Batgirl
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Batgirl is a DC Comics superhero, a female crime-fighter modeled after and associated with Batman.
Although a lesser-known Bat-Girl appeared six times in early 1960s Batman comic books, the best-known Batgirl was Barbara Gordon, daughter of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon. She was a collaboration between DC editors and the producers of the Batman television series. Batgirl debuted in comic books in 1966 (her first appearance was cover-dated January 1967, but was released in late 1966) and on tevevision a few months later in 1967. This version of Batgirl played a large role in the final season of the series and was featured in most subsequent media adaptations of Batman. She also has appeared regularly in Batman-related comics.
However, in the 1988 one shot The Killing Joke, The Joker shot her in the spine, leaving her paraplegic. She later reinvented herself as Oracle, the premiere information broker of the DC’s superhero community and leader of The Birds of Prey superhero team.
In 1998, the Batgirl mantle was taken up by Helena Bertinelli, who is better known as The Huntress. The stories of her as Batgirl are confined to the events of the long-running "No Man's Land" storyline. Batman stripped Helena of the mantle near the end of that story.
In 1999, the martial arts prodigy Cassandra Cain became the third Batgirl, under the tutelage of Batman and Oracle, and was given Helena's Batgirl costume. She was the first Batgirl to star in an eponymous monthly series, which was cancelled in 2006. In the final story, Cain gave up the Batgirl title and moved away from the Batman Family. Since then, she has taken on a villainous role, but now still uses the title and costume of Batgirl.
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[edit] Comic book Batgirls
[edit] Betty Kane
Bat-Girl was Betty Kane (first appearance: Batman #139, 1961), the niece of Kathy Kane, Batwoman. Batwoman and Bat-Girl were created to be romantic interests for Batman and Robin as much as crime-fighting associates. Bat-Girl wore a red-and-green costume to "flatter" Robin. Bat-Girl appeared seven times between 1961 and 1964, but then disappeared in 1964 (along with Batwoman, Ace the Bat-Hound, and Bat-Mite) when new Batman editor Julius Schwartz decided these characters were too silly.
Batwoman and Bat-Girl were revived in the late 1970s. Bat-Girl became a member of Teen Titans West. However, she only appeared a total of four times in this era.
Bat-Girl was retconned out of existence following the Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, even though Bat-Girl did not exist in Post-Crisis continuity, a superheroine named Flamebird was introduced who had many similarities to Bat-Girl in her costume, her interest in tennis, her history with Titans West, and her romantic connection to Robin. Flamebird's real name is similar to the first Bat-Girl's: Mary Elizabeth 'Bette' Kane.
In Infinite Crisis, it was implied that Flamebird originated from Earth-Two and was Bat-Girl's Earth-Two counterpart.[citation needed] According to the new continuity, the Earth-Two Flamebird replaced the Earth-One Bat-Girl during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.[citation needed]
[edit] Barbara Gordon
The Silver Age and Bronze Age Batgirl was librarian-by-day Barbara Gordon (first appearance: Detective Comics #359, 1967), daughter of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon. On her way to a masquerade ball dressed as a female version of Batman, Barbara (also known as Babs) halted a kidnapping attempt on Bruce Wayne by the villainous Killer Moth, attracting the attention of Batman and leading to a crime-fighting career. (The most recent version of Batgirl's origin can be found in the Batgirl: Year One trade paperback, published in 2004.)
At first, Batman did not approve of Barbara's involvement in crime-fighting, but as she solved more cases, beat more villains, and became more skilled, Batgirl gained Batman's respect and trust. Barbara Gordon appeared as Batgirl from 1967 to 1988, but she is frequently featured as Batgirl in "flashback" stories.
After relinquishing her role as Batgirl, Barbara Gordon was later shot in the spine and crippled by the Joker. She continued to fight crime, even though she was wheelchair bound, under the guise of Oracle, a free-lance information broker and expert hacker who has supported a number of different heroes, but most notably as the founder of and brains behind the Birds of Prey.
In 2007, DC Comics will publish "All-Star Batgirl," which will be the first ongoing series to star Barbara Gordon as Batgirl. DC's "All-Star" stories take place outside standard DC continuity and feature the iconic versions of popular DC heroes.
[edit] Helena Bertinelli
During the late 1990s No Man's Land story arc, a new Batgirl emerged. She was revealed to be the Huntress, Helena Bertinelli.
An earthquake had leveled Gotham City, the government declared the city a No Man's Land and Batman disappeared. To bring order to the city, the Huntress assumed the mantle of The Bat (she discovered criminals feared her more as Batgirl than they did when she was the Huntress). When Batman returned, he dubbed her "Batgirl" and said if she failed him, she would have to give up the costume.
