New Ongoing Series Batgirls Has Been Announced!

Azrael knows that all too well.

1 Like

He did take some time off, I think to contemplate if he wanted to go on being Batman, and Grayson took over for a while. The Prodigal storyline, if Iā€™m not mistaken.

I wonder if the Spoilermobile will be in this :grin: aka Stephs moms minivan

I try too.

Well Jean-Paul did start having a psychotic break during his tenure as batman do to The System and started killing again. So bruce had to return to the mantle. He does temporarily pass the mantle to Dick after Knightfall because he needed to finish recovering (according to DC database fandomā€™s new earth Nightwing entry I have not read this ark yet).

1 Like

Well, we know that the Batgirls get their own car that Steph insists on naming, soā€¦dunno!

Bruce should have taken up the mantle of Batman again after Knightsend but it didnā€™t have to be resolved by stripping Jean-Paul of that identity. If they were both Batman together Bruce could have properly prepared Jean-Paul for the role instead of just throwing it on him like he did initially.

1 Like

While I really like Azrael, itā€™s structurally impossible for him to not lose the cowl - the point of Knightfall was to show that Bruce, the one who refuses to kill, and who is less edgy, is the better Batman, compared to Azrael, who was created to mirror the edgier, lethal heroes of Image (and Venom/Carnage).

2 Likes

very good point and I think another moral is that no one could ever be a Batman better than Bruce although Dick did a mediocre job at it.

1 Like

I donā€™t remember how Dick did - Iā€™ve read Troika, but I donā€™t know if I actually read Prodigal (I feel like I did, but it didnā€™t stick in my head). But I do love Black Mirror and the Batman Reborn era (for another reason, related to this thread - Steph Batgirl!), so I think Dick is a pretty good Batman at that point. Perhaps not in the mid-90s, though.

3 Likes

Another thing to consider with how Azrael lost the mantle of the Bat ā€“ even if Bruce was able to recover Jean-Paul at that point and offered him another chance at wearing the cowl, would Jean-Paul have even wanted to? I would imagine that after what happened with his mind breaking, I think Jean-Paul would need time to find himself again.

4 Likes

Glad you mentioned thatā€¦I read Cass (at this time) as about 14 with Steph about 16 so I canā€™t help but wonder why Cass was driving the car.

1 Like

Azrael absolutely wanted to be Batman again.

In his solo series, Azrael, and later renamed Azrael: Agent of the Bat, started and ended with the theme of Jean-Paul struggling for Batmanā€™s acceptance. The penultimate redemption for him in his eyes was to become Batman again. That is why at the end of his series he dressed like how he did in Knightsend minus a few color differencesā€¦

At this point Azrael was on a downward spiral yet again and loosing Bruceā€™s respect and to cope with that he decided he didnā€™t need Bruce (although he did) and that he could be Batman with or without his approval.

1 Like

Dare one hope this is a sign that theyā€™ve been returned to their proper ages, further abandoning Tynionā€™s infantilizing, reductive changes?
image

ā€¦Theyā€™ve been about the same age as they were Pre-52 for a while. In fact, art style and solicits honestly make them sound younger than when Tynion wrote them.

2 Likes

I mean with everything that they do, I think being too young to drive/driving without a license is the least of the laws that they are breaking. :woman_shrugging: Especially with the Magistrate doing their thing in Gotham these days.

3 Likes

true but then again an issue with Bruce teaching Cass to drive would just be fun as heck to have read.

Personally, I like the idea of Cassandra being younger as that means she did not spend 9 years living on the street after killing for the first time at eight years old.

2 Likes

Thereā€™s a preview for this series in the back of this weekā€™s Nubia and Wonder Woman: Evolution. It looks like a lot of fun! Plus this is the current Wonder Woman main series writing team and I love their work on that book.

Currently Iā€™m subscribed to justā€¦way too many WW-related series every month (think itā€™s up to 6 separate series now) to pick up a new book, but I will definitely check this out when it comes to DCUI.

2 Likes

Same with Batman and Nightwing.

1 Like

I didnā€™t realize there were 6 WW series to get right now! WW, Nubia, Evolution, Yara Flor - are there two more?

Iā€™m very happy theyā€™re giving such a widespread promotion to Batgirls - hope it pays off and a lot of people try it out!

2 Likes

Hmm. Itā€™s difficult to really tell, since as you said, theyā€™ve been made to look younger in anything Iā€™ve seen (page previews, promo art, etc.). Steph could still pass as age she was before Flashpoint, more or less, but CassINO was a couple years younger than Cassandra when she started out, and hasnā€™t seemed too different, Batgirl suit aside.
I was told by someone that both had been ā€œrestoredā€, but the closest confirmation I could find was an issue of Young Justice from a couple years ago, where itā€™s kind of implied Steph sorta remembered her previous history. I know that she recently reflected on her time as the Girl Wonder in ā€œRobinsā€, so thereā€™s that.

Frankly, her spending time to cope with what she did to Faizul, fending for herself until finding her way to Gotham, isnā€™t so bad. Itā€™s a time in her life that would be fun to see expanded upon, with a good writer.

Yeah, not buying bat-titles for five years leaves one out of the loop, but considering how these characters have been consistently low-priority (if any) and DCā€™s ā€œheadcanon the continuity yourselfā€ shtick, I canā€™t say Iā€™m inspired to give them another shot. Thereā€™s only so much more disappointment Iā€™m willing to risk with these people. I canā€™t trust DC until I know theyā€™ve done the work in fixing the mistake, not just taking the laziest path. Like math class as a kid, solving a problem, and the teacher wants you to show your work.

The other two are Black and Gold (which ends this month), and Historia: The Amazons (which starts this month). So I guess itā€™s just during the month of November where there are 6 series going. Not that Iā€™m complaining about all the content! :00_wonder_woman_gold:

1 Like