DC’s New 52 reboot in 2011 was much needed, somewhat successful, and totally controversial. Women creators dropped from 12% to a depressing 1% (as of August 2014, that number is under 10% between the Big Two). Catwoman, Starfire, Voodoo, and Harley Quinn were way oversexualized. And then there was Batgirl. Barbara Gordon was thankfully spared the worst aspects of the New 52, by which I mean she wasn’t tarted up in a black and yellow bikini with Liefeld-esque accent pouches. Three years later, a new writer and artist have taken over the title and breathed new life into Batgirl.
A week before Batgirl dropped, Marvel launched their newest series aimed at young women: Thor. Yes, in the 2014 Marvel comics universe, Captain Marvel is a woman, Ms. Marvel is Pakistani-American, Captain America and Ultimate Spider-Man are Black, and Thor is a woman (with really unfortunate boob-plate armor). Quite a few characters have taken over the mantle of Thor over the years, but this time it’s for real. For now, anyway.
So, we have two old titles with two new personalities. How do they stack up? And, more importantly, should you buy? Oh, hell yes.
Origin Stories
Batgirl
Betty Kane’s Bat-Girl made her first appearance in 1961 at the hands of Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, but by 1967 she’d been replaced by Barbara Gordon and an unhyphenated name. Barbara, the daughter of Commissioner Jim Gordon, became an integral part of the Bat family. In 1988, she was raped, shot, tortured, and paralyzed by the Joker in Alan Moore’s “The Killing Joke.” She took the name Oracle and eventually lead a team of female superheroes known as the Birds of Prey. Helena Bertinelli (Huntress), Cassandra Cain (Black Bat), and Stephanie Brown (Spoiler) took over as Batgirl during Oracle’s reign, but with the New 52 retcon in 2011, Barbara Gordon returned to the bat mask.
Today, Barbara does what a lot of twentysomethings do when they have just enough money to scrape by: get a degree, party, and have drunken make-out sessions with random hot people. Plus, she fights crime with a cool (and practical!) new outfit. In the first issues, Batgirl battles two Villains of the Week that test her patience and push her skills. But someone else is pulling their strings, someone who knows who she is and who uses her secret identity for some not very good things. Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher took over writerly duties from Gail Simone after she left over creative differences, and brought in Babs Tarr as their new artist. The new Batgirl starts with issue #35, and issue #36 went on sale November 12, 2014.
Thor
The legendary Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Larry Lieber debuted Thor a year after Betty Kane, and he has been a Marvel mainstay ever since. Thor, God of Thunder, son of Odin and Freyja (well, technically Gaea), and adoptive brother of Loki, was one of the founding members of the Avengers, and has appeared in every volume since 1963. He frequently clashes with Loki, the Jotun, and Malekith the Accursed, and the latter two are the main sources of mischief in the newest series.
After the fallout of “Original Sin,” the Odinson suddenly finds himself unworthy of wielding Mjolnir because of some mysterious secret whispered to him. After spending months sulking on the moon failing to pick up his hammer, an inexplicably shirtless Thor rides off on his trusty goat to protect Midgard from a gaggle of Jotun attacking an underwater Roxxon base. Dude Thor is taken out of action by some sadistic villainy, and an unknown woman decides to try her luck. Turns out she is worthy and she sets off to finish what her predecessor couldn’t. New Thor is written by the same guy who wrote old Thor, Jason Aaron. Joining him is artist Russell Dauterman and colorist Matthew Wilson. Thor starts afresh with issue #1, and #2 was released November 12, 2014.
To Pull or Not to Pull?
To be honest, I’ve never read any Batgirl before (Simone’s run has been in my To Read pile for ages), but I was so excited for the relaunch I preemptively bought the boots in expectation of some serious cosplay next year. That being said, I am displeased that Barbara Gordon is not paralyzed in the New 52. I understand why DC retconned it out, but no, no, no. As Oracle, she was one of the most powerful players in the Bat!verse. Her paralysis didn’t inhibit or define her. By making Barbara’s paralysis into something she recovered from, it not only makes DC even less diverse than it already is but also implies her disability was a problem to overcome. For those same reasons, I dread the day Matt Fraction stops writing Hawkeye and Marvel retcons his deafness. Disability shouldn’t be treated as a hindrance, obstacle, or cause for pity, and it’s frustrating to see such a crucial part of Barbara’s life and development simply erased.