When Huntress failed to protect Batman's territory from Two-Face and his gang of over 200 criminals on her own (while Batman himself was unconscious and tied up), he held her responsible and stripped her of the mantle.
Huntress would later join Oracle's Birds of Prey, thus giving the group two former Batgirls.
[edit] Cassandra Cain
Cassandra Cain was a young woman of partly Asian descent who became the third Batgirl with the approval of both Batman and Barbara Gordon. She was given Helena Bertinelli's costume. Trained by her father, assassin David Cain, to be the ultimate martial artist and assassin, Cassandra was not taught to speak. Instead, the parts of her brain normally used for speech were trained so she could read other people's movements and body language and predict, with uncanny accuracy, their next move. This also caused her brain to develop learning functions different from most, a form of dyslexia that hampers her abilities to read and write. She eventually gave up the identity, with her solo series cancelled (Batgirl #73).
Cassandra reprises her role as Batgirl in the Titans East storyline of Teen Titans. She also appeared in Supergirl #14, where she fought the title character.
[edit] Misfit
A young girl with various superpowers temporarily became the new Batgirl in the Birds of Prey series, until Oracle told her to drop the identity. She has recently reappeared in a different outfit, under the alias Misfit. She became the third former Batgirl associated with the Birds of Prey.
[edit] All-Star Batgirl
Wizard Entertainment announced that Geoff Johns will team with J.G. Jones in an All-Star Batgirl series. In his interview to Wizard, Johns on the series says, "We’re doing the first six issues, the first of which will hit in late 2007 well after J.G. and I are done with 52, so it’s monthly. It’s a mystery revolving around Barbara Gordon and Arkham Asylum, why she’s become Batgirl and more importantly why she remains Batgirl. It’s essentially our Batman: Long Halloween or Superman: For All Seasons for Batgirl."[citation needed]
[edit] Batgirl in other media
[edit] Television
The Barbara Gordon Batgirl appeared in the final season of the live-action Batman television series in 1967, the same year as her comic-book debut. In fact, she was created in cooperation with the show's producers, who wanted a female character who could be added to the show's regular cast.
Some uncertainty exists over who developed what aspects of the character, with one often cited (although almost certainly incorrect) version claiming that DC Comics simply took the idea wholesale from the TV show. However Julius Schwartz, editor of the Batman comic book at the time, apparently claimed that he instigated Batgirl as a way of transferring some of the large female demographic of the TV show over to the comic. When the TV producers saw rough "concept" artwork by artist Carmine Infantino during a visit to DC Comics offices, they optioned the character in a bid to help sell a third season to a skeptical ABC television network.
Batman series producers Bill Dozier and Howie Horowitz have variously claimed credit for aspects of Batman (for example the characters of Alfred the Butler and Aunt Harriet) which they clearly borrowed from elsewhere. It's unlikely that this is a deliberate attempt to mislead, merely a result of faulty memories coupled with loose story telling. With this in mind, and recalling that the show's own credits claim Batgirl as being the property of DC Comics, Schwartz's account is likely to be closer to the truth.
In the Batman TV series, Batgirl was played by Yvonne Craig. A seven minute pilot reel was created to try out the new character. The reel starts in the Gotham City Library, where librarian Barbara Gordon is dealing with Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. The Killer Moth and his henchmen attack the library, locking Barbara in an office. Bruce and Dick leave, to return as Batman and Robin, while Barbara opens a secret door to reveal her Batgirl closet, and transforms her dowdy librarian attire into a Batgirl costume (the skirt becomes a cape, etc). This "transformation," borrowed from the comic book, was dropped in the series proper as it meant Barbara would always wear the same outfit.
It has been suggested that the original intent of this pilot reel was to sell Batgirl in her own half hour show, early in the evening, while the Batman show would screen later that night to conclude the storyline. At the end of the reel, there is indeed a brief Batgirl theme tune and a caption featuring a Batgirl logo. However, given the mediocre ratings of the previous Batman season, the notion that the reel was to pitch a spin-off show seems unlikely.
The TV Batgirl was not allowed the fighting skills displayed by her comic book counterpart. She was permitted only to kick and throw objects at criminals, often facilitating an easy capture. Television networks at the time generally did not show women in realistic combat situations (indeed possibly the first US small screen fist fight involving a woman was penned by Batman script writer Stanley Ralph Ross, for the 1975 Lynda Carter 'Wonder Woman' pilot movie). In the 27 episodes in which Batgirl appeared, she never captured the crooks all on her own, although she rescued the Dynamic Duo at least once.
