Gail Simone Leaving Batgirl, and Why I’m Pissed Off About It

So yeah, I’m on Twitter today, and I notice a tweet from Gail Simone…and at this point, I felt compelled to double-check to make sure that I AM following her legit Twitter account. I guess because I had some fleeting hope that this was fake. But no, it’s for real, so allow me to present a series of tweets from Gail Simone this afternoon, as amalgamated by Gotham Spoilers…and no, I’m not doing the Michael Cole bit. I just don’t feel like it this time.

“This is my Yes-the-news-is-true-and-it-sucks super sad dance. Oddly, it’s square dancing. On Wednesday of last week, new Batgirl editor Brian Cunningham informed my by email that I was no longer the writer of Batgirl. It is baffling and sad, I will probably have a statement later today or maybe tomorrow. But I want to give a huge, huge thanks to the other creators in the bat-offices, and editors Bobbie Chase and Brian Smith, champions all. And the biggest thank you of all to you guys for supporting this book so hugely and making it a commercial and critical success. I honestly don’t have the words right now to thank you all. I’m pretty choked up an it’s all gratitude, not bitterness.”

First of all, I’d like to point out that there should be nothing odd about that, we all know square dancing is an invention of the devil. (OBVIOUSLY KIDDING, folks) Secondly, I’m aware that Gotham Spoilers posted on December 2nd that the rumours of Gail’s leaving Batgirl that had popped up on Bleeding Cool weren’t true. HOWEVER, I should note that this was based on Gail Simone’s own message on her own message board that said “I have not left Batgirl.” Of course, since this message was out before the 2nd, when Gail received the e-mail letting her know she was no longer going to be writing Batgirl, you can understand then why he would accept this to be the last word on the matter.

However, this just makes this scenario all the more horrible, insane, and down right cruel. Gotham Spoilers has some more details on the matter here: http://www.gothamspoilers.com/2012/12/confirmed-gail-simone-is-off-batgirl.html In the meantime, I’d just like to point out that when I called out DC Comics, in particular Dan Didio, out on how conspiratorial this situation involving Stephanie Brown and several other characters being dropped in the relaunch and disallowing writers to use those characters, Gail actually defended them, and THIS is how she’s rewarded for her loyalty.

Speaking of Stephanie Brown, I have made it no secret that I thoroughly enjoy Bryan Q. Miller‘s run with Batgirl, and thought it was a damned shame when they not only cancelled that book but also apparently retconned Barbara Gordon‘s time as the simply AWESOME Oracle. I thought the decision was pure BUNK. But the thing that got me to start buying the new Batgirl title regularly was Gail Simone’s spectacular writing on the book.

Now, I’m not going to be SO amazingly cynical as to say that Batgirl will undeniably suck as a result of this change. There’s still a chance that DC could get someone to write for this book that’ll tell some good stories…although what does not inspire much faith in that is when Mike Nelson tweeted her, asking if she didn’t “put enough women in refrigerators or something?”, to which Gail replied “Funny you should say that.” And I think it was at that point that everyone following her on Twitter collectively shat ourselves and asked “Oh dear God, DC, what have you done this time?!”

I don’t know what’s gonna happen with Gail Simone after this. On one hand, she could be writing something else, which wouldn’t be a bad thing. If so, Wonder Woman and/or Birds of Prey come to mind, since she’s written them before and her runs on both were apparently AWESOME. Or perhaps she could write World’s Finest, since I get the feeling she’d do Power Girl better justice, but I’ll get to that at another time. On the other hand, she could be leaving DC altogether. I really don’t know, and I hope not because she’s one of my two favourite writers in DC currently, the other being Scott Snyder, and he apparently has this fascination with scaring the piss outta me with his stories. lol

Anyway, that’s my take on the situation for now. I’ll be following this story closely. Gail said she’d be making an official statement soon regarding the matter, and of course I expect DC to declare who will be replacing her. Again, trying to remain hopeful about all this, but if the replacement writer is either of the two people I am most dreading to take over this book (not naming any names, but if you know me, you likely have an idea), you can guess I’ll be dropping Batgirl. Ja né.