Barbara Gordon is big news. Right now Batgirl is kicking up a right load of fuss thanks to an ill-judged variant cover for an upcoming issue of her solo book artist Rafael Albuquerque's Joker tie-in recalled the classic story The Killing Joke, which saw the Clown Prince Of Crime shoot and cripple the heroine, with some implied sexual assault thrown in for bad measure. It's a creepy, haunting image. Which is also totally wrong for a book which has fought to escape the dark history of the character, pitched directly at a younger, hipper and more female audience than your average comic book. Smartly, DC and Albuquerque decided to cancel that particular variant. It was probably the right call, despite what a vocal minority might tell you. Anyway, the whole episode has thrown a larger spotlight than Batgirl's had on her for a while now. The new creative team of writers Cameron Stewart and Brendan Fletcher and artist Babs Tarr had made headlines for its girl-friendly plotting and art, but now people are paying attention to Barbara Gordon like never before. They've done so by starting (mostly) from scratch with the character, trying to build something new from the ground up and discarding all that baggage since its that traumatic past most readers know about her. But even before she hit Burnside, there's a lot about her fans were probably unaware of. Here are ten such things you didn't know about Batgirl.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
