We have Batwoman--why do we need Batgirl?

[Robotman4]

Because Babs is awesome. That's my answer.

[The_Greatest_Username]

Cass had been blacklisted way before Steph was even considered as Batgirl.

Besides, they were going to make Barbara (and Misfit) Batgirl and changed their minds at the last second.

Cass had just received a miniseries before Steph was Batgirl.

[shark]

Cass had just received a miniseries before Steph was Batgirl.

Cass received a miniseries written by Beechen, the person that wrote her as a villain. No Cass fan was going to touch that mess and DC blamed the failure of that miniseries on Cass not being popular.

As I said, they considering Misfit for the Batgirl mantle. Anybody but Cass.

[mattymoron]

Didn't Cassandra have a cameo early on during Steph's run?

[DrSimonHurt]

We don't need a Batgirl that's in her 20s.

Batgirl should be a teen hero identity. With Barbara and Batwoman being about the same age, it is redundant.

[The_Greatest_Username]

Cass received a miniseries written by Beechen, the person that wrote her as a villain. No Cass fan was going to touch that mess and DC blamed the failure of that miniseries on Cass not being popular.

Regardless, Cassandra's absence isn't Barbara's fault.

We don't need a Batgirl that's in her 20s.

Batgirl should be a teen hero identity. With Barbara and Batwoman being about the same age, it is redundant.

Barbara was like 30 when she was Batgirl the first time. If anything she's more BatGIRL now more than ever.

[shark]

Regardless, Cassandra's absence isn't Barbara's fault.

Regardless, not sure why you are trying to shift the blame to Steph. You don't defend a character by blaming another one.

[Gymer]

To answer the OP there's plenty of room for a Batwoman and a Batgirl.

However, regardless of the actual quality of the DCnU Batgirl series its biggest problem is that it doesn't exist in a vacuum it has to deal with all the crap that came before and is happening now in other comics. It doesn't help that pretty much every version of Batgirl gets the shaft allow me to expand:

Old fans of Babs hate the resent she was crippled as part of an editorial mandate to reduce or purge the the "Bat-family" and angry that characters can back from the dead but Babs' back nope not healed in twenty years of publishing and this taints all development of the character as Oracle.

Oracle couldn't be healed because she was a prominent disabled hero who was actually disabled, no crap with cybernetics or magic or superpowers that essentially make them not disabled if not outright superhuman, and DC didn't want the bad PR by just getting rid of that.

Cassandra Cain earns the ire of Babsgirl purists by virtue of being not Babs and her fans get pissed off that after the end of her solo series she shows up as a villain and then being banished to limbo. Further infuriating her fans is that DC kept promising "big plans" for her which never amounted to anything.

Stephanie was killed off in a rather repugnant fashion and long time support character Leslie Thompson let her die. After the retcon that brought her back she replaced Cass as Batgirl which caused at least short term anger from some Cass fans still hoping for her return. After a run that wasn't unimpressive her solo series was canceled and as of the reboot Steph and Cass were labelled toxic.


Finally we reach full circle with the reboot Babs is Batgirl again and now Cass and Steph are nowhere to be seen. The removal of Cass and Steph from continuity could be tolerated as streamlining of DC's history in the new timeline unfortunately as I mentioned at the top of my post Batgirl does not exist in a vacuum; just looking within the Bat line you see that all four of the male Robins are still around and now existing in a time frame of only five years, it's still five years since for the first half of his career Bruce was anonymous, which begs the question if you can have four Robins, or three and a covert partner, in five or six years why not three Batgirls in the same time frame; I don't think they have ever answered this question in a satisfying way and it brings down a lot of hate from fans of the other two. Furthermore Batgirl is inevitably compared to Robin, at least in general pop culture if not by actual comic fans, the current Robin is a ten-year old, one of practically superhuman ability but still on the face of it, it does cast Barbara in a poor light; for the sake of fairness when you compare her to Nightwing it still isn't quite good in that he had moved on from his teenage alter-ego to form a more independent identity as a superhero.

[Bluebow]

You're entitled to your opinion, of course, and it shouldn't be surprising given the username you've chosen that you're going to prefer Batgirl over Batwoman, but the above is clearly not true.

Kate is former military....

I highly doubt we'd even be comparing her to any of them had she a different codename. In fact, the further she distances herself from them, the better, IMO.

Barbara is somewhat tethered to Batman and the rest (although not as tightly as most), and in that sense she fulfills a different purpose than Batwoman. I don't see why we can't have both. If anything, Kate could go by a different super-hero name, but if it helps her sales, why should she?

She dropped out of military school and I know there was a plot crucial reason, but I would not call someone who dropped out of Medical School a Doctor or let them operate on me. As to the name it was not hers to appropriate to begin with

[zryson]

Why? Merchandising and franchise possibilities!

[thwhtGuardian]

She dropped out of military school and I know there was a plot crucial reason, but I would not call someone who dropped out of Medical School a Doctor or let them operate on me. As to the name it was not hers to appropriate to begin with

I think there's a big difference in skills between someone who dropped out of med school and someone who was drummed out of West Point in their senior year, especially when said person went around the globe for several years training wit the top military bad asses in the world.

[Bluebow]

I think there's a big difference in skills between someone who dropped out of med school and someone who was drummed out of West Point in their senior year, especially when said person went around the globe for several years training wit the top military bad asses in the world.

Just the ones her father knew, not automatically the best in the world. They were mercenaries, ex-military so must have left the services themselves for some reason and I was careful to say it was for reason of plot and by the way I wonder how come who ever it was she was seen kissing was not also kicked out? Although it is true it would take less skill to take a life than save one.

[thwhtGuardian]

Just the ones her father knew, not automatically the best in the world and I was careful to say it was for reason of plot and by the way how come who ever it was she was seen kissing was not also kicked out?

The other character wasn't really important, so it's no surprise we don't know her fate. Perhaps she told him what he wanted to hear/ We just don't know, and it doesn't really matter.

[The_Greatest_Username]

Regardless, not sure why you are trying to shift the blame to Steph. You don't defend a character by blaming another one.

Really? Because that seems to be the way things are 99% of the time.
Stephanie is partially responsible for Cassandara's initial disappearance because while she was Batgirl there was no place for Cass until she was reinvented as Black Bat.

[Bluebow]

The other character wasn't really important, so it's no surprise we don't know her fate. Perhaps she told him what he wanted to hear/ We just don't know, and it doesn't really matter.

I think it was a precedent for the Character, she was forced out of West Point through being seen with this person and forced into the DEO by her admittedly near death cousin giving up her identity. Thereby placing responsibility for any errors on another female character.