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James Gordon Jr. Returns In BATGIRL #17

The character is set to return in February, but what does he have in store for Batgirl?

If you read BATMAN prior to the launch of the New 52 over a year ago, you might recall the appearance of Commissioner James Gordon's son in the story arc titled The Black Mirror. In it we were reintroduced to Gordon's son and Barbara Gordon's brother, James Gordon Jr. and we discovered just how different Gordon Jr. is from his father and his sister. Gordon Jr. is a psychopath, to say the least, and his actions would put some of the Joker's antics to shame. With the exception of the character's appearance in BATGIRL #0 where he is depicted as a young boy, walking through the halls of Gotham Police Department with his older sister, we haven't seen a whole lot of the character. That is, of course, until now.

Earlier today DC unveiled their solicits for titles that are set to hit stores in February. Among them, is the solicit and cover for BATGIRL #17 which features Barbara Gordon shielding herself from an attack by her brother, James. So, what does James have in store for Barbara in the upcoming issue of BATGIRL? Where has he been the last year or so, and has he been plotting his return? What do you think? Are you looking forward to BATGIRL #17 and James Gordon Jr.'s return? Do you think he's as formidable an adversary and as threatening as the Joker?

BATGIRL #17

No Caption Provided

Written by GAIL SIMONE

Art by ED BENES

Cover by JUAN JOSE RYP

On sale FEBRUARY 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Barbara Gordon must deal with the fallout from “DEATH OF THE FAMILY” in this issue that will forever change her status quo in The New 52! What does James Gordon Jr. have planned for his sister, Batgirl?

You can check out the rest of DC's solicits for February on their blog, here.

Source: DC Source

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deactivated-62dfe515b2439

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James jr has had a minor role in the new 52 Batgirl, if memory serves. I believe he has been either dating or getting to know Bab's roommate, Alysia Yeoh, in 3 or 4 issues of the current run.

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longbowhunter

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Edited By longbowhunter

I liked James Jr. in Black Mirror but have little interest in reading Batgirl.

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hyenascar

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Edited By hyenascar

He is a character that could have weight because of his family ties. If everything about him that is notable is somehow comparable to Joker he will come up short. The writers need to keep that in mind and find a way to make sure he has his own strong and identifiable voice in the comic. It could be a tough road, but I would like to see this character done well.

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dernman

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Edited By dernman

He stabs her in the spine and she goes back to being Oracle. 
Hell I'll even settle for her being able to walk if she goes back to being Oracle instead of Batgirl.

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dernman

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Edited By dernman
@longbowhunter said:
I liked James Jr. in Black Mirror but have little interest in reading Batgirl.
You're not missing anything. He hasn't been as interesting as he was in the Black Mirror.
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deactivated-62dfe515b2439

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@Dernman said:

He stabs her in the spine and she goes back to being Oracle. Hell I'll even settle for her being able to walk if she goes back to being Oracle instead of Batgirl.

I wouldn't get your hopes up. According to the solicit for Superman #17 we will be introduced to a new Oracle.

SUPERMAN #17

Written by SCOTT LOBDELL

Art and cover by KENNETH ROCAFORT

1:25 B&W Variant cover by KENNETH ROCAFORT

On sale FEBRUARY 27 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

• The startling conclusion of “H’EL ON EARTH”!

• It’s the final fight with H’El — and to win, one of the team will have to make a fatal sacrifice! • The shocks continue as the all-new Oracle appears!

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arnoldoaad

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Edited By arnoldoaad

James Jr was an excellent character in Black Mirror but has been nothing but Lame in Batgirl, Gail just has no idea how to write the character at all, he comes as more of a random crazy guy with no motivation at all contrary to the powerful characterization that Snyder gave him in the book

It just blows my mind that Gail did half the changes that she did on him, it just completely destroys the point of the character

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dernman

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Edited By dernman
@cyberchop979: Yeah I read that earlier and my first thought was "well there goes Oracle fans hope". It was mostly wishful thinking on my part anyway.
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arnoldoaad

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Edited By arnoldoaad

btw this cover is really ugly, the faces look really weird and i think Barb grew to a new cup size

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Falconer

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Edited By Falconer

Dropped this book and never looked back. It's just so bad...

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EnSabahNurX

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Edited By EnSabahNurX

@Falconer said:

Dropped this book and never looked back. It's just so bad...

High five lol I did the same, heck i gave it one hell of a shot but geez it was boring

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Shutdown

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Edited By Shutdown

@cyberchop979:

It may be referring to the Oracle who was mentioned at the end of the Superman Annual.

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reignmaker

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Edited By reignmaker

@EnSabahNurX said:

@Falconer said:

Dropped this book and never looked back. It's just so bad...

