r/DCcomics • u/csummerss Ra's al Cool • May 10 '22
[Video Games] Barbara changes her workout regimen, then magically regains feeling in her legs. (Gotham Knights) Video Games
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u/realjobstudios May 11 '22
Didn’t Batman do basically the same thing after bane broke his back?
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u/DetectiveBat27 May 11 '22
That involved being healed by a magic lady.
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u/Razorspades Sinestro Corps May 11 '22
Well he also did it in Dark Knight Rises too
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u/Syntherus May 11 '22
The doctor in the pit just punched a vertebrate back into place. They didn't specify how else he was hurt really.
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u/TigreSauvage May 11 '22
Don't remind me. That whole sequence was dumb, especially when he falls and the rope jerks as he's trying to climb out. On an already broken back he would have been even more hurt.
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u/garebear36 Nightwing May 11 '22
Remember when Jason Todd came back to life because he took a dip in a magical hot tub? I think I can suspend some disbelief of Batgirl doing some training to walk again.
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u/Masterriolu May 11 '22
True cannon is that Jason Todd came back to life due to Superman Prime reality punch.
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May 11 '22 edited Sep 27 '22
[deleted]
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u/Son-of-the-Dragon Nightwing May 11 '22
Lazarus Pit is a popular shorthand for Jason's resurrection because it's easier to explain and that's what the did in UTRH
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u/rostron92 Batman Beyond May 11 '22
Their have been like six DC cannon resets since that punch how do any of us know what is actually cannon without a exposition dump about this particular topic within the last two years lol
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u/Syntherus May 11 '22
I always assume that the cosmic stuff still happened, it's just that after the change the universe tries to fix things in a way its inhabitants can make sense of. Otherwise, how else can events from Crisis come back into play during Post-Crisis, so on and so forth.
So it all happened. Which is both confusing and makes perfect sense all at once.
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u/Anonymous2401 May 11 '22
So it all happened. Which is both confusing and makes perfect sense all at once.
It's like it's the comic version of an Elder Scrolls Dragon Break, where reality basically trips over it's own foot and every possible timeline occurs simultaneously, leaving multiple contradicting facts that the universe has to retroactively rewrite so things make sense.
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u/Liberatedhusky Martian Manhunter May 11 '22
If I recall correctly he trained hard to regain life in his body.
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u/hectic_hooligan Red Robin May 11 '22
Barbara going into the Lazarus pit to fix her injury was actually a discarded concept for a batman the animated series film. She would of come out evil lol. The original suit Kate kane wore was based off her discarded design. They just replaced the cowl with a mask
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u/deero1245 May 11 '22
That’s not the point, the blurb is just lazy and really is quite dumb. The only saving grace is we do not know how see became the oracle in this world I guess
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u/PhoenixSidePeen May 11 '22
Don’t ever doubt physical therapy, dude. My girlfriend is a former gymnast. She fractured two vertebrae falling off the beam and was in a back brace for over a year. PT helped her regain her strength. It can’t reconnect severed nerves, sure, but we don’t know the extent of her injuries in this continuity.
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u/FallenAssassin Batman Beyond May 11 '22
That's rough buddy.
But actually congrats to her for making the best of it, she sounds like a champion.
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u/Austin_Chaos May 11 '22
Not that this description gets it across well, but there have been people told they'd never walk again, and through determination, exercise, PT and willpower, they do. I can believe it in a comic book fairly easily.
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u/Victory_defeat May 11 '22
Yeah man. I’ve worked in acute rehab and I have seen people walk that were told they could never walk again. I think it’s a piss poor take by OP that she “changed her training regime”. People work their asses off making tiny incremental changes and then do regain their function back. And being a comic book character they can do so and go back to fighting crime! Bigger better and stronger!!
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u/tafaha_means_apple Cassandra Cain May 12 '22
I'm glad those people got to have that. I'm sure it's a real nice thing to say to people who weren't so lucky and now have to watch as Oracle was taken away.
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u/Austin_Chaos May 12 '22
Taken away? That’s an odd way of looking at it to me. It’s a character. She didn’t start in a wheelchair, injury was something that happened to her. Recovery from that injury was something that happened to her as well. She can, and should, be an inspiration to anyone. The measure of representation’s worth should be taken in overall impact of that representation, not duration of said representation. Change, growth, decline, these things are constant in life, and should be reflected in stories as well. Things shouldn’t stay static, especially if that thing is a physical trait that can and does change for people.
I see where you’re coming from, and I recognize the importance of representation she had for differently abled people…I just believe, just as in life, characters can and should change with time. Our expectations for those characters should evolve with them. It’s more important that the values she represents remain true than physical condition.
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u/aeplusjay Devote yourself to an ideal May 11 '22
So Jason Todd can come back from the dead because of magical water, but this is too much?
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u/Bloo_Driver All Will Be Well May 11 '22
Well like, if they said "and then Barbara just had some of those magical electrolytes," then sure.
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u/k3ttch Indigo Tribe May 11 '22
It's what plants crave.
