck Up Everything Alan Moore Has Ever Given Us.

Justice League Dark, what DC terms “a band of supernatural heroes” — John Constantine, Deadman, Shade the Changing Man and Madame Xanadu

Oh dear.

Edit:

An amusing, if arguable, take that puts the Barbara Gordon change in a larger context:



Is This The De-AlanMooreification Of The DC Universe?

See, I'm not alone on this!

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

...the Campaign to Fuck Up Everything Alan Moore Has Ever Given Us.

Led by Alan Moore.

 

[Myasishchev]

...the Campaign to Fuck Up Everything Alan Moore Has Ever Given Us.

Led by Alan Moore.

Neonomicon isn't for everybody, I guess. Like me. It's not for me.

(Jacen Burrows panels look like clip art of bored people.)

But seriously, I'm not really sure what you mean.