Its official, DC really is being run by idiots right now. They just think because of the numbers of the New 52 they really can do anything they want and we’re not going to notice.

This one will not go away quietly.

So, she was taken off? As if they could find someone better to replace her? Weak.

Whilst it is a shame that there is one less woman writer at DC, I found Gail Simone’s Batgirl to be an excruciatingly poorly written book. But then, so are a lot of DC books at the moment. What doesn’t make sense to me is why they would let go of such a popular writer, who is the main reason many women and girls read comic books in the first place.

I don’t understand the sales they get, the books are for the most part not that good. For me anyway, to each their own I guess. This just makes one more book of theirs I can drop now. It’s just Snyder’s Batman and the Earth-2 themed books for me now.

So totally being a rabble-rouser right now…Karen Berger and now Gail Simone. Is this the dawn of the great female cartoonist purge @ DC?

The first Batgirl hardcover collection charted at #4 on the New York Times Bestseller list last July.

It looks like DC is shooting itself in the foot. But at least that foot isn’t in mouth (yet).

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Shit on a stick! That’s not good news. Makes me even gladder I swore off all DC comics a while back.

Well, there’s one more DC book I can drop. And honestly, DC’s consistent corporate/editorial stupidity isn’t quite enough to make me boycott them entirely, but they’re making it really hard to resist dropping their books that I’m on the fence about, of which there are several at this point.

Guilt alleviated. I loved every issue of Simone’s Birds of Prey and have been feeling guilty for not supporting her Batgirl. I just couldn’t get behind the reversal of Oracle, even though I wanted to support Gail. Glad I can wash my hands of the whole mess. In fact, aside from Lemire and Snyder, I can wash my hands of DC altogether!

To be fair, I’ve read a few of the Batgirl books and they weren’t really any good. Found the writing to be pretty dull. Obviously, with Simone being one of the very few female writers for DC, this inevitably turns into a discussion about gender. Still, and of course you never know how much of it got killed in the editing departement, but Batgirl didn’t do much to convince me that Simone was a good writer. And a new writer might actually make me interested in this book again.

A really pleasent surprise would be if DC actually replaces Simone with a new female (and better) writer, but I kinda doubt that will happen.

Repeat after me:
DC does not care about female characters.
DC does not care about female readers.
DC does not care about female creators.
Why this is a surprise to anyone, including Ms. Simone, is beyond me. Clearly, years of being an apologist for DC’s misogynist line of comics bought her absolutely bupkis in the way of professionalism and respect.

Not really a fan. I stopped reading Batgirl after the first arc, it was pretty awful IMO. The first issue of Firestorm was even worse.

Why does this show that DC doesn’t care about female creators? Should they keep hiring subpar writers just because they are female? I’m sure they don’t care what gender a writer is as long as they are talented.

I think it’s a n incredible shame that the editor found the need to e-mail her instead of at least trying to call and talk to her about it. I really do think a lot of the editors ego’s over there are bigger then they ought to be.

That being said, the people already crying that DC “doesn’t care about female creators” simply because Gail was fired from the book don’t have enough facts (and the way internal workings wok at DC, likely never will) to make this claim. Likely this more comes down to an editor and creator not having the same vision for a book moreso then Gail Simone being a woman.

There’s a lot of editors over at DC right now that actually don’t seem to have an ability to work with talent in order to get out of their own way. Book seems to be running along fine when it was strictly under the Bat office. Move the book to a new editor and voila! Problems.

Anybody know who the editor of Firestorm was when Gail walked off that book? I bet dollars to donuts it was Brian Cunningham. In which case DiDio and Harras should have known better.

The whole thing sucks and is incredibly unfortunate.

Who can follow up Gail on Batgirl?! Other then Batgirl Year One I can’t think of a single story that can compare to her current run.

I feel like someone has to speak up to say that Gail Simone’s BATGIRL was quite good. More importantly, it was quite successful commercially (I believe it’s DC’s best-selling title that doesn’t directly feature the movie stars Superman, Batman, or Green Lantern, and the first collection of the series sold gangbusters). It’s bewildering that they would fire her.

What Kevin said! I picked up Batgirl on a whim when the New 52 started and I was sampling all kinds of titles, and Gail Simone’s writing made Batgirl one of the few titles I actually stuck with. It wasn’t my favorite comic or anything, but it was a solidly entertaining superhero book that I looked forward to every month.

blacaucasian: “Anybody know who the editor of Firestorm was when Gail walked off that book? I bet dollars to donuts it was Brian Cunningham.”

According to ComicBookDB, it was Rachel Gluckstern and Rickey A. Purdin. Also according to CBDB, Cunningham and Simone previously worked together on 7 issues of Wonder Woman.

I stand corrected then.