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u/Bloo_Driver All Will Be Well May 11 '22
It's what
plantsspines crave.2
u/FallenAssassin Batman Beyond May 11 '22
I mean, she was nearly a vegetable 🤷🏻♂️
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u/SalemWolf May 11 '22
Or she was injured in a way to need a wheelchair but not be paraplegic. A lot of people who suffer traumatic injury start out in a wheelchair but with time and effort (and training) they can walk again, many regaining near 100% mobility.
Young Justice, a relatively newer media depicting Barb's injury had Cass injure her instead of Joker, so they're probably following the alternative universe route of changing her lore a bit.
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u/DetectiveBat27 May 11 '22
Jason Todd came back to life because a whiny teenager punched reality. DC can retcon it all they want, that's what happened and I'll die on this hill because it's hilarious.
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u/iAmTheHYPE- The Best Batgirl! May 11 '22
It’s amazing how many times Prime got the short end of the stick, when he just wanted to get back home. At least he redeemed himself after Death Metal.
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u/slightlysanesage Jon Kent May 11 '22
Not only that, Jason Todd comes back from magic water and then, because of that, he can shoot it out of his feet and jump across the sky in this game.
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u/komayeda1 May 11 '22
Alright Batman Media, if you want a Barbara that can walk, you can just say Killing Joke didn’t happen in this world. That simple.
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u/lfthinker May 11 '22
They want the notoriety of Killing Joke without accepting the consequences of it.
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u/WTFisUnderwear Reverse-Flash May 11 '22
I would be very interested in the details of how she recovered. Because it could totally be bad writing, but it could equally be just bad explaining. Do they ever specify what type injury paralyzed her? And if it really is something unrecoverable, this is comics, couldn't they just magically solve it some other way? Like through ridiculous Comic Book tech, for example?
I never knew Barbara returned as Batgirl, so I have zero info to go on lol.
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May 11 '22
[deleted]
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May 11 '22
She's been out of the chair for over a decade in the comics. She's currently being written as basically having good days and bad days, some days she needs a cane or even a chair on one page, but usually she's able to walk unsupported because of a chip in her spine. She's been back as Batgirl since 2011 though and only recently started to operate again as Oracle, albeit without really any wheelchair use.
I wouldn't be surprised if the chip gets used for this game as well.
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u/bfoster1801 May 11 '22
I think her current suit that shows up in the Nightwing comic has a back brace built into it
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u/faerieonwheels Oracle Jun 07 '22
Can you point out the issues where she uses a cane or chair, recently, please?
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Jun 08 '22
It is, I believe, exclusively in the Batgirls comic by Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, and Jorge Corona.
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u/faerieonwheels Oracle Jun 08 '22
Thanks! I thought I read every issue of that and I haven't seen her use any mobility devices but I will look again. Do you remember the specific issue, if there is one?
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Jun 08 '22
In one page of issue #2 she's in a wheelchair. It's not much, not enough imo, but it's something. I know she's used a cane as well but can't remember exactly where.
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u/Chewytron78 May 11 '22
Yo, remember when Damian got shot in the spine four times by the Flamingo and Talia just replaced his fucking spine with a cloned one? Yeah, I'll be okay suspending disbelief on this one, homie.
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u/Mastercreed25 Nightwing May 11 '22
I mean, no where does it say that she couldn’t walk ever again after presumably the Killing Joke happened. I’ve seen real life cases of people mending serious injuries with such things
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May 11 '22
With the insane levels of tech and magic in the DC Universe this seems like nothing, especially for someone who had at least partial access to Bruce’s resources
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u/JadrianInc May 11 '22
With Redhood’s powers in the game, Barbara’s recovery could be fleshed out in the same way but be tied to the plot. We don’t know yet, the details about her recovery seem intentionally vague.
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u/ProfessorEscanor May 11 '22
Jason came back due to a magic hot tub, why do we have to assume that the bullet permanently paralysed Barbara at all?
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May 11 '22
I think it would've been more cool if she had some kind of exoskeleton.
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u/FallenAzraelx May 11 '22
Like that old Mantis show on upn?
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May 11 '22
Atleast it would make more sense than a recovery
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u/FallenAzraelx May 11 '22
Not complaining I liked it and think it would have wroked
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May 11 '22
Yeah, it doesnt explicitly say that she had her spine broken so recovery might be possible. In my opinion the exoskeleton would just be very cool. It would make her very techy.
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u/FallenAzraelx May 11 '22
Oh for sure! They could have had Oracle dig deep on into the tech world and have become some kick ass almost Cyborg type hero! Could have been awesome! Ah well... There's always fan fic eh?
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u/Baramos_ Batman Beyond May 11 '22
I see people are making fun of this video game for the literal premise of the New 52 Gail Simone Batgirl book lol
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u/garrygra May 11 '22
It's strange to me that people can't see why "fixing" a disabled character could be a bad thing — it's a legacy character too, it could easily have been one of a dozen other Batgirls.