Fortunately, New 52 Batgirl is gosh darn awesome. Stewart’s Batgirl is light, modern, and hella fun. This Batgirl is a real person who happens to be a caped crusader but isn’t all angsty or emo about it. She’s good at vigilantism, and both knows her limits and how to push herself past them; not to mention brilliant but not in a schlocky Sherlock way. Stewart and Tarr also know the difference between allowing Barbara to be a sexually active young woman and whatever the frak Scott Lobdell did to Starfire. The plot is fresh, inviting, and doesn’t waste any time kicking into high gear. Tarr’s artwork is bright and playful, a perfect mesh with Stewart’s writing style. Goodbye gritty grimness, hello fun time action hour!
Young women don’t have enough superhero comics aimed at them, and for one to be this good AND a feminist’s dream is a pleasant surprise. Stewart and Tarr’s Batgirl is a solid and consistently enjoyable NA comic. Hipster post-grad Barbara moves to Burnside (Gotham’s version of Brooklyn), and her new friends are as diverse and interesting as you’d expect. They spend as much time on cell phone apps like Snapgrab (Snapchat), Pixtagraph (Instagram), and Hooq (Tinder) as they do dealing with their messy personal lives. DC clearly intends this updated Batgirl to attract new readers. If it keeps up this level of quality and entertainment, they’ll succeed, and I cannot wait to see where they take Barbara next.
As for Thor, well, he is my least favorite Norse god and Avenger. I wanted to take Marvel up on their invitation for non-fans to jump on board, but frankly I’m still not sure I care. New Thor’s poorly handled introduction certainly didn’t help matters. It takes some guts to dedicate almost all of the first issue of new Thor to old Thor. In fact, the new Thor doesn’t even turn up until the last two pages. Think of #1 as more of a prologue. The new Thor’s non-Thor identity is still a secret in #2, but given the context clues, she’s white (of course), wears a long dress, and is definitely not who you think. Presumably clues are being dropped as to who this Thor really is, but I’ll be damned if I can figure it out.
Thor has supermodel good looks, but she’s closer to Gwendoline Christie than Kate Moss. In an age when Captain Marvel weighed 124 lbs until Marvel finally caved and made her a more realistic 165 lbs, that’s a big fucking deal. There’s a lot of plot, too much probably, but it should hopefully smooth out once Thor settles into her role. I’m disappointed Aaron didn’t give Dauterman a juicer plot to work with. Dauterman and Wilson are a talented pair who have crafted beautiful, skilled work that far surpasses the by-the-numbers story. I especially love how he spells out the sound effects and incorporates them into the scenery, and the scenes themselves are gorgeous. But the Roxxon subplot is ridiculous, and it gets sillier by the panel. I can’t decide if I was more irked or delighted when a minotaur showed up in the middle of a battle between a Norse god, evil elf, half-naked dwarf, sinister corporation, and a bunch of blue man-eating giants, but at least it wasn’t boring.
New Thor has her mettle tested right from the get go, and so far she’s held up. We have very little to go on, only whatever bits of personality can be gleaned from her sparse dialogue, but so far she’s entertaining enough. Jumping between Thor’s Midgardian thoughts and her Asgardian voice could get tiresome, but for now it works. I just with it was a little more…something. Anything. Aaron said he didn’t want to make She-Thor, Lady Thor, or Thorita, but it feels like he swung too far in the opposite direction. I plan to stick with Thor through #3. If I’m not hooked enough for a subscription by then, I can wait until the volume set. I like what’s happening so far, but not loving it yet. It’s definitely not a bad comic, and plenty of reviewers liked it more than me, but I had higher hopes for Thor than Aaron was able to meet.
Tune in next time for Saga…
Alex Brown is an archivist, research librarian, writer, geeknerdloserweirdo, and all-around pop culture obsessive who watches entirely too much TV. Keep up with her every move on Twitter, or get lost in the rabbit warren of ships and fandoms on her Tumblr.
After Thor #2, I have been thinking of Mjolnir more like the Helm of Fate from the DC Universe than as a normal magical weapon. Clearly it can choose who is capable of wielding it, and whom it grants powers to, but more importantly it also imparts knowledge the wielder didn’t have before. Evidenced by the fact that New Thor knows details about Jotun history that she professes to have no prior knowledge of.
That said, the panels of her figuring out how to fly made me chuckle.
While I really agree that Oricle is better than Batgirl I can only worry Harley so much. Yeah the outfit shows too much skin. A larger problem may be….SHE’S the Joker’s girlfriend!
@professorwc: That seems to be what they’re going for, and it works for me. I like what little we’ve gotten of New Thor, I just wish she showed up earlier and that we could actually get to know who’s under the mantle.
