I dedicate today's entry to Batgirl, even though I am told that today is Superman's 75th birthday. But The Man of Steel will have to wait until I can find my Superman shirt. The T-shirt blog is starting to have a back-logged schedule.This blog (the entire blog, not just today's entry) traces my life in popular culture: my life in geek. No such tracing could be complete without properly canonizing in a central position the influence of the Batman television show that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1968. And no discussion of how the Batman show influenced me could be complete without acknowledging Catwoman (we will deal with her a different day) and BATGIRL. (Also, always consult the super awesome DC Wiki.)
Batgirl serves as an example of how television produced media influence the comic books and how comic books depictions of heroes or the nature of the actual heroes (identity, personality, character) themselves will be altered to match (at least somewhat) television or film interpretations. Barbara Gordon as Batgirl was the brainchild of comics genius Julius Schwartz (previously mentioned in T-shirt #20, the Flash Logo) and the producers of the TV series in an attempt to boost ratings. By introducing Batgirl to the current comic books, the TV producers hoped to boost ratings by then introducing her to the TV show. PURIST ALERT!Betty Kane? Yeah, okay, okay, I know. Comic book purists will cite that there was already a Batgirl character, Betty Kane, introduced by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff in 1961 (before I was born), not counting Bob Kane's pesky girl version of Robin in the 1950s. But that was a one shot, and the real, true creation of the beloved Batgirl character came with this plan to boost ratings for the TV show, and the amazing Barbara Gordon.
From those early days of the TV show, Batgirl became one of my favorite comic book characters along with her main ally: the original Robin (Dick Grayson). My life as a huge Teen Titans fan (even though Batgirl was never one of the Teen Tiatns) and fan of Robin and Batgirl will wait for another day as well. Suffice to say that I read apearances of Batgirl avidly until 1988 and Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke. My world as a comic book reader and Batgirl fan was rocked when the Joker shot Barbara Gordon, quite unaware that he was also shooting Batgirl. The bullet to her spinal cord paralyzed her. (SIDENOTE: Criticism of this story and others in comics became known as "Women in Refrigerators," for which there many great web sources, though I cannot find my favorite from the iconic BITCH MAGAZINE.) Though other characters assumed the mantle of Batgirl in the intervening years, I remained a staunchly loyal fan of Barbara Gordon, who became Oracle and leader of the Birds of Prey from her wheelchair.
For many years, this new role of Barbara Gordon's seemed permanent, much like the death of Barry Allen as the Flash. But the comic book companies will do most anything to increase sales, and I can appreciate that fact of the industry. Though purists might cry foul at Barbara Gordon's miraculous recovery and resuming of the Batgirl mantle for DC's latest reboot 52, I was rather excited to have Barbara Gordon back in the cowl and new stories about one of my favorite comic book characters.
SPOILER ALERT FOR THE CURRENT BATGIRL COMIC (Batgirl #19).
Though I had not read the issue yet, my wife told me the other day that Batgirl's roommate was going to come out as the first transgender woman in the history of comic books. DC is definitely breaking more ground in regards to LGBTQ issues with new gay characters, such as the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, in Earth Two; various characters in Legion of Superheroes, whom fans have always argued were gay, such as Lightning Lass, Shrinking Violet, and Element Lad; and Batwoman. Now, Batgirl's roommate Alysia Yeoh reveals that she is trans. Writer Gail Simons handles the scene deftly as Barbara Gordon tells her roommate to call her "Babs" because "people I love call me 'Babs.'" Good articles about it have appeared on Art Threat and The Hufflington Post.
The new issues of Batgirl (through #19 as of last week) have been worth the twenty-four year wait to have Barbara Gordon back in the cowl.
GO BATGIRL!
- chris tower - 1304.18 - 9:54
Photo courtesy of Liesel MK Tower
Chris, this blog post made me realize a) how much I miss having a pop culture related blog (although my guesting over at danideahl.com has been helping with the music end of it)... b) how awesome you are, again... and c) that I really need to read Batgirl vol 2. I finished vol 1 a few days ago? But I usually can't be arsed to take hardcovers out of their dust jackets so I can put em in my backpack. So I need to get on that! I must say that the art on Batwoman is so phenomenal I hadn't even taken notice of Batgirl because, truthfully, I'm just getting back into DC with the New 52...
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Infinite Crisis or Flashpoint (although I do own both)... but here's why I missed out on all Bat related adventures for many years... as I'm sure an infinite number of people have pointed out DC characters (at least when I was a kid) are essentially gods (the same reason I've had no love for Thor and Capt America until recently) and I, despite a nifty way of making playlists, am not a god and therefore ultimately DC stories bugged me. And their coloring was AWFUL for like 15 years. Unlike Peter/Spidey who I can relate to because he's convinced everyone else's problems are not only because of him but that he's responsible for them, or Banner/Hulk who is afraid to be close to anyone for good reason, or even Logan/Patch/Wolverine who will do the things other people won't do in order to get the job done I haven't like EVER been able to relate to a DC character on screen or in comics because they don't have the fragility and desperation that the characters I love do... but I should admit I think I stopped reading DC around A Death In The Family/A Lonely Place Of Dying...
BUT obviously now I've picked up a bunch of pre-52 Batbooks and a decent amount of post-52 Batbooks... and I think Babs is quickly becoming a fav character. i will say the very specific "I GOT SHOT 3 YEARS AGO" thing keeps making my head hurt because the kid in my brain is like "She got shot when Tim Burton was making Batman movies what is she taking about"
But anyway I'm rambling and I have somewhere to go and we can keep talking abou this later. AWESOME BLOG. Need to meet up very soon. Gotta go... lol...
Before I finish this comment let me say I wanna be just like you when I'm am, uh, more grown up? Yeah more grown up :)
Hey man, Thanks for the kind words. I am humbled by them. But most of all thanks for checking out my blog!! I would send the same compliments back to you as a way cool person whom I admire and want to hang out with. We should definitely do that after the semester officially closes.
ReplyDeleteI will confess that I have not been picking up Batwoman, despite a love of the art work. I planned to collect the trades, so that's on my to-do list. As for Batgirl, my enjoyment of the title is definitely fueled by my love for the character. Ditto Nightwing. I love those characters, so unless the books are dreck (and these are not), I will read and enjoy them. As 52 goes, I would not say these books are among the best, but they are solid and enjoyable if you love the characters. I'd say Aquaman has been my favorite far and away. Flash is also very good as is Justice League, Batman, and a few other titles. I read a lot that I am not liking very much just because I adore the character, such as Hawkman. So that's that.
Your criticisms of DC are amusing. But see, my favorite DC characters, such as Batgirl, Robin/Nightwing, Batman, and a few others ARE NOT gods. Though I do like the gods, too, like NEW GODS (because of Jack King Kirby) and especially Mister Miracle. DC comics were very hit and miss for a long time. I am a huge Titans and Legion fan, and there were high points, such as Grell's Green Arrow, Perez on anything (Titans, Crisis, Wonder Woman), but even Byrne's Superman was an important title for me, though not equivalent to stuff like Watchmen or Dark Knight.
I get your point about the psychology of Spider-Man, but this was the element that initially characterized Marvel Comics as separate from the rest of the industry, especially DC. The psychology. But that slowly changed and there's plenty of great DC stuff to read.
And yeah, the continuity thing bugs me too. Babs was shot in 1988 not three years ago. Not even three years ago in comics time. But I gave up on holding comic to such a strict standard. As long as they tell good stories, I am along for the ride, even if there's a magic spell that makes everyone forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man... :-)
See you soon. And thanks again for reading.
-chris