Character Concept
Last year, Barbara Gordon was at the top of the world.
A child prodigy who was taking the world of gymnastics by storm, the Gotham native was already being talked up as a potential olympic level athlete before she even hit puberty proper. She always hated it. She was good at it. It was fun. But that’s the thing about Barbara Gordon; once she feels something isn’t interesting or fun, she’s not going to be forced to do it. Her father tried to understand why she wanted to quit. Her mother yelled at her. Her closest friends found it bizarre.
Her parents complained that she had lost her inspiration, but that wasn’t true. There was someone who inspired her.
“The Caped Crusader.”
The Caped Crusader. The Bat of Gotham. The Dark Knight. Gotham’s very own vigilante, using his smarts and fists to fix what was rotten at the core of Gotham. The Falcones. The Maronis. Crazy people. Lunatics who wanted to kidnap people and sacrifice them to their fake gods. Gosh, that was a close one. Though she had to admit, it was pretty far out to see the vigilante in person. She’s been fascinated with vigilantism ever since. Inspired. The thing her parents said she couldn’t be. In an era where things seemed to be getting worse; people pushing against pretty radical stuff out of fear and cowardice. “Mutants”, Women’s Liberation, Civil Rights, Rock & Roll. She felt a kinship with fighting that kind of thing. She did hate bullies. The Justice Society was on the cusp of something great and so was Batman. She didn’t care if grown-ups thought they should be all unmasked. They were doing the right thing.
And so would she.Essentially this is Barbara Gordon… Year Zero… in 1967-68? Roughly. Errors will be made. Fun will be had.
Largely independent of the Batman writer, though at some point he’s going to need to teach Barbara some new things. Probably on weekends. That aside, the idea here is to tell serialized pulp stories that you might not find in the modern DCU due to how advanced technology is and how it creates threats in said stories. Ultimately I have in mind to touch themes of the 60’s Women’s Liberation movement, the cultural drift due to the new generation and its counterculture, and the tension between mutants by extremists. All while Barbara stumbles around and gets her ass kicked. Hopefully, she’ll not be too incompetent.
Some storyline pitches to consider:
- The Purifiers rounding up accused mutants and trying to execute them in Robinson Park, because of course it’s Robinson Park.
- A film production of Dread Castle halts around Old Gotham when two cast members turn up dead. Whispers of the production being cursed happen. Babs investigates!
- Potential crossover with the one and only Boy Wonder, though how does he stand up against the newly minted Batgirl? Will she be lectured about endangering her life? Probably!
- Possibly some drama at Agatha Wayne’s Finishing School for Young Girls, a prepatory academy that Barbara goes to.
Key Notes
Listed below will be my scratchpad for all events, key definitions, and ongoing/potential arcs that I’ll involve myself with through this character.
The first notation of most importance is the family dynamic of the Gordon family in this universe. Jim is the Captain of GCPD’s central precinct and Barbara’s mother serves as a Professor of foreign languages at Kane College, Gotham’s central university that is as old as it is prestigious. As mentioned in the character concept section, Barbara was a talented gymnast that was projected to be an Olympic-level talent before she quit abruptly in the previous summer. She’s highly gifted beyond this and her scholarship to Agatha Wayne’s Finishing School for Young Girls is certainly in danger with her out of the gymnastics program. This has put stress on Barbara, but her mother has pulled what little influence she has a College Professor to keep her in school in spite of her decision to quit gymnastics.
In the recent weeks, Barbara has been moonlighting as a vigilante; inspired by the Justice Society and more specifically, Batman. She has met Batman, but she hasn’t
met Batman. There’s also the matter of her older brother, who is a current patient at the Arkham Asylum for the Mentally & Criminally Ill. More on that later, but it’s important.
Barbara’s skills beyond being an Olympic-level gymnast also are to facilitate her intelligence. In conventional DC stories Barbara is described as a computer expert, but in 1968 computers are not a thing a middle class girl from south Gotham has access to. So her intelligence is portrayed here in more practical ways; in how she can memorize things quickly and adeptly like foreign languages, in being savvy with the science of chemistry, critical thinking, and mechanical engineering. She is not a trained fighter yet, so all of her fighting skill is currently reactive, though she does pick up things she sees well.
So enough to really be true to the character but without going too hard into “she is good at everything, okay” territory.
With that out of the way I can explain some characters of note, events of importance, and other such things.
Characters of NoteCaptain James GordonHer father, and the Captain of the 1st Precinct of the Gotham City Police Department.Notable Events and LoreTBD
Ongoing & Upcoming ArcsThe Terror
References / Sample Post
I come by every weekend. To the old asylum.
It’s an old brick and mortar building, pieced together in Gotham’s quaint, creepy way. Everything that’s older than the 20th Century looks like its straight out of a Dracula picture. Arkham is no exception. I hate it.
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