@roblewmac: But Harley is sooo much more than the Joker’s gf. Her run on the Suicide Squad recently has been awesome.
Despite Marvel saying that this is a new place for non-fans to jump in I really don’t think it is. So much of the villains motivations is set up in Thor: God of Thunder I think it’d be hard to jump on at this point. I really enjoy it personally. Aaron is very good in writing in a Kirby-type weirdness type way.
Batgirl on the other was kind of terrible for me. I realize I’m not the target audience but I just had a hard time digesting the way we finally got to Batgirl of Burnside (which I wonder if Burnside is as gentrified as actual Brooklyn). First they must replace a mute Asian girl with a poor blonde white girl. Then because of the New 52 they replace the poor white girl by taking away the notable disabiliy of another white hero, who is middle class, to remaker her as Batgirl Prime. Eventually they decide to remake Girls with the Batgirl that was perceded by A) WOC, B) a working class girl, and C) a disabled version of herself and try to pretend it’s diversity. It’s pretty much the direct oppisite of diversity. It’s still focusing on one of the most privileged individuals to exist but I digress because again, clearly I’m not the target audience.
I can get behind Nu52 Batgirl only when I pretend that she and Oracle are completely different characters. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the change. That being said, I really like the lighter tone in F/S’s take. This Babs has a more modern feel to her, unlike many of the other characters of the Bat!verse, and acts appropriately for her age. I currently hate just about everything else DC specifically because it is all so depressing, so it’s nice to see a change.
I’m undecided about Thor simply because I haven’t really followed any of the Original Sin storyline. I have enjoyed Loki: Agent of Asgard, so I’m not totally out of the loop, but TBH, this is probably going to be one of the ones that I will buy in a digital trade package or something later down the line.
@BDG: Yeah, I had the same prob as you with Star-Lord. All the setup was in a previous series that I had no interest in reading. I’m trying to go with it with Thor, but the new story just isn’t all that good.
As for Batgirl, I’m not sure if the characters your mentioning that got replaced are from Gail Simone’s run or another run (this is my first dabble in Batgirl), so I can’t really comment on that. But I’m not sure how you can claim that the new cast isn’t diverse, at least in terms of race and orientation. A lot of your (valid) complaints aren’t the result of Cameron Stewart or Babs Tarr but of DC mandates for the New 52. Stewart/Tarr can’t undo the changes introduced in the New 52, but I think what they’ve done with it is pretty darn great.
Lastly, I don’t believe in target demographics. Consume what you want regardless of who it’s “meant” for.
@nrich: Basically, yeah. I think of Oracle and Batgirl as two entirely separate entities (I pretend they are in different Earths in the multiverse), and then I try and forget that she’s part of DC altogether. Man, I really dislike DC right now, especially after what the Finchers did to Wonder Woman. I will be angry about that for the rest of my life.
I know some wheelchair users that will never forgive DC for putting Babs back in a cape and cowl. I also know someone who has a biker jacket not too dissimilar to what Babs currently wears, and that fashion choice was even more impractical for her uses than the spandex. Leather, and fake-leather analogues, do not stretch appreciativly and those acrobatics of hers should have left it riding up and bunching all the time. I know, its odd that I’ll take the existence of boob armor without question, but a bikers jacket moving in improbable ways is what ruins my suspension of disbelief. However, I know that biker jackets have limited flexibilty whereas I’ve never seen anyone around here fighting in boob armor.
I just think RebootBatgirl is both trying too hard and insulting by her very presence. Someone just shoot her in the spine when her jacket rides up after she raises her arms above her shoulderline and I’ll be happy though.
“In 1988, she was raped, shot, tortured, and paralyzed by the Joker in Alan Moore’s “The Killing Joke.”
Raped, tortured? Its been a while since I read the book, but I didn’t think that Barbara was raped or tortured. Wasn’t she just shot, and then Joker took some photos of her which he tried to use to make Commish Gordon go crazy?
@random22: If we’re going that route, then no superhero outfits make sense in terms of practicality. I don’t think we need to single out Batgirl on that front. I bought those yellow Docs and they are way impractical – super heavy and super hot – but they’re still fun to wear. My issue with boob-plate is less its impracticality and more that it immediately forces her feminization. It’s as unnecessary as dick-plate armor, yet women are always forced to wear boob-plates while men don’t have to wear dick-plate.
