That's right. For those of you too young to remember, Barbara Gordon served in the U.S. House Of Representatives as Gotham City's congressperson.Yes, really.
Now, you'd think the the press, or somebody, would have noticed that when a red-headed woman from a family with ties to Batman was elected to Congress and moved to Washington, D.C., AT THE EXACT SAME TIME Gotham's red-haired super-heroine stopped operating in Gotham and started appearing in Washington. I mean, kind of obvious, eh? Yet as far as I'm aware, nobody ever made the connection. Must be Zatanna's doing.
Also, to those of us obsessed with timelines and ages and such, this means that at this time, Barbara Gordon was at least 25 years old (provided, of course, the DC Universe Constitution is the same as ours...)
Now, there are two kinds of congresspersons:
The plutocratic fat cat who won't raise a finger to help unless there's a vote in it for him...
...and the kinder, gentler representative, who cares about her constituents problems.Anyway, Babs catches the killer of the child's father (who just happens to be in Washington right now...WTF, nation's capitol??). Which would make a pretty good campaign ad, if it weren't for the pesky secret identity thing...
Of course, Barbara wasn't the only famous Gothamite to serve in Congress:
Geez, who knew democracy could be so much fun?!?From Detective Comics #486 (1979) and The Brave & The Bold #85 (1969)
It's actually been established that the Knight Dependants Act is what allowed Barbara to serve as Congresswoman, even though she was younger than the Constitutional requirement. That makes nothing resembling sense, as an Act shouldn't be able to override the Constitution, but yet, here we are. At least it was given an explanation of some kind. Politics in the DCU hasn't made since since they let an uneducated Mongolian raised by vultures replace a sitting senator. :)
ReplyDeleteAm Hawk--thanks for the info. There are definitely gaps in my DC Bronze Age trivia knowledge :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd remember, no one KNEW that he was an uneducated Mongolian raised by vultures. he just took the guys place (and even his fiancee didn't notice!!)
Hey! What about Earth-2 Dick Grayson? There's something nagging in the back of my head that says he had a political connection, too.
ReplyDelete(But i'm getting old and feeble minded, so who knows?)
I...I really wish that we could have Batman burst through a door on the floor of Congress and win the day.
ReplyDelete*sigh*
Yes... but, let's be honest: How much damage to the political system can be caused by an uneducated Mongolian raised by vultures identity-thefting a sitting senator? :) What's really funny is that that isn't a random reference on my part: the Knight Dependants Act in question is almost certainly something ol' Black Condor drafted and got passed, since it was originally apparently designed to benefit his teammate, the Phantom Lady. It really IS his fault!
ReplyDeleteHey, wait a minute. This was pre-crisis, and the Condor/Phantom were on Earth-X and/or Earth-2!! So how could it have been applied to Barbara!?!?!
ReplyDeleteThe Black Condor and Phantom Lady crossed over to Earth 1 with the Freedom Fighters. They even had an adventure with Babs (and Kathy).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.comics.org/issue/32206/cover/4/
@-3- As for Dick, didn't the Earth 2 version serve as UN Ambassador to South Africa in the Seventies. Obviously, he inspired Batwing.
The Knight's Dependants Act was a post-Crisis invention, IIRC. Barbara's history changed a bit post-Crisis and she apparently became Batgirl at a younger age than she did pre-Crisis.
ReplyDeletePre-Crisis Barbara was presumably at least 25 when she served in Congress.