I emailed Dan Didio about Batgirl

[frostedone]

Originally Posted by Spiffy

Or rather, even if they WERE not as well written as other stuff in Batgirl's history (debatable, but lets concede its at least a possibility), they'd STILL be better written than anything Beechen's done. It would be the difference between mediocre and bad.

And the point about those issues at least being in character for her is important. Even if a reader thought the villains less than optimal, Batgirl still acted like Batgirl. Not Bizarro Batgirl.

Exactly. Even post issue 64 when her villains were less than gold, Batgirl still acted like herself. The Batgirl in OYL, and the newest mini series doesn't act like she always used to. It is not a result of character development or growing maturity, it is just a result of not understanding the character and bad writing unfortunately.

[FemGeek]

Originally Posted by Spiffy

Or rather, even if they WERE not as well written as other stuff in Batgirl's history (debatable, but lets concede its at least a possibility), they'd STILL be better written than anything Beechen's done. It would be the difference between mediocre and bad.

And the point about those issues at least being in character for her is important. Even if a reader thought the villains less than optimal, Batgirl still acted like Batgirl. Not Bizarro Batgirl.

Right, even if one thinks the last stuff wasnt as good or didn't enjoy it as much as earlier work, theres no argument about HOW it was written - in character and true to Cass.

[wolfsbane12]

I'd like to see Cassie more, the big two need new characters to bring in new readers and Cassie is actually different, shes not only a non-caucasian (at least shes not full caucasian), shes not witty (does every character need a snappy or snarky comeback), and shes trying to find her way in the world. Those three things are so different in terms of current characters that if she was put in better hands (i liked Beechens Robin run aside from his first arc which was pushed on him by Didio) like say those of Kelly Puckett (her co-creator along with Damion Scott), Andersen Gabrych (who did a great job finishing off her series) or Peter Tomasi (who was editor of the bat-titles during her original 74 issue run) then she could become a phenomenal character and shut the people up who want to see Oracle magically get her ability to walk back and all of a sudden hop back into the bat-suit (and the idea of a 27 year old woman calling herself Batgirl would be kinda funny) where she wouldn't belong today anyway (shes found her niche as oracle). But imagine what a guy like Morrison (or if DC had let Loeb use her in Hush, cause there is no way it was supposed to be Catwoman vs. Shiva) could do with a character like her.
I'll end my little rant simply, she got a mini, she outsells pretty much all of wildstorm (no offense to them, the worlds end stuff has been great) and is a much needed counterbalance to what seems to be an overall bleaching of the big two's characters. She deserves to be a bigger part of the DCU, not a main component that we need to see every month in a ton of books, but just as a main character alongside Oracle in a new Birds of Prey or in her own book again.

[carabas]

Originally Posted by wolfsbane12

(or if DC had let Loeb use her in Hush, cause there is no way it was supposed to be Catwoman vs. Shiva)

I take it you are not very familiar with Loeb's stance to characterisation, power levels, and such things? Judging bythe follow up in Superman/Batamn, Loeb clearly just plain dislikes Lady Shiva.

[The Cool Thatguy]

If Jeph wanted to use Cassandra in Hush, no one would have stopped it. DC and Marvel both bend over backwards to his whims.

It's just an unfortunate fact that despite having a stronger motivation than Babs (who had been crippled for a decade prior even), Cass is seen as some Johnny Come Lately. Alot of writers, and readers, have just arbitrarily decided that Cass is some lousy 90s character without taking any effort to confirm that. Which is a shame as like most characters with depth, Cass actually has an impressive number of contradictions with regards to her character.

[Spiffy]

Originally Posted by wolfsbane12

She deserves to be a bigger part of the DCU, not a main component that we need to see every month in a ton of books, but just as a main character alongside Oracle in a new Birds of Prey or in her own book again.

That's actually a good place for her. The relationship between Cass and Barbara worked very well in the early days. If a solo Batgirl isn't in DCs estimation working commercially, why not combine the fanbases of Birds of Prey and Batgirl?

Maybe DC has some stupid belief that fans of Barbara and fans of Cass are mutually exclusive. But they aren't. Most fans of Cass Cain seem to like Barbara quite a bit... as Oracle.

Originally Posted by The Cool Thatguy

It's just an unfortunate fact that despite having a stronger motivation than Babs (who had been crippled for a decade prior even), Cass is seen as some Johnny Come Lately. Alot of writers, and readers, have just arbitrarily decided that Cass is some lousy 90s character without taking any effort to confirm that. Which is a shame as like most characters with depth, Cass actually has an impressive number of contradictions with regards to her character.

Its not that anything is wrong with Babs' motivation. Originally it was because she was adventurous, and that worked for the 1960's, the time she was born as a character, and later on it was implied that it was kind of a "daughter of a cop" type of thing, where it was just a sense of duty. And that kind of worked in the 1970s--a time when shows like "Police Woman" were on the air. Then, in the Oracle days, it became kind of a self-reinvention thing--a way to save her sense of worth and self. And that worked for the 90s and onward.

But Cassandra had a great visceral motive from Day 1--albeit one which has been misunderstood by blockheads like Beechen. With her it was literally a gut level reaction, a repulsion, at being crafted into a tool for murder. It gave her one of the purest motives for heroing out of any DC character. It wasn't a big fancy revenge motive, or an adventuring motive, or a duty motive, it was simply an ultimate statement about the difference between right and wrong.