High five lol I did the same, heck i gave it one hell of a shot but geez it was boring

This surprises me with talent like Gail Simone and Ed Benes working on it.

I was planning on picking up the Death of the Family tie-ins for this book, but maybe I'll wait until I see some reviews come out.

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Shutdown

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Edited By Shutdown

@cyberchop979: Possible confirmation of this being a different Oracle.

SUPERBOY #17

Written by TOM DeFALCO

Art and cover by R.B. SILVA and ROB LEAN

On sale FEBRUARY 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

• The startling conclusion of “H’EL ON EARTH”!

• Superboy faces off against the Herald of the Oracle!

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AdmiralPetty

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Edited By AdmiralPetty

I must admit that I am not digging the cover, it makes James Jr. look like a random crazy guy, instead of the creepy guy he was in Black Mirror. The reason James Jr. was such a good villain was because he was based upon real life psychopaths. Snyder obviously had done his research on psychopaths, which are people that we encounter in real life(most never commit murder though). Real life psychopaths are much more terrifying than a super villain can ever be.

I love a lot of what Gail Simone has written in the past, but I am not enjoying how she is handling James Jr., as well as several other aspects of Barbara and the Gordon Family.

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greenforest

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Edited By greenforest

Really great cover!! I love it !!

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SmashBrawler

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Edited By SmashBrawler

Ugh, what a godawful cover.

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rav4

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Edited By rav4

Batgirl has been the top selling comic with a female lead for two months going now. Even before that it was consistently second behind Wonder Woman (which seems to have dipped a little lately). Aside from that, remember this is just a cover, and covers are not always indicative of exactly what happens within the pages. James, Jr. has had a few appearances in Batgirl thus far, apparently with plans for his sister (he went out of his way to charm and date Babs' roommate, while remaining unseen by Babs herself, and was seen speaking with Knightfall, Batgirl's latest villain, which seems to indicate he knows who his sister is), so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

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arnoldoaad

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Edited By arnoldoaad

@AdmiralPetty said:

I must admit that I am not digging the cover, it makes James Jr. look like a random crazy guy, instead of the creepy guy he was in Black Mirror. The reason James Jr. was such a good villain was because he was based upon real life psychopaths. Snyder obviously had done his research on psychopaths, which are people that we encounter in real life(most never commit murder though). Real life psychopaths are much more terrifying than a super villain can ever be.

I love a lot of what Gail Simone has written in the past, but I am not enjoying how she is handling James Jr., as well as several other aspects of Barbara and the Gordon Family.

James Jr is a Sociopath not a psychopath

there is a huge difference between the 2 and is one of the problems that the character has on Batgirl cause it seems like honestly Gail cant tell the difference

and if that wasnt bad enough, all of the villains have been the same, all just random psychos with paper-thin motivations

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tomlikesfries

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Edited By tomlikesfries

The guy in the cover reminded me of that psycho Thomas from the Walking Dead.

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arnoldoaad

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Edited By arnoldoaad

@Ravager4 said:

Batgirl has been the top selling comic with a female lead for two months going now. Even before that it was consistently second behind Wonder Woman (which seems to have dipped a little lately).

ofcourse!, cause everyone knows that Quality = Sales and that the constant pumping of the book with events and gimmicks have absolutely no effect at all

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MadeinBangladesh

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Edited By MadeinBangladesh

@Dernman said:

He stabs her in the spine and she goes back to being Oracle. Hell I'll even settle for her being able to walk if she goes back to being Oracle instead of Batgirl.
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MadeinBangladesh

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Edited By MadeinBangladesh

@tomlikesfries said:

The guy in the cover reminded me of that psycho Thomas from the Walking Dead.

ME TOOOO!!!!

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sora_thekey

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Edited By sora_thekey

The question is: Will Gail Simone be able to write one of the best characters ever written by Scott Snyder?

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cameron83

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Edited By cameron83

I'm glad she is not oracle anymore.If she goes back to being oracle I am going to be pissed.It takes away the whole point of her being batgirl.I hated everything about the old universe to be frank.If DC goes back to being the old universe,or presents a regurgitated version of the old universe,the I am going to scream.The point of this reboot was to get rid of all the BS in the old universe (which was alot).With that said,I believe he will have a big role...sorry for that rant,it was for something else.I love the new 52 all the way,you see.So if they went back to the old crap,the unrealistic,childish,legacy crap (not saying that it's bad,but it was like 90% of DC's big characters had secret identities and were legacy characters.That is only one of my complaints).

But seriously,In the old universe,I always felt bad for barbara (it was kinda clear that she did not fully get past her problems) and she was completely (mostly) useless after they paralyzed her

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Cavemold

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Edited By Cavemold

@sora_thekey said:

The question is: Will Gail Simone be able to write one of the best characters ever written by Scott Snyder?

probably not......

