Gail Simone was ejected from helming Batgirl series
7 Comments Published by Avi Green on Monday, December 10, 2012 at 7:17 AM.
She announced it on Twitter:
They've been letting down quite a few writers (and artists) ever since the New 52 began, and I guess she's the latest they decided to get rid of.
On a related note, Birds of Prey was one of the last series I read from DC before they frightened me away with much of what they did since Identity Crisis, and while it started out well for about a year, it lost direction as it began featuring elements connected with what they had in store for Infinite Crisis. It wasn't entirely Simone's fault, though she was unfortunately going along with what they were doing, which led in part to what we see today. And, some mistakes are noticeable in where she's taken Batgirl with Scott Snyder's Batman crossover: as this panel from the 14th issue suggests, she's going to abandon civilian life, which is probably the next non-direction they're taking the Bat-world in after the Death of the Family crossover. At least it sounds that way.
Today, Birds of Prey is almost unrecognizable from what it first began as, not the least owing to how Huntress has reverted back to Helena Wayne of Earth-2, and in the first issue of that series, it was suggested that Helena Bertinelli had died. We have DiDio's editorial staff to blame for that, of course.
It's not great that Simone's being let go. But maybe the time has come for her to turn to other companies and working on her own creations like Welcome to Tranquility again. Eventually, DC will reap what they've sown, and Time Warner will either have to tell DiDio it's time for him to go, or they'll close down the publishing arm. Which won't be great at all, but will at least be better than witnessing the horrific abuse of the DCU continue.
On Wednesday of last week, new Batgirl editor Brian Cunningham informed me by email that I was no longer the writer of Batgirl.
— GailSimone (@GailSimone) December 9, 2012
They've been letting down quite a few writers (and artists) ever since the New 52 began, and I guess she's the latest they decided to get rid of.
Today, Birds of Prey is almost unrecognizable from what it first began as, not the least owing to how Huntress has reverted back to Helena Wayne of Earth-2, and in the first issue of that series, it was suggested that Helena Bertinelli had died. We have DiDio's editorial staff to blame for that, of course.
It's not great that Simone's being let go. But maybe the time has come for her to turn to other companies and working on her own creations like Welcome to Tranquility again. Eventually, DC will reap what they've sown, and Time Warner will either have to tell DiDio it's time for him to go, or they'll close down the publishing arm. Which won't be great at all, but will at least be better than witnessing the horrific abuse of the DCU continue.
Labels: bad editors, crossoverloading, dc comics, women of dc
That is too bad, but like you said, she willingly went along with the editorially-mandated stuff that spun out of Infinite Crisis. Even though I like Birds of Prey and her Wonder Woman run (although that ended pretty poorly) I did lose some respect for her when she slimed Frank Miller last year on Twitter.
I never understood her appeal, quite frankly. If anyone could explain it in depth, please.
I tried to read the New 52 Batgirl series, but between the violence and the lack of interesting enemies -- for starters, why no Killer Moth? Batgirl needs to fight Killer Moth, now that she can again. And I'm not saying that, because of my username.
Still sucks she was let go, but, eh, as you said, she can now work on her own creations and she'll be around, I'm sure.
Carl:Killer Moth. Yeah she went along with DC, However she also served as a bridge to thousands of dissatisfied fans like myself, trying to sooth the soreness brought on by the editors. She was also a big advocate and voice, for women, the disabled, and LBTQ etc.. communities.
Killer Moth: But the way she was let go was the worst, you just don't send an E-mail to fire someone.By the way the editor that fired her was a long time editor for Wizard Magazine.
I don't care about any of that; I was just glad to see a decent female-centric comic like Birds of Prey. not only did it feature babes as the heroes, but they also could hold their own in combat.
I still think Barbara should've remained as Oracle, since apart from maybe Professor X she was one of the few disabled heroines and kind of goes against their "diversity" mantra.
cerridwyno9: Fair enough point about Simone's appeal (or I have to read more to come up with a possible counterpoint, if need be). But I have to side with Carl in how I didn't like her attacking or demonizing Frank Miller over the OWS issue, as I recall.
But, indeed, as I also noticed Cunningham's name. You'd think after getting dumped himself when Wizard folded, he would have done it more personally with Simone and soften the impact. Apparently not.
Carl: While I prefer Babs as Batgirl, I don't disagree with your point with her being Oracle. She made a successful second career as Oracle, and DC should have left that alone.
Unless we get a new Oracle alongside Babs!Batgirl. I'm sure that's next.
My personal favorite Batgirl was Stephanie Brown.
Change of opinion since I wrote that: I think she was a good writer in her Birds of Prey days, but after rereading her Wonder Woman run recently on Scans Daily I realized that it was filled with wasted potential. She's just another moonbat liberal (see her nasty Twitter posts about Frank Miller and Orson Scott Card, for starters) in an industry chock full of them. If she's so concerned about the disabled, why did she revert Babs back to Batgirl, huh?