Batman: The Killing Joke (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I admit that I haven’t read The Killing Joke, Alan Moore’s one-shot that DC decided to make canon, thus making the former Batgirl crippled. (Note that she retired the superhero identity BEFORE she was shot.) While many like her as Oracle and were disappointed that she went back to being Batgirl, some fans want the shooting, which in the story was part of Joker’s attempt to drive Commissioner Gordon as insane as he is (I don’t know for sure if this is what changed Joker from “clown prince of crime” to “murder-crazy psychopath”), removed from an upcoming animated adaptation announced at San Diego Comic Con. Ari Green of Four Color Media Monitor suggests that feminists look at far worse use of hurting women, like Identity Crisis and the retconned rape of Sue Dibney by Doctor Light that didn’t even really matter to the story as much as her murder did. Meanwhile, Reggie James of Reaxxion wonders why it’s okay to torture a man but not injure a woman?
I kind of see James’ point. Sure, she was shot as part of Gordon’s story, a semi-fridge if you will, but since it became canon (to Alan Moore’s regret) the writers used it to make Barbara/Oracle a stronger character, getting out of being the “girl version of a male hero” and into an important part of the Bat family…until writers decided Batman was leaning too much on her…and had him lean on Alfred instead.
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