10 Unpopular Comic Book Character Reboots (That Were Actually Perfect)

10. Batgirl - New 52

Despite starting out as an auxiliary character in Batman's mythos, Batgirl a.k.a. Barbara Gordon evolved in the comics and in readers' hearts. Her chipper personality and impressive applied intellectualism set her apart from the darker and goofier heroes in her midst and made her stand out. That's why it was so devastating when she was cut down by the Joker's bullet in Alan Moore's The Killing Joke.

Despite Moore himself disowning the comic, DC made it canon and Batgirl officially lost the ability to walk.

But even losing the lower half of her body didn't stop Barbara Gordon from being a superhero. Not long after her attack, she reinvented herself as Oracle, the Justice League's resident computer hacker, super genius, and tactical coordinator. From her workstation in the Gotham clocktower, she coordinated the heroes of the Justice League through multiple global and multiversal crises and made herself a critical element of the team.

In the New 52 relaunch, however, Barbara Gordon was abruptly back to being Batgirl, with the explanation that a surgical computer chip had repaired her shattered spinal cord. Fans were outraged that decades of continuity and an icon for the disabled were being rewritten, but one person who unequivocally agreed with that creative choice was Alan Moore himself.

The change has stuck since, with Babs going onto receive another successful reboot in the Batgirl of Burnside.