Q1: What is your reaction to the text you just read?
Discomfort. The way this was written and drawn completely unsettled me. The treatment of Barbara especially made my skin crawl, it felt truly horrific, especially in they way it was used against Commissioner Gordon. It was interesting to read about how Joker became what he is, but it didn't seem like the creators were trying to get the audience to sympathize with him (and if they were, it didn't work).
Q2: What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the work in which you are able to connect.
I thought the story was well executed but I'm tired of seeing female characters subjected to unequal violence. I think that's why I was so uncomfortable because this is another story where a female character was stripped, mutilated and overall dehumanized for the sake of the progression of male characters. As a girl, these elements feel a little too real and close to home as violence towards women is so rampant. This isn't to say that the male characters in this story don't face violence or terror but after said events they return to how their were originally conceived. Barbara could have easily just had be kidnapped or threatened and it would have had the same effect on the story. Instead she was crippled and stayed canonically wheelchair bound for the subsequent years.
Q3: What changes would you make to adapt this story to another medium? What medium would you use?
Honestly, I think the animated adaption was very successful in staying with the storyline and art style. That medium is one of the more appropriate ways to adapt a story like this, as it is able to break the boundaries of what would be capable in something like action. It's obvious that the animated film's creators attempted to make Barbara a more rounded character, but using her as a sexual partner for Batman was NOT the way to do it. I would skip that completely and show her doing work as Batgirl, or just anything that shows semblance of a personality that does not depend the male counterparts.