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iaconpoint

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Edited By iaconpoint

@longbowhunter said:

I liked James Jr. in Black Mirror but have little interest in reading Batgirl.

Yeah, I refuse to support Babs as Batgirl after they so callously disrespected Steph and Cass the way they have. They could have handled it differently if they had a publisher with any vision at all, and not crapped all over those characters and their fans. To say nothing of the importance of Oracle.

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cameron83

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Edited By cameron83

@iaconpoint: How did they crap over steph and cass....just want to know.I like babs as batgirl,but that is just me...

Steph and cass are going to appear,but you realize that they cannot pop them in any random book

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SUNMAN

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Edited By SUNMAN

ugh.......Really disappointed with this title, so much wasted potential

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The Mighty Monarch

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He's.... been around quite a bit in Batgirl already, it's just that this time he's going to be making waves instead of manipulating.

And I love Gail Simone to death but she's really done a terrible job with James Jr.; whoever drew that cover especially doesn't understand the character one bit. He's so creepy because he's NOT emotional. And Barabara being oblivious to her brother's sociopathy in her childhood is REALLY twisted because she was supposed to be the ONLY one who really saw it.

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arnoldoaad

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Edited By arnoldoaad

@cameron83 said:

But seriously,In the old universe,I always felt bad for barbara (it was kinda clear that she did not fully get past her problems) and she was completely (mostly) useless after they paralyzed her

This is funny cause honestly i never ever felt sorry for barb before until This coming came on

the idea of Oracle is that she didnt let herself be defeated by her disability, with Batgirl its completely the opposite, the constant reminder pf PTSD is basically that Barbara got so broken and traumatized by the Killing Joke that developed mental problems that affect her own life, and Batgirl is the outlet to fight that

ergo, the batgirl suit is the new Wheelchair, and in this New Universe, The Killing Joke, the Joker won, cause he got exactly what he wanted which was proving that just a bad day can break someone.

This is the Barbara Gordon you should feel sorry for, not Oracle

and really Oracle was useless, the actual argument of Oracle was that she was soo overused that she had to go, thats the reason for the "Death of Oracle" storyline

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NightFang3

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Edited By NightFang3

@MadeinBangladesh said:

@tomlikesfries said:

The guy in the cover reminded me of that psycho Thomas from the Walking Dead.

ME TOOOO!!!!

Me Three.

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iaconpoint

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Edited By iaconpoint

@cameron83 said:

Steph and cass are going to appear,but you realize that they cannot pop them in any random book

And you realize we are more than a year into the "new 52" and no sign of either of them. It's not like there hasn't been plenty of time and chance to put them in the right book(s). There are 13 Bat-books and most of them are up to their 14th issues. Don't pretend like the powers that be are waiting for the right moment. It's negligence pure and simple.

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Krissyjump

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Edited By Krissyjump

I would much rather have him appear in Nightwing.

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reignmaker

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Edited By reignmaker

@cameron83 said:

I'm glad she is not oracle anymore.If she goes back to being oracle I am going to be pissed.It takes away the whole point of her being batgirl.I hated everything about the old universe to be frank.If DC goes back to being the old universe,or presents a regurgitated version of the old universe,the I am going to scream.The point of this reboot was to get rid of all the BS in the old universe (which was alot).With that said,I believe he will have a big role...sorry for that rant,it was for something else.I love the new 52 all the way,you see.So if they went back to the old crap,the unrealistic,childish,legacy crap (not saying that it's bad,but it was like 90% of DC's big characters had secret identities and were legacy characters.That is only one of my complaints).

But seriously,In the old universe,I always felt bad for barbara (it was kinda clear that she did not fully get past her problems) and she was completely (mostly) useless after they paralyzed her

I agree with you that a lot about the old universe was bad. For one, it was unnecessarily complicated and had a lot of bad parallel universe stuff that I just didn't care about.

That being said, I like Babs more as Oracle. For one it gave us an incredibly unique character with a different story. It also made the actions of the Joker more lasting. The Killing Joke is one of my favorite comics of all time. To simply turn around and rewrite the outcome cheapens and diminishes what went before. 'Course I'm also one of those people who feels that Jason Todd should still be dead.

The Batman universe is already bloated with sidekicks and wannabes as it is. But Oracle was a natural fit 'cause she filled a space that was previously empty. Not to mention, I loved her on the JLA.

Today Babs strikes me as yet another big-breasted woman in a cape. Nothing special or unique. I'm sorry if that sounds offensive, but there's already Batwoman, Huntress, and Catwoman jumping around Gotham.

