I've stated countless times that I'm seriously NOT a fan of this DC relaunch. Everyone out there seems to be excited about a title that has been announced, but yet it is looking like NONE of the titles I love will still be around. Here is a nice list of the break down of titles and how they're placed in the 52 new titles.
iFanBoy DC reboot
So.. DC is going through this massive transformation and one of the first things they announce is 11 Batman titles. Yup, 11 out of 52 titles are related to Batman. Seems like we're going to get a really diverse title line up here with well a crap ton of Batman. We've got Old Batman (Bruce's 4 titles), young Batman (Nightwing), African Batman (Bat-Wing), gay Batman (Batwoman), teenage Batman (Robin), Outlaw Batman (Red Hood), woman/teenage girl Batman (Batgirl), female Batsquad (Birds of Prey) and Batvillian (Catwoman). If this is diversity, well.. it's not very diverse. I mean, the African Batman has to LITERALLY be in Africa to exist (and how many people think this is actually going to be a big seller?) and the gay Batman and only gay character to appear in the entire new line up thus far HAS to be a lesbian (No gay man has yet to be mentioned or thought about in this entire new line-up). No other minorities are represented yet except MAYBE an Asian character as the unknown samurai/Katanna/Judomaster/potentially even a robot character appears (and notice she's completely covered, if there is a person in there, so none of her Asian qualities are actually SHOWN). Now I'm not huge on the whole "need more minorities" aspect of comics, but I have to point out something that I have noticed. We do have a nice collection of African and African-American characters though with Cyborg joining Justice League, Vixen on JLI, Jason Rusch being half of the new Firestorm, Mister Terrific and the new Bat-Wing (though I'd much rather see Orpheus return than the African Batman, but that's personal preference).
With the Batman titles though, comes my biggest complaint thus far with the DC line-up, the fact that DC is destroying Barbara Gordon. You notice I'm not saying DC is destroying Oracle, which they are, but they're also completely throwing out 20+ years of development and evolution with Barbara Gordon. So let me explain something I have not seen explained anywhere on the 'net, and I've LOOKED, People are upset (and rightfully so) that Oracle may be healed and they will lose one of the few disabled heroes in all of comics. I agree that would be a loss, but I'm more worried about the fact that we're taking a character and we're reverting her back to a time and a person that she has stated she's out grown. I would like to point out that no one is shouting, jumping up and down for joy or excited to see Dick go back to being Robin (in fact, many are upset he's going back to being NIGHTWING since they think he was a good progression as Batman. I disagree on that because Dick was not his OWN Batman, but rather pretending to be Bruce, but that's my opinion). No one is screaming for joy that Donna Troy get reverted to being Wonder Girl (and there is no implication she will be), Garth turned back to Aqualad (OK, so he's dead at the moment, but still), Wally back to being Kid Flash, Roy back to Speedy, or Bart back to Impulse. Yet we celebrate and jump for joy that Barbara Gordon go BACK to being Batgirl? Barbara Gordon, the character who RETIRED as Batgirl, became a Congress Woman, faced and overcame great tragedy and forged herself into a new, stronger person. Babs has mentioned several times that she was past that she was over being Batgirl and that it was a point in her life that she didn't want to return. Now she's reverting, turning back into someone she out grew and everyone all over the internet is celebrating this reversion to an adolescent stage. That ANGERS me. We're going to throw 20 years of development and growth just to satisfy a few rabid fans and to sell yet ANOTHER Batman title. Let's not forget we're taking Oracle, one of the most unique characters in the DCU, a position that she was practically built for with her photographic memory, and force her to take a role that ANYONE can fill apparently. I mean look, Stephanie Brown was the last Batgirl, a chick who got herself killed (literally) after being warned that it would happen countless times by Batman, Cass, and Canary then when given another mantle that was clearly over her head, she just threw it on and jumped into battle again. This is why it's such a travesty that Babs is being FORCED back to being Batgirl. It's not organic, it's not part of the character, and it's NOT something we should be celebrating. We should MOURN the death of Barbara Gordon or Oracle
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