She’s the wholesome side to DC comics, she’s the anti-Catwoman and she’s always striving to prove herself in a super hero universe dominated by dudes. Its Batgirl. It has come to my attention that the origins and back story of Batgirl are actually quite unknown so for those of you who would like a bit of an education, hang on cause here we go:
The persona of Batgirl was created by Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff in Batman #29 back in 1961. Back then she was referred to as Bat-Girl.
Batgirl was originally conceived because Kane and the publishers at DC were concerned about the rumors of Batman and Robin being gay. Batman was given a counterpart in the character of Bat-Woman back in 1956, Robin’s counterpart was introduce a few years later as Bat-Girl, the kid sister of Bat-Woman.
The Batgirl suit has been worn by 4 major characters in the DC universe: Babara Gordon, Helena Bertinelli, Betty Kane and Cassandra Cain.
The most popular Batgirl stories involve Barbara Gordon, Commissioner Gordon’s daughter.
In 1988 DC released The Killing Joke where Barbara Gordon was raped and paralyzed by the Joker as part of his plan to drive Commissioner Gordon insane.
Barbara Gordon went on to become Oracle, an information database used in the DC universe by many superheroes and leader of the Birds of Prey.
On screen Batgirl has been portrayed by Yvonne Craig and Alicia Silverstone as well as a slew of animated renditions.
In most comic renditions Batgirl does not have any super powers.
DC will be bringing back Batgirl as a featured character at some point in 2009.
So there are some facts about Batgirl you can add to your repetoire. Although the mythology gets cloudy with the different universes and renditions of Batgirl, I think the most steady and most interesting is the development of Oracle and the Birds of Prey from the Brabara Gordon character.
If Batgirl dressed like she did in the first picture here, she’d be screwed. Double entendre.