Batgirl
Batgirl is a
DC Comics superhero, a female crime-fighter modeled after and associated with
Batman.
Although a lesser-known
Bat-Girl appeared in early
1960s Batman
comic books, the most well-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 and debuted in both mediums in 1967. This version of Batgirl played a large role in the final season of the series and was featured, less prominently, in most subsequent other media adaptations of Batman. She was also featured regularly in Batman-related comics.
However, in the classic 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.
In 1999, the
martial arts prodigy Cassandra Cain became the new Batgirl, under the tutelage of Batman and Oracle. She was the first star in an
eponymous monthly series, which was cancelled in 2006 when Cain gave-up the title and moved away from the
Batman Family.
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The first appearance of Bat-Girl, from Batman #139 (April 1961). Art by Sheldon Moldoff. |
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 never existed in Post-Crisis continuity, a superheroine named
Flamebird was introduced who had many similarites 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. According to the new continuity, the Earth-Two Flamebird replaced the Earth-One Bat-Girl during the
Crisis on Infinite Earths.
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Cover to Batgirl: Year One #9 (2003), about the early adventures of Barbara Gordon. Art by Marcos Martín. |
The
Silver 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) intervened in a kidnapping attempt on
Bruce Wayne by the villainous
Killer Moth, attracting the attention of Batman and leading to a crime-fighting career.
After reliquishing 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.
Main article: Huntress
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 than they did when she was the Huntress). When Batman returned, he 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.
Cassandra Cain, nicknamed "Cassie," was the last Batgirl (of partly
Asian descent), having taken on the role with the approval of both Batman and Barbara Gordon. 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 ability lives up to her namesake; Cassandra in Greek mythology had the gift of seeing into the future, but was cursed so that nobody would ever believe her predictions. This closely relates to Cassandra's capability of 'seeing' her opponents next move at the cost of being (initially) unable to speak. This also caused her brain to develop learning functions different from most, a form of dyslexia that hampers her ability to read and write. She eventually gave up the identity, with her solo series being cancelled in
Batgirl #73 .
In
Birds of Prey # 96, a couple was saved from muggers by a woman wearing Barbara Gordon's classic Batgirl costume. She dispatched one of the robbers with a Batarang, and the others with well placed punches. The rescued couple said "Batgirl is back!"
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.
Note: 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 allowing for 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.
This watered-down version of the character did little to help the show's ratings and one is left to wonder how a more 'empowered' version of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl would have fared with television audiences.
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.
Cartoons
Batgirl also turned up in a handful of animated episodes of the
Filmation series
The Batman/Superman Hour (
1969), voiced by
Jane Webb, then later in the "sequel" series entitled
The New Adventures of Batman (
1977) voiced by
Melendy Britt. 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
Batman: Gotham Knights, 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 and
Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman voiced by
Mary Kay Bergman. 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 Batman Beyond S1E12, "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 episodes 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.
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. This version of the character is widely despised by fans, as it holds no similarity to the source material outside of the name "Batgirl."
In the 2005 movie,
Batman Begins,
Ilyssa Fradin is credited as Barbara Gordon, though this most likely refers to Jim Gordon's wife of the same name.
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Gotham Girls*
Catwoman, her arch-rival (
Gotham Girls)
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Barbara Gordon*
Cassandra Cain*
Batwoman (other female counterparts of Batman)
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TVObscurities.com - Batgirl Promotional Short
