Throwback Thursday for January 31st, 2019

Fifty-Two years ago, long before a majority of us were even born, a girl joined forces with one of the most well known and earliest superheroes.

That girl was Barbara Gordon, also known as Batgirl

. She wasn’t the original but she’s certainly gained the respect as being the most iconic Batgirl.

The original (Betty Kane back in Batman #139

) was also known as Bat-Girl, with a hyphen, something I did not know until I wrote up this with a little research.

Barbara Gordon as Batgirl first appearance was in Detective Comics #359

in January of 1967.

Surprisingly this key book is still in the affordable range for you key collectors. A few recent CGC 5.0 went for roughly for $550 to $575 ranges. Even the original Betty Kane back in Batman #139 can be found pretty reasonable in G or Fair conditions, roughly in the $300 to $500 price range.

Bat-girl was originally introduced as a sidekick to Batwoman as a potential love interest for Robin.

The Batgirl we all know of today as Barbara Gordon was originally created or reintroduced primarily to attract female viewers for the 60’s TV Show^[1].

Batgirl was popular up until she was shot, resulting in her become paraplegia in the very well known one shot graphic novel by Alan Moore, the Killing Joke

.

From there Barbara went on to become known as the Oracle with the Suicide Squad team, first appearing in Suicide Squad #23

. Then on to being a lead in the Birds of Prey

series (which is in pre-production as a new DC movie).

Fast forward to The New 52, Barbara Gordon recovers from her paralysis and goes on to become Batgirl once again, retaining that status through the DC Rebirth event as well.

That’s your Throwback Thursday to end the month of January. Stay tuned in next week, we go back to February 1991 where one of the most popular characters of modern times is introduced.

---