The Best Move for Batgirl: Whedon Leaves the Project

Joss Whedon has broken up with Batgirl and…. I’m glad.

That sentence is really hard to write, but I’ll get to that later.

First, let’s get into the (sparse) details. On Feb. 22, Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly, The Avengers) announced that he was leaving the project. In an exclusive with The Hollywood Reporter, Whedon said: “Batgirl is such an exciting project, and Warners/DC are such collaborative and supportive partners, that it took me months to realize I really didn’t have a story.”

In March of last year, it was teased and later confirmed, that Whedon was bringing Batgirl to the big screen for the first time since, well ever. Even as one of DC’s favorite characters, Babs hasn’t seemed to stray far from her niche of comic book nerds, D&Ders (I’m basing this on a sample size of five) and cartoon aficionados. People know of Batgirl, but they don’t know who she really is.

Whedon promised a chance for the mainstream audience to meet her. But would they really have?

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THIS IS THE FEELINGS PART

When I was nine my normally overprotective mother let me watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was instantly hooked. I mean, I didn’t get most of the pop culture references and sometimes she’d cover my eyes but I knew this was big. It was life-affirming. In the third grade when we were asked to write about who should be added to Mount Rushmore, I stoically responded with “Buffy.”

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When I revisited the series, I started to realize I was very likely gay. I never saw the end of it as a child so at 13 and 14 I ended up binging all seven seasons, attentively following Willow’s coming out story as mine started to form. I was an “other” in Sheridan, WY, but Buffy was the voice that told me I was okay and I was brave. It was the voice that carved away suicidal thoughts and the voice that made me think I’d find my friends and my people if I hung on. (I did. #itgetsbetter).

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10 years later and Buffy is still my ride or die.

Joss Whedon isn’t.

It’s not news anymore, but maybe you haven’t heard: Whedon’s ex-wife Kai Cole published a wrenching essay in November about his performative feminism and abusive behavior. Whispers on the internet affirming these claims started rising to the surface.

The accusations aren’t something that will be tried in court, but now it’s out there and it forced me to re-evaluate Whedon’s post-Buffy work through the lens of a 25-year-old feminist and not a scared, newly out child.

Let’s say it together: Joss Whedon’s feminism is out-dated.

And yes, you have to be a feminist in your personal life to claim the accolades in your public life.

The leaked 2006 Wonder Woman script Whedon wrote would have made a safe statement in the early 2000s. It was a time of Von Dutch trucker hats and bedazzled jeans—we already had low expectations.

Ten years ago a Strong Female Lead stock character would have brought in enough money at the box office for a few sites to ask “can women lead blockbusters in the future?” and once everyone was done patting themselves on the back for their progressive, yet performative thinking, blockbusters would continue to surround men and their experiences.

2018 isn’t so much on board with that.

Following the stunning success of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman, Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther destroyed box office records, further proving that audiences will show up for diversity. Both films are running alongside growing movements demanding more representation in Hollywood.

When I looked back at Whedon’s work as an adult, I couldn’t ignore the major flaws: Age of Ultron had that out-of-character Black Widow “I can’t have babies” storyline, the aforementioned Wonder Woman script that’s intro focused more on the boyfriend then the fucking Amazon and then there was that time the internet learned that Whedon almost had Firefly’s Inara gang raped to teach the lead guy a lesson on compassion.

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If Whedon’s Batgirl were to drop in 2019, it doesn’t seem promising that we’d be left with a memorable film that furthered the legacy that Jenkins and Coogler are establishing. Based on Whedon’s track record, I was prepping myself for a lukewarm 2000s feminist vibe and a sexy but chill lead actress who still manages to lose agency in her own self-titled film.

Barbara Gordon, the OG Batgirl, is a low to middle-class genius who brings hope and humility to the dark, often one-note, universe of the bat family. If you’re going off of the New 52 run, she’s battling post-traumatic stress and questioning her humanity and willingness to stick to her principals even if it means losing.

Batgirl deserves more than Joss Whedon can give her.

She should have dumped him first.

WHERE’S THE PROJECT NOW (SPOILER IT’S DEAD-ISH)

With Whedon’s departure and the recent success of diverse Superhero films, I’m hoping that DC pulls in a female director to capture Barbara’s heroics. But according to some insider, it looks like the project is on the back burner.

But don’t worry Shazam! – the movie literally no one ever asked for – is still scheduled to hit its 2019 release date.

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^{Header images courtesy Ardian Syaf, Ed Benes, Vicente Cifuentes (Batgirl New 52 cover), Gage Skidmore (Whedon photo).}