The short-lived Birds of Prey television series (2002) featured a paralyzed Barbara Gordon (Dina Meyer) donning her Batgirl costume both in flashback sequences and in the present, thanks to a device that allows her to walk. Although based loosely upon the continuity established by The Killing Joke, elements of the Cassandra Cain Batgirl were also incorporated as one episode saw Gordon/Batgirl fighting Lady Shiva, Cain's nemesis/mother.
[edit] Cartoons
Batgirl made her first animated appearance in 1968, turning up in a handful of episodes of the animated Filmation series The Batman/Superman Hour and voiced by Jane Webb. The character was voiced by Melendy Britt in the 1977 animated series entitled The New Adventures of Batman. Between these two appearances, Craig reprised her role for a 1972 live action TV commercial promoting equal pay for women.
More recently, Barbara Gordon was a recurring character in Batman: The Animated Series, voiced by Melissa Gilbert, and later in the follow-up series The New Batman Adventures, by Tara Strong. In the animated series, she originally adopted the Batgirl identity to help her father when he was framed by Two-Face. She also appeared in the direct-to-video B:TAS features Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman) and Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman again voiced by Tara Strong. Additionally, Strong voiced the character in the Flash-animation Web series Gotham Girls, in which Batgirl appears opposite Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn.
A more elderly version of the character, voiced by Stockard Channing, appeared in the futuristic spin-off, Batman Beyond. Here she had given up on ("grown out of", she insisted) costumed crime-fighting and followed her father into the police force, eventually becoming the Gotham Police Commissioner herself. It is alluded to that she and Bruce Wayne had an intimate relationship, after she ended her disastrous tryst with Nightwing. The animated series contained no version of The Killing Joke, so Barbara Gordon kept the use of her legs and there is no evidence she ever became Oracle. Barbara makes a claim that she was shot during her stint as Batgirl in the Batman Beyond episode, "A Touch of Curare", which causes her role of Oracle to be a possibility. This character also appeared in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, where she was voiced by Angie Harmon instead of Stockard Channing.
In the Justice League episode The Savage Time, the alternate Batman leads a resistance movement against Vandal Savage. Among the members of his resistance are Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, and Tim Drake. According to the series' creators, a girl seen playing with Drake was Cassandra Cain in a cameo appearance.
A young Barbara Gordon assumed the role of Batgirl in the third Season of The Batman, voiced by Danielle Judovits. In that series, Barbara was close friends with the teenaged eco-terrorist Pamela Isley, who became transformed into Poison Ivy in the same two-part special that introduced Batgirl. The two referred to each other as Red, a nod towards Harley Quinn's nickname for Poison Ivy. Batgirl continued to make appearances throughout the Season, trying to help out Batman. Later in Season Four's "Team Penguin," Batman finally accepted Batgirl as a trusted ally and revealed his secret identity to her.
[edit] Movies
The 1997 movie Batman and Robin included a new Batgirl: Barbara Wilson, played by Alicia Silverstone. She was the niece of Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth. This Batgirl was similar in many ways to Barbara Gordon, but James Gordon's relatively small role in the films contributed to the differences.
[edit] See also
- Gotham Girls
- Catwoman, her arch-rival (Gotham Girls)
- Barbara Gordon
- Cassandra Cain
- Batwoman (other female counterparts of Batman)
- List of sidekicks
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Batman | |
|---|---|
| Creators: | Bob Kane • Bill Finger • Other writers and artists |
| Supporting Characters: | Robin (Tim Drake) • Nightwing (Dick Grayson) • Batgirl • Batwoman • Alfred Pennyworth • Lucius Fox • Barbara Gordon • Commissioner Gordon • Harvey Bullock |
| Villains: | Bane • Catwoman • Clayface • Harley Quinn • Joker • Killer Croc • Mr. Freeze • Penguin • Poison Ivy • Ra's al Ghul • Red Hood (Jason Todd) • Riddler • Scarecrow • Two-Face • Other villains |
| Locations: | Arkham Asylum • Batcave • Gotham City • Wayne Enterprises • Wayne Manor |
| Miscellanea: | Batarang • Batmobile • Batsuit • Popular media • Publications • Storylines • Alternate versions of Batman |
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Discussion of future comics | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | Articles lacking sources from March 2007 | All articles lacking sources | DC Comics supporting characters | DC Comics heroes, non-superpowered | DC Comics martial artists | DC Comics titles | Fictional detectives | Fictional sidekicks | Fictional vigilantes | 1961 introductions
