Over the past six years of “Batgirl” comics, Barbara Gordon has undergone a surprising number of transformations. During the New 52 launch, she left her wheelchair from her post-“Killing Joke” days behind and went back to being a street-level superhero; then when a new set of writers and artists took over, she got a new uniform, a hipper neighborhood and a fresher perspective unlike anything else DC Comics was publishing at the time.
Now in the upcoming issue #2 of her new Rebirth series, Barbara’s finding herself in an all-new predicament: learning MMA fighting in Singapore. And she’s looking buff as heck while doing it.
“Without spoiling anything, I can say that a lot of my inspiration for this arc has to do with the idea of flow or being ‘in the zone,’ which is a state that crosses all kinds of artistic and athletic endeavors,” current “Batgirl” writer Hope Larson (“A Wrinkle In Time: The Graphic Novel”) told Revelist in an email. “I probably read an article about it and latched onto it."
"I also have a close friend, Diego McCafferty, who is a huge MMA fan, and he taught me everything he could about the sport in a short time period. I got really into it. You can see Diego in the gym [in Issue #2]; he’s the tattooed, glasses-wearing guy hitting the punching bag.“
As for how wonderfully swole Barbara’s looking these days, credit goes to “American Vampire” artist Rafael Albuquerque. “We didn’t have any conversations about how she’d look physically,” Larson admitted. “We weren’t changing anything about her appearance, so that’s all Rafael. Points to him!”
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