Where The Hell Is Batgirl?

Back in February at the NY Comic Con, Dan DiDio and company announced that there would be 8 series "starting" in June spinning off of events in Battle For Simon Cowell: Batman, Detective Comics, Batman & Robin, Red Robin, Batman: Streets of Gotham, Gotham City Sirens, The Outsiders...and Batgirl.

Soon afterward, we started getting announcements of creative teams and preview artwork and other dribbles of information...but nothing for Batgirl.

Then the June solicits were released, and no Batgirl. All the other promised series were there, but no Batgirl. But nobody (myself included) seemed to notice in all the hoopla for Morrison and Quitely, etc.

Well, no biggie, right? It's just getting started a little later than the others.

Then, last week, the July solicits came out. And again, no Batgirl. Not a mention, not a hint.

So, what's the deal? Batgirl was announced with all the others, but in the intervening time, the title hasn't even had a creative team announced.

Is DC just waiting until the end of Battle for Simon Cowell (and Oracle: The Cure) for the big reveal of who the new Batgirl will be? They don't want to spoil it, and they don't want to release "blank" solicits like Marvel did for Purple Reign?

Or is the new creative really, really slow, and DC just wants to have a few issues in the bank before they start soliciting it?

Or, has DC reconsidered, and we won't be getting a Batgirl series after all? Given the complete and utter lack of follow-up information, that's become a serious possibility.

So that's the question of the week--Where the hell is Batgirl?!?

UPDATE: Dan DiDio told Newsarama on 4/29 that Batgirl "will be hitting shops in August." Still no creative team, though...

Battle For The Cowell Preview--Welcome Back, Babs

Well, this pretty much confirms it. Here's an interview with Dan DiDio at Newsarama yesterday, discussing "getting back to the most iconic representations of the characters":

DD: This is the next phase. It just happens to involve the return of characters who were there at an earlier stage in the history of the DC Universe, and they’re coming back. That’s all. It’s all part of the ongoing story and the ongoing history.

The characters that they’ve replaced are still there and accessible, and now they are still part of the next generation of the heroes of the DC Universe who will be carrying the stories into 2009 and beyond.

11. So there’s still a role for the second generation characters who took the role while their mentors were not in it?

DD: There will be an enormous role for them moving forward. There’s a big role for them now – Kyle is in Green Lantern Corps, so he’s never been marginalized; Wally and Connor, and even Cassandra Cain will be appearing throughout the year, and will be seen in roles where they really have a chance to shine.

That pretty much clinches it, doesn't it?

Barbara Gordon, during the Battle For The Cowell, will be in a three issue mini-series titled "Oracle: The Cure." That probably doesn't mean Barbara will be sitting around listening to her goth-rock CDs.

DiDio has lumped Cassandra Cain in with Kyle Rayner and Wally West and Connor Hawke, heroes recently (or soon to be) put on the back burner for the original, "iconic" Silver Age versions. (And just for the record--while some folks have suggested that the current DC regime has displayed an active hatred for the Giffen/DeMatteis era of the Justice League, can I point out that the above list shows we've now had 3 members of Grant Morrison's JLA replaced by "more iconic" representations?)

There's not a ton of other credible candidates to take up the Batgirl mantle. Spoiler? Huntress? Not likely.

Nope, unless DiDio is deliberately playing us, Barbara Gordon is going to get the use of her legs back (and why not? Bruce Wayne did, right?) and resume her duties as the titian-tressed crusader (with a remarkable short rehab period, it seems...).

Now, I'm not big on DC's sudden obsession with chucking out everything from the past 20 years (is it just me, or does "returning DC heroes to their most iconic representation" sound pretty much like a slow-motion Brand New Day, except with much better PR???).

But unlike Barry or Hal, they're not raising Barbara Gordon from the dead, just healing her. And as I noted above, what's good for the Bruce, is good for the Babs. And I must confess, I've always had a soft spot for Barbara as Batgirl.

So, believe it or not, I think Simon is going to approve this one.

Yup, I was right!!

Battle For The Cowl Preview--Dick Grayson Is A Moron

Well, it's about time that we start to look ahead (albeit not too enthusiastically) to the Battle For The Cowl, when apparently everyone who was even tangentially connected to Batman decides they want to pick up the mantle. Why, I wouldn't know...Gotham's a big enough city for everyone to do their thing, I would think. And who really cares what they wear?

But DC doesn't make any money by listening to me. So, here to help us evaluate the various candidates to seize the Cowl, is Simon Cowell, for our first edition of Cowell on the Cowl:

Thank you, snell. I thought we'd start with the fashion-blind acrobatic orphan, Dick Grayson. Now, in some ways, he's the most logical candidate to become the new Batman, having been raised and trained by the original.

The only, problem, however, is that Dick Grayson is so stupid, he makes Bizarro look like Einstein.

You want proof? Inaptly-named counterfeiter Brainy Walker has put together a (fairly dumb) plan to convince the Dynamic Duo that he knows where Batcave is. Let's watch Robin at work, shall we?



D'oh!!

Now, Batman makes it all better, using Alfred's shadow, a tape recorder, and a papier mache Buddha to convince Walker that it was all just a deliberate trick. No, I'm not making any of that up. And it's not like 578 people don't already know Batman's secret identity at the moment.

But good lord, was that a wretched performance!! It was so abysmal, , it should permanently disqualify the original Boy Wonder from ever becoming the Darknight Detective.

Simon Sez:

Robin's massive brain freeze occurred in Detective Comics #242 (1957). Keep checking in, because more Cowell on the Cowl will be coming soon...