Larry
10-28-2002, 10:14 PM
When I think of the way Barbara has been treated over the years since she made her first appearence way back in 1967, it amazes me how such a popular character like her has stood the test of time and managed to survive.
I mean, way back in the day, she was considered nothing more than a campy teeny-bopper version of Batman and when the tv series came out and she appeared in it, it just made her look seem pathetic and why not?
By the biased opinions of the majority of the men in charge of DC Comics at the time, she was an overly active, highly sexualized redhead who spent more time trying to impress Batman and Robin than in serious crime fighting. It wasn't until the seventies that she was starting to get the recognition she truly deserved and then under writers like Len Wein, Denny O'Neil, Doug Monech and so on, that Barbara Gordon really came into her own as an important part of the Batman mythos.
What really ticked me off was that way back in 1967, the writer for Detective Comics was sexist enough to not give Barbara a black belt in judo and karate. Instead, HE gave her a brown one. It just flew in the face of 1960s male egotism to have a girl earn a black belt and be considered a well trained fighter above more popular male superheroes. It took the more cultured, open minded writers of today to allow her to get the proper respect afforded to her in terms of how capable a fighter she was.
All in all, though she may not have gotten the respect of writers from the past, she certainly can be respected and admired by writers of today for the kind of permanent fixture she has earned in the Batman mythos. There will never be another character like her and I hope she will remain in the imagination of comic book readers to come.
I mean, way back in the day, she was considered nothing more than a campy teeny-bopper version of Batman and when the tv series came out and she appeared in it, it just made her look seem pathetic and why not?
By the biased opinions of the majority of the men in charge of DC Comics at the time, she was an overly active, highly sexualized redhead who spent more time trying to impress Batman and Robin than in serious crime fighting. It wasn't until the seventies that she was starting to get the recognition she truly deserved and then under writers like Len Wein, Denny O'Neil, Doug Monech and so on, that Barbara Gordon really came into her own as an important part of the Batman mythos.
What really ticked me off was that way back in 1967, the writer for Detective Comics was sexist enough to not give Barbara a black belt in judo and karate. Instead, HE gave her a brown one. It just flew in the face of 1960s male egotism to have a girl earn a black belt and be considered a well trained fighter above more popular male superheroes. It took the more cultured, open minded writers of today to allow her to get the proper respect afforded to her in terms of how capable a fighter she was.
All in all, though she may not have gotten the respect of writers from the past, she certainly can be respected and admired by writers of today for the kind of permanent fixture she has earned in the Batman mythos. There will never be another character like her and I hope she will remain in the imagination of comic book readers to come.