@wlangendorf: It was very strongly implied, and then reinforced last year that he did actually rape her, they just cut the page. What happened to her wasn’t the “enhanced interrogation” kind of torture, but it’s still torture. He didn’t just shoot her, take a few pics, and leave. He loomed over her body and psychologically tormented her. And even without the rape confirmation, it was always obvious to me that he had.
For the record. I’d be very okay with magical dick plate armor. Very okay with it indeed….
Hi Alex, loved the article.
As someone who spends the majority of his life in a wheelchair, I have to admit that I was a bit offended by Barbara’s paralysis healing. For what it’s worth, she was starting to regain some feeling back in Gail Simone’s run on Bird’s of Prey (which I cannot possibly recommend enough.) it would not have bothered me so much if there was some super-science explanation for it, but if I remember correctly, it was just basic physical therapy that healed her. The beginning of Simone’s run on Batgirl had her readjusting to her mobility and crime fighting.
I am not reading Thor. I have not liked Jason Aaron’s Thor since the beginning… Or, really, anything that he has ever written. I think the concept is cool and I hope it works out. At the same time I hope that the traditional Thor doesn’t get sidelined. He’s always been one of my favourite characters.
Totally not the point: I’m not very internety, what does Bat!Verse or any other Noun!Noun combination mean? I can’t say that I care for it.
I’m happy that comic books are being fetured on Tor.com, any chance we’ll see a comic book from Dark Horse, Valiant or IDW ?
I’m not sure that Lady Thor is actually white. It’s certainly suggested in issue two that she might be SHIELD agent Rosalind Solomon, whom I assume is Jewish-American. And who is definitely an environmental scientist.
Aaron’s previous THOR run was a little strange, but I sort of appreciated how it attempted to integrate several facets of Thor’s identity–his history as a bloodthirsty Norse God, the wacky cosmic aspect of Asgard, his role as defender of Midgard, and a dash of the environmental activist from the Ultimate line.
@11 – re: Noun!Noun – The word(s) before the exclamation point modify the words after it. (That first word doesn’t have to be a noun.) So you can make constructions such as Spoiler!BatGirl or Nu52!BatGirl to distinguish specific Batgirls in casual conversation.
I believe that it’s a convention from the wild and wooly days back when the internet was dominated by computer geeks, as it’s actual programming language syntax. I just can’t remember which language!
@@@@@random22: Tee hee hee!
@@@@@Blake Harrison: Yep. I totally understand why it sucks, and especially sucks in terms of representation. I’d get just as rage-y if Marvel took Storm and made her white. Hence what I said to nrich @@@@@ 5. The only way I can reconcile it is by not reconciling it. New52!Batgirl is from an entirely different universe from Oracle!Batgirl. That way I get to enjoy the new and old Batgirls and not have them taint each other.
What RishaBree said, in re Thing!Thing. I saw it first in fanfic and got accustomed to it, but I believe she’s right in that it’s old programmer syntax. In this case, Bat!verse means the Bat family universe, which is an off-handed reference to End!verse, a popular theme in SPN fanfic that explores the alt future where the apocalypse actually happened.
@@@@@templarsteel: Me too! Gosh, I love comics. I have grand plans to cover Hellboy/Baltimore, Mind MMGT, and Locke and Key (and maybe X-Files, Edward Scissorhands) in 2015. Do you have any recs from those companies?
@@@@@Colin R: Her hand was white before she touched Mjolnir. Where did you see the suggestion for Rosalind? I’m totally blanking.
Certainly the end of issue 1 made it look like we were supposed to infer that Freyja was taking over Thor’s role. But most of the hints I’m seeing are in issue 2–she demonstrates familiarity with Roxxon, specifically what Roxxon was up to in the last issues of the previous Thor run. And yet she doesn’t seem all that familiar with Thor’s abilities or Asgardian stuff, so she’s probably not Asgardian.
There could be other explanations, but Roz Solomon certainly seems to be on the list, to me. The biggest problem is “What was she doing on the moon?”
As for whiteness well, I’m operating more from the idea that ‘whiteness’ is more of a technique of exclusion than a true ethnic category. I don’t know for certain that Roz Solomon IS Jewish, but I think a Jewish woman taking on the role of a Norse god would irritate all the same white supremacists who got upset that Heimdall was being played by Idris Elba.
@@@@@ 15 from Valiant : Unity and Rai both written by Matt Kindt, the newer titles : Timewalker, Imperium, Divinity and Ninjak
I understand why corperate dc wants the batgirl everyone knows from every media Other media than comics up and walking; But as a wheelchair user with very little interest in Batgirl anyway that young hip speak will keep me away for sure.