Birds of Prey writer Gail Simone has revealed that DC placed restrictions on her during her run on Batgirl during the New 52 era, including denying Barbara a “cool hideout.” This comes on the heels of Tom King revealing DC Comics’ response to his desire to do a 12-issue run of Supergirl, which they were adamantly against as they had no faith in Supergirl. It would seem that DC’s mistrust of its female heroes goes much deeper as Simone just revealed some very insightful behind-the-scenes details about DC’s response to her Batgirl ideas.

Simone is best known for her extremely successful run on Birds of Prey. More recently, Simone gained acclaim with her Batgirl series. This was a part of DC’s New 52 initiative, which was intended to bring new life to DC’s universe. However, the New 52 has been highly criticized by fans and creators alike. Looking back on what it was like to work with DC during the New 52 era, Simone started a discussion on Facebook that many fellow creators joined in on, sharing their retrospective thoughts of the time.

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According to Bleeding Cool, Simone says that DC Comics blocked Batgirl from having a lot of things in the series. A few  interesting things that Simone mentions include that “she couldn’t wear glasses, she couldn’t be a librarian.” Arguably, DC decision to block these seems to stem from the publisher worrying about sales, as it might believe that being a librarian isn’t isn’t perceived as cool or something that someone like Batgirl would do, despite the fact that Barbara Gordon has been a librarian for years in the comics. But the most ridiculous thing that the publisher denied Batgirl and Simone was “a cool hideout.” This is absurd considering how many heroes have hideouts.

It seems that fans missed out on seeing Batgirl have her own Batcave. Why would DC allow Batman to have a cave but not Batgirl? Nearly every other hero is granted a hideout. For example, Oliver Queen has the Arrow Cave, which is a literal copy of the Batcave. It’s clear that, at least at the time, DC had a lack of confidence in its female heroes and was very selective about what they can and cannot do. Although it seems that things over a DC have eased up in terms of rules, it’s possible that similar decisions are still being made, but not revealed to the public.

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It’s hard to fathom why Batgirl would not be allowed her own Batcave, especially considering that she’s part of the Bat-Family. Nevertheless, it’s great to see writers like Gail Simone and Tom King come out with stories like these. It gives readers a greater insight into why some aspects of certain books are missing. And it shows that creators don’t have full control over everything that is put into these comics, even with someone as big as Simone or King. Check out Gail Simone‘s New 52 run of Batgirl, which can be picked up in comic book stores or digitally now.

Source: Bleeding Cool

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Ben Rolph
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Ben Rolph is a Comics features writer for Screen Rant. Based out of London, United Kingdom, Ben owns and runs an Arrowverse YouTube channel called ‘TheDCTVshow’, as well as being a film critic at DiscussingFilm. He is also a Tomatometer-approved critic and studies film at the University of Westminster.

Ben has a passion for the Arrowverse shows, especially The Flash and Supergirl, which he has watched and analysed for years.

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