Bat Family: Part 2. The Girls, Batgirl.

Okay, so Batman is a very manly kinda guy. His greatest allies, as well as his greatest enemies are all men. His creators are men. Almost all of the authors who have made waves with their work have been men.

BUT.....There are a few Bat-Ladies to leave their mark. Some terrible (sorry Uma), and some amazing. The New 52 has four distinct female-centric titles within their oeuvre. We'll start with #1...

Batgirl

While she may be the best known female bat-ally, her history and storyline has become seriously problematic in the New 52. With the exception of the Batman and Robin movie (1997), Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl has always been the stubborn, genius daughter of Commissioner Gordon, who has taken up the vigilante role without her fathers knowledge. As a cops daughter, she has martial arts training, which combined with her own phenomenal IQ, eidetic memory, and computer savvy, make her a force to be reckoned with. Batman is initially reluctant to have her on team, but eventually (and often surreptitiously) aids, abets, and equips Miss Barbara. This causes a whole lotta troubled relationships. Barbara is keeping secrets from her father, who HATES Batgirl for killing his psychopath son (a whole huge gigantic "thing"). Batman is keeping a very important extra secret from his ally. Nightwing/ Grayson and Batgirl have one of those shippable will they/ won't they, complex histories. Plus there is a whole canon thing where Barbara Gordon, as Commissioner Gordon's daughter, not the crime-fighting Batgirl, is shot and crippled by the Joker. Alan Moore (please see my previous post about my Moore issues) in The Killing Joke, had the Joker simply turn up, knock on the door, and shoot her. It's almost petty in its simplicity. He destroys and cripples, and perhaps sexually assaults a teenage girl, just to fuck with her father. It's one of the Joker's most monstrous moments. Especially the moment where he stands over her taking pictures of her. Ugh.

The cripples, wheel chair bound Barbara, however, was not broken by her attack and assault. She became Oracle, the computer genius, techno-whiz, intelligence centre of an entire crime-fighting family. She also became an amazing character whose need and ability to help is not changed by her disability. As Oracle, she is perhaps of more use than the able-bodied Batgirl.

The New 52, however, finds a super advanced treatment to fix her spine and enable her to return to her Batgirl Mantle. She's got major issues, and some PTSD from her attack and temporary paralysis, and is not exactly confident in her abilities, but she's out here fighting. A lot of people feel like it is a major step backwards. Taking away her disability takes away so much diversity. For a disabled reader to see a disabled superhero, who has accepted the things she can't do, but superseded them? It's extraordinary. 

The other major Batgirl issue is this cover.

Captured by the Joker, she finds herself within her worst, most powerless moment, all over again.

A huge backlash to this cover, meant to be an homage to the original The Killing Joke, lead to it being pulled from print. All that people could see what the victimization of Batgirl, the sexually predatory actions of the Joker, and the dismissal of her entire emotional and physical journey. I'm not quite as adamantly, aggressively anti this cover. Her fear is understandable. His power is palpable. He made her vulnerable and powerless, and for her to overcome it for the second time is an amazing, cathartic, empowering moment. But I can also understand why people didn't want this cover, this image, to be the thing that people saw first. power, empowerment, powerlessness..... It's all there. I'm torn. I don't want to see this image of her, but I want to see her overcome her fear.

Ugh. Lighter note. Latest Batgirl embraces her youth. A teenage girl, on her own for the first time, living her life after trauma and struggle, and creating her identity as both Barbara and Batgirl really works for me. She embraces the social media, selfie culture, she learns to live and interact with normal people who may or may not know about her secret life. She even discovers that other people around her have their own secret lives. A trans-gender room-mate provides a beautiful  mirror to her own secret life. A psychopathic brother who is her equal and opposite (like all good enemies) puts her in an emotional, psychological and moral tailspin. Being forced to kill her brother (or so she thinks) in front of her parents, to save her family? phew. Heavy shit. Batgirl V4 and V5 work for me. I can let myself see the potential, rather than the loss.  

DC's New 52: Bat Family Part one (I'm Batman!)

