thanks to pasrimonia for the awesome ‘batgirl for batgirl’ poster image.

All signs point to the new Batgirl not being Cass.  And the most recent hints suggest it is either Steph (The Spoiler) or a combination of two or three women (possibilities that seem to include : Cass, Steph, Babs, or Misfit) taking up the cowl together…which is an interesting idea, but I admit I’m not really on board, mostly because I just don’t understand why it’s not Cass straight up and with no ‘battle for the cowl’ bullshit.

I feel like the fans really love her and have long embraced her, but DC just somehow never has, and I don’t know why.

I guess the only thing I’m truly glad about is that it doesn’t LOOK like the plan is for it to be Barbara – which I would hate.  There’s speculation that because of dropped hints that they wanted to bring her back as Batgirl and changed their minds.  I would love if this was true, because it suggests that they do listen to fans (everyone loves Barbara, but almost nobody wants her back in the Batgirl uniform) or at least to themselves when they realize something isn’t right.  The bottom line is that Barbara has so evolved beyond being just Batgirl.  Barbara is so much more as Oracle and she can’t go backwards in time…which is what it would be for her to put on the Batgirl uniform again.

Anyway, let’s be all scientific like and look at the hints:

There were the three images released as Batgirl teasters, and each of them are basically different costumes, and thus suggests different women…which I guess is where we’re all getting idea that it will either be a team up of multiple women donning the cowl, or at least a battle to be the one and only.

The first (and my favorite of course) is pure Cass (although a bit heavy om the boobage).

The second is an obvious throw back to the old Barbara Gordon Batgirl:

And number three, if only because of the purple eyes and general lameness (in comparison to the other two) screams Steph to me.  Not that comics are consistent with eye color by the way, but just that purple is strongly associated with Steph, and this character has very unusual purple eyes.  I don’t think that’s just a ‘coloring error’ or ‘creative coloring’ – not on such an important and “hint-y” image:

All three Phil Noto images are awesome, but I’m partial to number one, because it looks like Cass, and I’m really unimpressed with number three because it looks like Steph.  Hey, at least I can admit my biases!

And to add to (and confirm?) the Steph hype, you’ve got this amazing Phil Noto image, released for Batgirl #4, which definitely does not look like Cass to me.  It could be almost anyone except Cass, but it mostly leads me to Steph, again.

Then you’ve got this hint from The Web #3 – which also hints at Steph, considering the purple (blech) color scheme.

But I think the thing that bothers me most, are the preview pages we got from Issue #1 – (which came out today I believe) and which still keep Batgirl’s identity a secret.  I understand DC’s reasons for wanting to draw out the suspense, but when it comes to actually writing a character, and fans who are incredibly familiar with said character still can’t tell who it is…well it starts to smack of bad writing.  I mean those preview pages don’t sound anything like Cass…but I can’t say for sure who they are…and I think Barbara and Steph and even Misfit are all different enough that I should be able to tell.  So at some point it just starts to smack of existing characters being so poorly written, or conceived that we can’t tell the difference between them so long as they keep their mask on.  This doesn’t bode well.  And it’s frustrating, especially in light of how differently Dick’s Batman is being portrayed versus Bruce’s Batman – because they’re wonderfully developed fleshed out characters in their own right – and so it’s obvious it’s not Bruce behind the mask.  But with Batgirl the lesson is a little bit – what? – all women are the same under the mask?  It’s frustrating.

But then again, maybe I’m just pissed that it’s not obviously Cass, end of story.

I can say without a doubt that if it’s Steph I won’t be reading (I’m not a fan – clearly).  If it’s some ‘battle it out’ story, I’ll hang in there until I see who it’s going to be and if it’s anyone other than Cass I’ll be bailing.  If it’s a team of them working together…eh…I guess I’ll have to see.  If it’s brilliantly done then I’ll give it a try, but I’m not wild about the idea.

PS – don’t even get me started on why all these potential Batgirl’s bodies look so exactly the same that we can’t tell them apart in that way either.  That’s a whole OTHER rant, but I’m trying to save that one for just inside my head.