Created | 5 Years 9 Months 29 Days ago |
User | LordTracer |
Votes | 25 |
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-Lets be real. In Earth One Dick was Robin from 8 Years Old to his 19 Years Old [The New Teen Titans Vol 1 #37 (1983)]. 11 Years {almost 12 [New Titans Vol 1 #55 (1989)]} being Robin.
By the time Barbara started her carrer as Batgirl, Dick was already leader of the Teen Titans, having to deal with Meta-Humans daily.
Now lets take a look at Barbara's whole carrer:
Considering Dick was 13 when he started the Teen Titans {As established by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez in New Titans Vol 1 #50 (December, 1988)} and that Barbara started her career around that time {around September of that year according to Batman Files (released before 2011)} the rough estimate is that she spent around 6 Years being Batgirl during Earth One.
The Zero Hour timeline then establishes that Dick becoming Nightwing + Crisis on Infinite Earths was 4 Years Ago (from Zero Hour's perspective) and that she was Paralysed 3 Years Ago (from Zero Hour's perspective) meaning she gave up on being Batgirl and then was paralysed roughly 1 year after "the end of Earth One".
So I'll concede she was Batgirl for roughly 7 Years before becoming Oracle.
-Not only she spent less time being Batgirl (meaning less experience), she also didn't went through the same level of difficulty Robin went through (meaning she faced foes of lesser caliber/quality than the ones Robin was facing).
Here is what I mean, while Robin was soloing beings that were defeating his whole team (like Mister Twister/Gargoyle, Honey Bun and even The Ant in the Year One Prequel) she mostly remained on Gotham fighting the superstitious cowardly lot (something Robin also more than did on his spare time even in his Solo adventures [may those be the ones shown in Star-Spangled Comics from Earth Two Continuity or the ones he had during his College Years in Earth One Continuity]).
Seriously, Detective Comics Vol 1 #492 (July, 1980) marks the first time she was shot! (Roughly in her 6th Year being Batgirl!) And she immediatly started wanting to quit! (She overcoming her fear is the whole shagrin of this arc) Robin on the other hand had already been shot all the way back in Batman Vol 1 #15 (1943) [Robin would be roughly 11 considering Earth Two logic, meaning around his 3rd Year] and, despite being shot, literally moves to a K.O.ed Batman's side to slap him into counciousness so he can go back to fighting. Come on, he is just far thougher and more determined!
And Barbara's quitter attitude didn't stop there, it is actually consistent enough to be a character trait. Anyone remembers how she was on Crisis on Infinite Earths? Again wanting to quit during the Crisis. And guess what she did roughly one year after the Crisis? (as shown above using Zero Hour timeline) She quit! She had already retired her Batgirl garb when Joker shot her in Killing Joke.
Now, an argument can be made that she became more determined than ever after being shot by the Joker, and I'll agree on that. She spent years as Oracle, being very useful to the whole Super-Hero Community. In my opinion she became very essential to all heroes under that position and this time she spent as Oracle severally helped her tactical skills (as she was effectivelly having to be a General administering were the "soldiers" [heroes] should go all around the world) and immensely buffed her hacking skills to Sci-Fi levels (in the Birds of Prey Run even having to dominate an virus like aspect of Brainiac).
But, of course, Barbara's career as Batgirl didn't stop there. In the New 52, due to a chip, she was enabled to walk again and promptly became Batgirl again and since then has been Batgirl.
Now now, just by the fact she had her own comic that lasted 52 issues and then another Volume that lasted 50 Issues already helped the character a lot in actually showing her solo adventures, having to actually [finally] face some meta-humans and such on her own.
I'll give a rough estimate that Damian started the New 52 around his 10 Years Old (as noted by Tim in Batman & Robin Vol 2 #10 [August, 2012]) and that by now Damian is around his 14 Years Old (as he says in Robin Vol 3 #1 [June, 2021]):
That being said, this Batgirl that can walk again, has, In-Universe, been on the active for around 4 Years then!
So, in total:
7 Years as Batgirl (pre-quitting) + 4 Years (post-Oracle) = meaning the Main Continuity present Barbara has roughly spent, yes, around 11 Years being Batgirl!