I will quite happily admit that before I discovered DC's New 52 reboot, my batman experience was limited to the movies. I'd re-watched the Burton Batman's dozens of times, and got my hands on all the Nolan films on Blu-Ray. The sheer scope of the DC universe, the 75 years of complex history and interwoven story lines made my head hurt. I mean, how does someone decide where to start? With Bob Kane in 1939? With the Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns? Ugh! Luckily, DC has realised that there was a whole gigantic audience just like me out there, and created a jumping off point for newbies, that, most importantly, DID NOT discard everything.It wasn't just clever (brilliant) marketing, but it gave a whole new scope for expansion and character development. Characters who had aged and grown cynical and calloused were reborn young and hopeful. They were allowed to have greater liberty with gender and sexual stereotypes and mores. There was debate (argument, disagreement, contretemps, and feuding) about certain of these changes, but it worked. DC made a gigantic buttload of money, and a lot of changes in comic book marketing. Marvel attempted their own reboot with Marvel Now, but didn't really manage the same kind of return to start. I mean, some of the Marvel Now titles are FREAKING AMAZING, but it still requires too much previous knowledge to really get it.

Anyway, Batman.

The Bat Family titles take some things for granted. They assume that the reader knows Bruce Wayne's history. Unchangeable facts about fictional worlds and characters who go through multiple incarnations are commonly known as "canon". The Batman canon has as these facts, the Wayne's were murdered in an alley when Bruce was a child. He was raised by the family's butler Alfred Pennyworth. He adopted and trained Dick Grayson as his sidekick. He interacted with Commissioner Jim Gordon, Gorgon's daughter Barbara, Wayne enterprises Lucias Fox, and would ALWAYS find himself running into Selina Kyle (catwoman), Harvey Dent (Two Face), Edward Nygma (The Riddler), Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin) and the always mysterious and unknown Joker, arguably one of the most fascinating, complex and thought-consuming character in comic book history. 

However, the new 52 reintroduces the history of all of these characters in ways that don't impede enjoyment, or coherent storytelling.

Anyway....Batman?

There are three separate, straight up Batman titles. Batman, Batman: The Dark Knight, and Batman: Detective Comics. It would help if there was a straightforward time or story-type distinction, but there isn't. All three are first wave titles, and there are even cross-overs. It gets more complicated.

Richard "Dick" Grayson, the original Robin, and the only one that most people are aware of, has grown up, left home, an gotten his own book. Now known as Nightwing, he has his own story lines and territory, but still comes home to Gotham to play side-kick, best friend, big brother, ex-boyfriend and voice of reason when needed. *spoiler alert* He later gets un-masked and outed. Unable to be  a masked vigilante, he becomes a spy and goes undercover in 'Grayson". He's currently two volumes in, and doing a good job.

Did you know that there was more than one Robin? Did you know that there was a whole lot?

The Second Robin, Jason Todd, was a street kid, taken in by Bat's after the drug overdose death of his mother. However, Jason always had too much anger, too much recklessness, and never had the discipline that Batman wanted from his, um, disciples. After being tricked into thinking that his mother was still alive, he went after the Joker alone, and was beaten to death. Actually to death. Dead, buried, and mourned. This being DC, he is brought back to life by Batman's ex/ enemy Talia Al Ghul (we'll come back to her later). Understandably pissed that Batman declined to avenge his death, he goes on a bit of a violent, pouty sulk for......well....a few years. He takes up with a few other misfits, and goes looking for trouble in Red Hood and The Outlaws, then post futures end Red Hood and Arsenal (an ex-Green Arrow character, Roy Harper).

Joker history has one of his first appearances as a crime boss known as the Red Hood. It says a lot about Jason's state of mind post rebirth that he takes on both the name Red Hood, and the actual red mask of the guy who killed him, He also makes the decision to use guns instead of non-lethal means to take on bad guys. There is a strong rumour that the upcoming Suicide Squad's Joker, played by Jared Leto, may actually be Jason Todd. I'm half-way convinced. I'd get quite a kick out of it.

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk5nqqWK6_I)

The third Robin, Tim Drake, actually volunteered, and kind of manipulated his way into Robin status.

Bruce was pretty torn up over Jason, and didn't want a new young man to be responsible for. Tim, however, being quite a fantastic detective, ended up putting himself in the way of Batman's enemies, leaving Bat's with the choice to take him in, or let him die. So he Took him in. Whether it was out of respect for Batman's losses, or individualism, Tim was known from the beginning as Red Robin, never just Robin. After a while, he takes off to start his own young Justice League, known as the Teen Titans, but always maintains his ties to Batman. Teen Titans comes under the "Young Justice" family, but Tim makes appearances throughout.

Then there is the current Robin, Damian Wayne. Yes, Wayne. And you know what? I think he is going to need a whole separate blog post, because he is.......complicated. 

Bat Family: Part 2 to be continued.