#i think you’re all wildly overestimating how much engagement i get for this stuff and how much clout i have

[thetriggeredhappy]

How does it feel being a niche celebrity?

like that’s an exaggeration

[ectonurites]

To make Barbara a wheel chair user they'd have to cripple her again. Oracle is symbolic because she was a disabled hero. DC doesn't have the power to make Barbara's official hero ID Oracle. that's WB's decision and since she has a movie coming out so it's unlikely WB will agree to her giving up Batgirl. That's why she was both Oracle and Batgirl in recent comics and why the webcomic has her in a wheel chair but the Batgirl mantle hasn't passed on to Cass or Steph.

Gonna be real just off the bat I know this was not on purpose and i'm not accusing you of anything here, but the phrasing 'cripple her' used like that especially in relation to Babs just makes me so wildly uncomfortable considering that quote Alan Moore gave about DC Editorial when he had been writing TKJ in the first place:

(source scans of the interview from Wizard Magazine in 2004)

I just can't hear that word used as a verb about a woman without being reminded of this. Anyways, moving on.

I don't work at DC or WB so I can't speak to this stuff all that accurately, but i'm willing to bet you don't either. Between the interviews I've read with various creators (writers, artists, editorial staff, etc) and following them on social media and reading the things they say when talking about their processes... I think you're overestimating how much influence WB directly has on what happens in the comics.

It also feels like you’re entirely overlooking... all that time Babs was Oracle in the main canon of the comics but being adapted as Batgirl in all sorts of other media (BTAS, TNBA, The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and if we want to count the Barbara Wilson character in the Batman & Robin movie, etc), having Batgirl stories still come out for her in the comics (Batgirl Year One, Batman: Batgirl Girlfrenzy!, appearances in Nightwing Year One and various other flashbacks, etc) and having Batgirl merchandise made of her.

Like it's very much so possible for her to be disabled using the Oracle identity in main comics continuity but still have the Batgirl title associated with the Barbara Gordon character for stories and adaptations, DC already did it for close to 20 years. (Babs debuted in the comics as Oracle in 1989, BTAS came out in 1992 [with her first appearance as Batgirl in 1993], and she was in things pretty consistently the whole time between then and The New 52 happening in 2011 in the comics)

And it's not like WB purchased DC after the New 52 or something so there'd been drastic changes in protocol about how they could handle this, DC has been owned by WB since the 60's, and then the merger that made WB into TimeWarner happened in 1989 (the same year that TKJ came out).

Like, it's possible that people at WB are fighting it even if people in DC specifically are fighting for it and the choice is stuck somewhere in between there, but the phrasing of this ask where it's acting like the situation being stuck where it currently is now is all WB's fault because they want Babs as Batgirl in comics that they're well aware the majority of the audience for their movie won't read anyways feels... really off to me? The comics aspect of DC is a fraction of what WB cares about, they really aren't the money maker part of the equation, that's movies and merchandise.

The decision to put Babs in this situation in the New 52 was DC's and because of that they do still need to deal with the backlash they get from it now. Like don't go harass specific writers because it's absolutely not something they have control over (but I do wanna clarify having conversations/@ ing creators about the subject isn't the same as harassment, engaging with them on the subject is something I ENCOURAGE because they can try to push for this change from within the company) but don't act like the company itself is absolved of this.