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MisterKetch

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Edited By MisterKetch

@cyberchop979 said:

James jr has had a minor role in the new 52 Batgirl, if memory serves. I believe he has been either dating or getting to know Bab's roommate, Alysia Yeoh, in 3 or 4 issues of the current run.

Babs should do her homework.

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FoxxFireArt

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Edited By FoxxFireArt

The problem here is that if James Gordon Jr. is such a genius, wouldn't he be able to easily figure out his own sister is Batgirl almost as soon as he sees her?

I'm just conserned with how publishers handle solicits. They give way too much information too far in advance. Though, retailers need this information to know how to order.

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SmashBrawler

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Edited By SmashBrawler

@FoxxFireArt said:

The problem here is that if James Gordon Jr. is such a genius, wouldn't he be able to easily figure out his own sister is Batgirl almost as soon as he sees her?

Well, he knew Bruce and Dick were Batman before the reboot. So it wouldn't be surprising if he knew Barbara was Batgirl as well.

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They Killed Cap!

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Edited By They Killed Cap!

Boring...

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haydenclaireheroes

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It looks like there is a lot to come for the Batgirl title

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Fuchsia_Nightingale

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Yay, So looking Forward !

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RedheadedAtrocitus

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Really awesome. Been a fan of James Jr. ever since Black Mirror and its nice to see him come back here for New 52.

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Falconer

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Edited By Falconer

@EnSabahNurX said:

@Falconer said:

Dropped this book and never looked back. It's just so bad...

High five lol I did the same, heck i gave it one hell of a shot but geez it was boring

Yeah, I read it all the way up to the beginning of the mini-arc after Night of the Owls. I wanted to like it, but even as a new reader I could tell it was... really not good.

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Webjaker

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Edited By Webjaker

Unless its written by Snyder (Black Mirror), I am NOT interested - If it IS... VERY interested!

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sentryman555

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Edited By sentryman555

@arnoldoaad said:

James Jr is a Sociopath not a psychopath

there is a huge difference between the 2 and is one of the problems that the character has on Batgirl cause it seems like honestly Gail cant tell the difference

and if that wasnt bad enough, all of the villains have been the same, all just random psychos with paper-thin motivations

That was my first thought too. James Jr. is a Sociopath he shouldn't have an insane jokerish look on his face like he does in this cover. I thought what made his character so interesting was how his face was like a mask. You couldn't tell what he was thinking.

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arnoldoaad

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Edited By arnoldoaad

@sentryman555 said:

arnoldoaad said:

James Jr is a Sociopath not a psychopath

there is a huge difference between the 2 and is one of the problems that the character has on Batgirl cause it seems like honestly Gail cant tell the difference

and if that wasnt bad enough, all of the villains have been the same, all just random psychos with paper-thin motivations

That was my first thought too. James Jr. is a Sociopath he shouldn't have an insane jokerish look on his face like he does in this cover. I thought what made his character so interesting was how his face was like a mask. You couldn't tell what he was thinking.

ok I have to admit this comment blew my mind, its precisely the point

congratulations you understand the character better than Gail Simone

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Utandi

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Edited By Utandi

"Where has he been the last year or so, and has he been plotting his return?"

Except his first appearance in Batgirl #0 you mentioned, it's his "introduction" or first story cause of the The New 52, right?

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Mokey

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Edited By Mokey

That's what we need. Simone getting her hands on Gordon Jr.

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arnoldoaad

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Edited By arnoldoaad

@Utandi said:

"Where has he been the last year or so, and has he been plotting his return?"

Except his first appearance in Batgirl #0 you mentioned, it's his "introduction" or first story cause of the The New 52, right?

well technically Batgirl #8 was his first introduction in the new 52 and that pretty much made him up as an entirely different character from Black Mirror.

so basically, James Jr never returned

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sentryman555

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Edited By sentryman555

@arnoldoaad said:

@sentryman555 said:

arnoldoaad said:

James Jr is a Sociopath not a psychopath

there is a huge difference between the 2 and is one of the problems that the character has on Batgirl cause it seems like honestly Gail cant tell the difference

and if that wasnt bad enough, all of the villains have been the same, all just random psychos with paper-thin motivations

That was my first thought too. James Jr. is a Sociopath he shouldn't have an insane jokerish look on his face like he does in this cover. I thought what made his character so interesting was how his face was like a mask. You couldn't tell what he was thinking.

ok I have to admit this comment blew my mind, its precisely the point

congratulations you understand the character better than Gail Simone

lol. But I gotta admit I really loved Secret Six and was super excited to see Gail Simone was gonna be on Batgirl but after maybe issue 6 I dropped the title. It's been a big let down for me.

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