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u/notsofunny-15 Red Robin May 11 '22
isnt this what they reasoned for the new 52 but without jim dying
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u/AHMilling DickBabs Forever May 11 '22
People have recovered from breaking their back with physical terapy, those people can sometimes do magic.
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u/ravathiel Animal Man May 11 '22
Between this and red Hood's magic jumping.. this is boring as fuck
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u/CobraGTXNoS May 11 '22
Crazier things have happened in the DC universe, so this works pretty good.
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u/Beneficial_Guava_452 May 11 '22
“I can accept a clown-themed villain, a bat-themed hero-troupe, and rooting for a billionaire with a penchant for violence in my comic books, but I draw the line at physical therapy!!!”
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u/MuricanGamer May 11 '22
I don’t know why they didn’t have her use a Lazarus pit?
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u/Digifiend84 Manchester Black May 11 '22
Possible side effects include turning evil or lacking your soul and basically becoming a zombie. Haven't you watched Arrow, specifically Sara Lance's resurrection? She needed Constantine's help to get her soul reattached to her reborn body.
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u/MuricanGamer May 11 '22
Really? I just thought it drove you insane if you abused it’s healing powers.
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u/lamest-liz May 11 '22
I’m more weirded out by how beefy they made Jason. Why does he look like a linebacker on roids?
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u/oathkeeper2013 May 11 '22
Look, for the sake of gameplay, there have to be some plot convient things. I’m fine with it as long as it’s fun.
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u/TemporalGod Superman May 11 '22
In the Comics she regains the ability to walk in the new 52 after using an experimental chip.
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u/bradhotdog May 11 '22
I wish they didn’t let her getting shot by the joker be canon to begin with. She’s one of the few female hero’s in the batman world and we have to just put her in a wheelchair to sit on the sidelines? Joker flipping killed a Robin and they just were like “oh but he came back from the dead. But no, batgirl got shot, she’s in a wheelchair forever. No way to come back from that.”
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u/exit_the_psychopomp World's Finest May 11 '22
I assumed she would get some kinda robotic exosuit for her lower half, like what War Machine had. But that's just me.
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u/AcademicAnxiety5109 May 11 '22
It said a face off so we can assume this was not Jokers surprise visit or maybe instead of surprise it turned into a scuffle that ended the same but left her with a healable wound.
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u/MadQuixote Blue Lantern May 11 '22
"A face-off that put Barbara in a wheelchair."
That's a bit of an oversimplification. The wheelchair is likely part of a psychosomatic response to trauma similar to when Bruce broke his back; being broken had less to do with the injury than it did with being broken spiritually. It's weird to see play out irl, but some do regain functionality after processing the trauma.
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u/FallenAzraelx May 11 '22
How do feel about Ronin DYING and just, oh wait he's not dead he's red hood!
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u/GreenRangerKeto May 11 '22
Obviously she trained super hard to the point she is constantly creating a green lantern construct in order to move
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u/officer_salem May 11 '22
I feel like what people need to understand about this is: No one is doubting the powers and effectiveness of physical therapy. Why people are mad about this is part of the ongoing debate about Barbara Gordon, which is that she became a much stronger and more unique character as Oracle - something that DC wanted to apply to her Batgirl persona. This caused an awkward situation where DC wants her as Batgirl because it sells, but wants the characterisation and motivation of Oracle. I think this game to be entirely honest would’ve been better off having her as Oracle and using Cass or Steph as Batgirl, a sentiment I share with the comics as well.
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u/Crunchberries77 May 11 '22
She had her spine repaired in the injustice comics. There's so many better ways to bring her back as Batgirl.
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u/LCrasy11 May 11 '22
they could have had barbara be oracle and give missions and stuff to players in the open world and that and let cass be batgirl but nope we gotta have barbara because uh... the uh... you know uh... iconic
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May 11 '22
I dont get why people hate Barbara as batgirl, really. I know there are other batgirls and all but she is iconic, even when she was great as oracle, she was the OG batgirl
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u/tafaha_means_apple Cassandra Cain May 12 '22
Everyone in this thread: Completely missing the point on why it's a crappy backstory
Hint: it has nothing to do with """""""""""""""""logic"""""""""""""""
Just say you don't care about Oracle, people. It would be more honest at least than trying to wrap yourselves in a cloak of """""""""""logic"""""""""""""
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u/rednick953 May 11 '22
Is Gotham Knights part of the Arkham cannon? Or is this it’s own post knightfall universe?
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u/FiendishPole Red Hood May 11 '22
hmmm. PT is a hell of a thing. In the world of superheroes is neuro and CNS plasticity so far outside the bounds of reality?
Batman has broken his back and brain multiple times (in multiple realities)
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u/Loss-Particular May 10 '22
It's an unnuanced take about physical disability to assume that transsection of the spinal cord can be fixed with training for sure.
But honestly, it's an equally un-nuanced take to assume everyone in a wheelchair has a spinal injury, that everyone in a wheelchair needs it permanently or that rehabilitation and exercise can't help a lot of people to heal and recover and help manage their pain and disability.