And The New Batgirl Writer Is…

Well, as of today, the news about the new ongoing writer for Batgirl was released. And that writer’s name:

Gail Simone.

No, really. Simone broke the news on her Twitter feed today. Although I saw this as it was posted, I sat there wondering if this was real or not, even thought she blatantly said that it was all true. To see how the news was announced, let’s look at the Twitter posts that were made by Simone.

Based on the Twitter stream, no one is as surprised as the writer herself that she is back on the book! Immediately following the removal, there was tons of support for Simone and wonder as to what was going on with DC to do such a thing. It’s not as if Batgirl was a poorly selling book. (In my personal opinion, it was one of the better titles being produced by DC.) But there was a lot of confusion and a lot of support for Simone, including many indicating their intent to boycott the title after she was gone. This may have really driven the concept home to DC that removing her from the title was a bad thing, and perhaps they began the process of getting Simone back. And as of today (December 21, 2012) she announced her return.

Apart from fan support, many comics creators also provided Simone their congratulations on getting back onto Batgirl. Scott Snyder, the current Batman writer and guy is unofficially architecting the Bat-family right now, had this to say on her return to the title:

Marvel writer Dan Slott, who has himself been on the opposite end of the spectrum where many fans are upset with what he is doing in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man and launching Super Spider-Man in the new year, chimed in as well:

So what does this show? That DC listened to its fans, for better or for worse. We don’t know the particulars as DC has been fairly tight-lipped on this from their side, but even within our own team there is both happiness and frustration. Some take the view that it’s great the DC listened to the masses and restored Simone as the writer to Batgirl, while others take the view that DC should have stuck to its guns and proceeded forward with the decision they made. We don’t know (nor are we likely to know) the reason why DC pulled a 180 and reversed its decision, but it’s done… at least for the moment. If they did it once, it could happen again (but, in my personal opinion, it’s highly unlikely to do so).

But there we have it – the news of Batgirl just before the holiday week kicks in to full gear. Current Iron Man and Young Avengers scribe Kieron Gillen has perhaps summed up the event with both humor and a somewhat subtle challenge to Simone:

What are your thoughts? Are you glad that Simone has been restored as the writer? Would you have rather seen someone else take the helm? Let us know!