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[b]Barbara Gordon[/b], 14 (b. 12-03-1953)
[b][sub]Vigilante based in Gotham City, New Jersey[/sub][/b]
[color=gray][sub]Active since approximately Summer 1967[/sub][/color]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/2REXgZH.png?1[/img][/center]
[INDENT][h3]Character Concept[/h3][hr]
[color=999999][i]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.[/i][/color]

[center][youtube]https://youtu.be/w9qsDgA1q8Y[/youtube][/center]
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:

[list][*]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 [i]Dread Castle[/i] 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 [i]Boy Wonder[/i], 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.[/list]
[h3]Key Notes[/h3][hr]
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 newly minted Police Commissioner of the GCPD, formerly having served as the Captain of Gotham’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 [i]met[/i] Batman. There’s also the matter of her older brother, who is a current patient at the Arkham Behavioral Rehabilitation Center. 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.

[b][u]Characters of Note[/u][/b]

[hider=Supporting Cast]
[b]Captain James Gordon[/b]
[indent][color=gray]Her father, newly minted as the next Police Commissioner for Gotham City.[/color][/indent]
[b]James “Jimmy” Gordon, Jr [/b]
[indent][color=gray]Barbara’s older brother, constantly struggling with mental lapses and ‘mania’ who Babs is quite close too despite his peculiarities. As a ward of Arkham, he finally appears to be getting the mental help he needs… or is he? [/color][/indent]
[b]Tiffany Fox[/b]
[indent][color=gray]The odd girl out at Agatha Wayne’s Finishing School for Girls, Tiffany has been subject to cruel behavior by the elite of the school. Barbara and Tiffany seem to be close friends and they share an affinity for women’s liberation and the cultural revolution happening around them. She is the eldest daughter of Lucius Fox.[/color][/indent]
[b]Jason Bard[/b]
[indent][color=gray]Her father’s former partner at the GCPD during his years as a detective who has since moved on to working as a Private Detective after being dissatisfied with work as a cop. Barbara considers him a mentor, but also an informant and useful resource.[/color][/indent]
[b]Professor Wesley Dodds[/b]
[indent][color=gray]A colleague of her mother's at Kane College and a Professor of Chemistry. Secretly the vigilante known as the [b]Sandman[/b], a member of the Justice Society of America, though he has considered himself “basically retired” for at least three years now. A confidant of heroes when fighting supervillains who mingle in bioweapons. A longtime resident of New Jersey.[/color][/indent]


[/hider]
[b][u]Notable Events and Lore[/u][/b]

[hider]
TBD
[/hider]
[b][u]Ongoing & Upcoming Arcs[/u][/b]

[hider][b]The Terror[/b]
[color=gray][indent]Katherine Webb, a former leading actress in 1950’s Noir films, has finally broken through with her first project in the director’s chair. A horror film based loosely on Basil Karlo’s cult classic, Webb has run into a snag when shooting her picture in Gotham City. Two crew members have turned up dead and in grisly circumstances. Could the picture be cursed? The ever intrepid Barbara Gordon takes matters into her own hands in investigating claims of a mysterious figure stalking the shadows of the set.[/indent][/color]
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[h3]References / Sample Post[/h3][hr]
[hider][center][img]https://www.fortressofsolitude.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Batgirl-header.jpg[/img][/center]
[indent]
[center][b]Gotham City, New Jersey, United States[/b]
[color=FDFFAC][sub]“I Can See For Miles”[/sub][/color][/center]
[indent][hr]
I’ve never liked Arkham.

Whenever we’d pass by when I was a kid it just [i]felt[/i] rotten. This was back when it was still an asylum. They called it a home, but it was an asylum. Nothing good has ever happened in an asylum. Just ask Rosemary Kennedy.

I guess they call it a center now. Rehabilitation Center. I suppose it sounds real nice, but I still can’t shake this feeling about it. Arkham still feels, well, off. The air tastes sour and the wind smells rotten. My dad says it’s my imagination. There’s nothing wrong with Arkham. It’s not a reassurance I can get behind. I’m fourteen years old, not an idiot. Arkham might have a nice name now, but it is still very much an asylum. 

I hate it.

“Scowling is unbecoming of girls your age.” My mother reminds me as my dad puts his hand on my shoulder. “He’s going to be okay. These are doctors.”

The professor and the commissioner. My parents. Smart as they are, they are really good at missing the point. I still can’t believe my dad used to be a detective if he thinks this place is going to help Jimmy. Jimmy’s sick, but isolating him with a bunch of crazies and white walls is only going to make him worse. I wish they’d see that. The only way he gets better is at home being reminded he’s not broken and the voices aren’t real. How much time are they going to put aside for him? To drive out here and see him every week? They’re busy with their jobs as is. Dad just got the big promotion. Mom got her tenure. I barely even see them and I’m the ‘normal’ one. I bite my lip, thinking of the thought. I’m already creating double standards. I’m being stupid. If they can’t see him at home they certainly, of course, won’t be able to see him here.

I sigh.

“Babs, you should look at the bright side of things.” Jimmy spoke up, laughing as he did so, “You won’t have to worry about me anymore.”

[color=8E6DC7]“You know I’m never going to stop, right?”[/color] I respond, as peppy as I can manage. [color=8E6DC7]“I’m gonna visit every time I can.”[/color]

“You better bring some cool stories. I have a feeling I’m going to be pretty bored here.”[/indent]

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