Christmas Resurrection: Gail Simone Back On Batgirl

I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night. Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man and therefore I am a God.

So. After firing Gail Simone as writer of Batgirl a few weeks ago, and then quietly weathering the ensuing shitstorm from fandom on the Internet, DC chose the Friday before Christmas to allow the name of the next Batgirl writer to leak out.

And who, praytell, will be the poor fucker trying to follow in the footsteps of Gail Simone?

Gail Simone.

Here’s a thing.Gail Simone is the new Batgirl writer. 🙂

— GailSimone (@GailSimone) December 21, 2012

Also?NOT A HOAX.

— GailSimone (@GailSimone) December 21, 2012

There’s no real word yet as to how or why this happened – sure, there was a big uproar on the Internet over Simone’s initial firing off of the book, but if Internet fan rage carried as much weight as we all hoped it did, DC’s New 52 would have included 38 books about Stephanie Brown. So while it might seem like a million angry tweets carried the day, if I had to speculate, there might have been a certain amount of negotiation chicken going on here.

After all, Simone’s exclusive contract with DC concluded not too long before word dropped that she was off Batgirl. So based on the timing, if I had to hazard a guess – and again, this is pure speculation – we might have had a situation of DC not wanting to meet a price, dropping Simone from Batgirl, possibly in the hopes that she’d cave and re-sign at a cost DC liked… and then realizing that she potentially had other offers in the pipeline.

Either that, or Bleeding Cool is right, and Dan DiDio read the online comments about Simone’s firing from the book, suddenly pictured spending his entire San Diego Comic-Con being confronted by hundreds of San Diego Batgirls screaming for his scalp, and preemptively flinched. And if that is, in fact, the case, then Simone has proven herself to be fireproof from DC Comics. If DC is, truly, unwilling to face the backlash of firing Simone, then they might also be unwilling to face the backlash should Simone quit, particularly if she quit while complaining that she was unhappy with her assignments. And just in case that’s what’s happened, I am already preparing myself for the press release announcing the appointment of Simone to DC Comics Overmaster and Chief Executioner.

Either way, we will still be getting the already-scheduled two fill-in issues – #18 and #19, starting in March – by Ray Fawkes, before Simone picks the book back up again. And those of us who attend DC Comics panels at SDCC can relax in knowing that they won’t be totally overrun by enraged Simone fans with costumes and agendas.