Posted in: Movies, san diego comic con | Tagged: 2016, comic con, comiccon, comicon, Comics, entertainment, july, san diego, san diego comic con, sdcc, sdcc '16, sdcc16

Making Batgirl Less Likeable For The Killing Joke Movie

There has been plenty of commentary on Bleeding Cool regarding the new Killing Joke movie. Here's another take from someone who was there at the screening last night. The Bibliomanic writes,

Anyone familiar with The Killing Joke is no doubt familiar with the controversy surrounding the crippling of Barbara Gordon. Because of this, you would think that DC would take extra care in her portrayal in the film adaptation of the Killing Joke. This did not turn out to be the case.

For those of you who weren't at the screening last night I'll give you a little recap. Because of the nature and length of the original graphic novel some extra content was added to the movie. The extra screen time focused on Barbara Gordon. Barbara had been working alongside Bruce for a while now. The two stumble across a case against misogynist mobster, Paris France, whose becomes infatuated with Babs. Bruce scolds Barbara for treating it like a game and removes her from the case. Barbara flies into a rage and attacks Bruce, ending up in top of him. The two end up having sex right there on a rooftop.

I sat staring in awe at the hoops and hollers that followed their rooftop romp.

I'm sure many would argue that Barbara is older and wiser, a woman capable of making her own decisions. And while chronologically speaking they would be correct, the truth is Bruce treats Babs the same way he always has: She is his determined young sidekick, and because of her overly ambitious expectations with her stubborn can do attitude, Bruce has to act as her voice of reason pulling her back into his reality. They fall right back into their student/teacher relationship. Which works with Barbara as an eager young teenager, but not as a seasoned crime-fighting woman.

Especially not as a woman that Bruce apparently sees as a romantic interest. He even tells her, "You and I are not equals!" And how does she respond? Wrestling him to the ground and jumping on top of him. This is especially troubling because this shows us Bruce taking advantage of the teacher/student relationship he has with Barbara. He should know that he is in a position of authority over her and that it isn't appropriate. At its best it's incredibly creepy, at its worst its grooming, and it can't be cast off as a human moment of weakness on his part.

And then Barbara is turned into the nagging ex-girlfriend. She looses her cool, yelling about Bruce ignoring her in the library (you know, her day job). She also flips a rude man into the bushes outside of a coffee shop for not responding to his upset girlfriend. She ends up calling Bruce while he's working and begging for an invitation to help him out. One of the biggest laughs from the audience were at Barbara's expense when Bruce chased her off of the phone.

On a note of personal disappointment, my heart broke watching Barbara in the library. The library is supposed to be one of the places Babs is at her most powerful. She is surrounded by information and completely in her element. Instead we see her losing control and yelling about a man who wouldn't give her the time of day in front of patrons. This is especially disappointing considering we see Babs become Oracle at the end of the movie. It would have been nice to see her set up as the informational powerhouse we know her to be instead of the jilted ex we saw.

Babs ends up having to save Bruce from Paris France afrer he forcefully removed her from the case. I sat at the edge of my seat hoping for redemption of one of my favorite characters; I didn't get it. After saving Bruce, Babs finds herself too close to the dark abyss that Brurce lives in. After being told that she can't handle the darkness that comes with fighting crime she ends up giving up being Batgirl.

Before the screening began the viewers were assured that this extra time we spend with Barbara would give her the story arc she so badly deserved, that we would feel so badly for her when she was attacked. The thing is, we already feel badly for her. We as an audience already feel bad for the young girl who just wants to help people who is shot and paralyzed during her daddy-daughter time. Actually giving her 20 minutes of screen time works to make her less likable.

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