Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics/Peer review/Barbara Gordon

Barbara Gordon
I've listed this article for peer review because…I'd eventually love to see this as a featured article. Barbara Gordon is a fictional superheroine within the DC Comic Universe. Originally known as Batgirl, she is now known as Oracle- the premier information broker of DC. The article has recently been promoted to GA-Class and I would like notes on how to prepare it as a Featured Article.

Thanks,

Bookkeeperoftheoccult 08:19, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
The following suggestions were generated by a semi-automatic javascript program, and might not be applicable for the article in question. *There are a few occurrences of weasel words in this article- please observe WP:AWT. Certain phrases should specify exactly who supports, considers, believes, etc., such a view. You may wish to browse through User:AndyZ/Suggestions for further ideas. AUTO PEER REVIEW Bookkeeperoftheoccult 02:36, 17 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Per Wikipedia:Context and Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates), months and days of the week generally should not be linked. Years, decades, and centuries can be linked if they provide context for the article.[?]
 * Per What is a featured article?, Images should have concise captions.[?]
 * There may be an applicable infobox for this article. For example, see Template:Infobox Person, Template:Infobox School, or Template:Infobox City.[?] (Note that there might not be an applicable infobox; remember that these suggestions are not generated manually)
 * Per Manual of Style (headings), avoid using special characters (ex: &+{}[]) in headings.
 * Per WP:WIAFA, this article's table of contents (ToC) may be too long- consider shrinking it down by merging short sections or using a proper system of daughter pages as per Summary style.[?]
 * allege
 * might be weasel words, and should be provided with proper citations (if they already do, or are not weasel terms, please strike this comment). [?]
 * The script has spotted the following contractions: didn't, weren't, aren't, if these are outside of quotations, they should be expanded.
 * As done in WP:FOOTNOTE, footnotes usually are located right after a punctuation mark (as recommended by the CMS, but not mandatory), such that there is no space in between. For example, the sun is larger than the moon [2]. is usually written as the sun is larger than the moon.[2][?]
 * Please ensure that the article has gone through a thorough copyediting so that it exemplifies some of Wikipedia's best work. See also User:Tony1/How to satisfy Criterion 1a.[?]

Comments by User:Phil Sandifer
In short, this is not a good article, and has miles to go before it is even reasonable to apply for featured article status. Its two biggest problems are problems common to articles on topics like this - it is too in-universe, and too presentist.


 * The first image should be replaced with something more classic - preferably showing her in her wheelchair. Alternatively, as the article makes the case that her portrayal as Batgirl is what she's most known for, go with a Batgirl image - it is preferable to have the iconic versions of characters over the current ones.
 * Terrifyingly too many images. I count at most six that I would keep (Her first appearance, ONE of the Yvonne Craig images, the Birds of Prey team image, the Killing Joke image, Alicia Silverstone, and any of the three animated ones, though New Batman Adventures is the clearest)
 * I'm not sure DC's internal marketing is a valid source for a claim about how the character is inspirational. In fact, the entire intro sounds a bit too... naive and doe-eyed. Critical distance is a good thing.
 * There's a 20 year gap in the publication history between the Batman TV series and attempts to popularize the character and Killing Joke.
 * It seems like a lot of Oracle material and post-Oracle material is wrongly in the Killing Joke section.
 * The muddied and shifting origin stories in the beginning both take up too much space and are too confusing. This is in-universe minutiae - how is it important to the alleged cultural icon (that's what the intro says) that in the 1980s she changed from being Jim Gordon's daughter to his niece, and then later changed to maybe sorta being his daughter? This is comics trivia, not encyclopedia writing.
 * There's also way too much trivia in the fictional history - an alternate reality Batgirl joined the Justice League posthumously? Why do I care?
 * A bunch of stuff in the War Games section has nothing to do with the War Games arc.
 * All in all, as I said, the section is too long. This is really the overall problem with the article - far too much is in an in-universe perspective and cited to the primary sources of the comics. Where are the sections on popular response among females or handicapped people?
 * For a character with a 40 year publication history, it is ludicrous for almost half of the character history to focus on the last four years. History is more than adding the plot of the latest DC crossover.
 * Many of the things in the alternate versions section appear in one issue, or, more often, one scene of one issue of a comic. This is all trivia, and should be removed.
 * Similarly, the other media section seems overly long. Does that much ever really need to be said about the Birds of Prey TV series?
 * Many of the animated series are parts of the same continuity - surely this could be collapsed into one "Diniverse" section.
 * According to the novilization of a film a character who appears in one shot is Barbara Gordon? No.

In short, the article needs a thorough refocusing away from minutiae of DC comics and continuity trivia and towards an actual analysis of someone who is, apparently, both a cultural icon and an icon for those with disabilities. Until this is done, the article should not apply for FA status, and, in fact, should not have been advanced to GA status - a problem I will rectify shortly. Phil Sandifer 14:04, 30 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Comment All issues brought up in this review have been corrected and/or are in discussion on the BG talk page and WP:GAR. I've requested this article not be de-listed as a GA. Bookkeeperoftheoccult (talk) 08:20, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Comments by User:Doczilla
One thing that has always nagged me most about the Barbara Gordon article is its assertion that she has eidetic memory. When have the comics ever established that? (Honestly, she's too smart to have eidetic memory, but I do realize we're not talking about how things work in real life.) If a specific comic issue ever said that, then the assertion needs a citation. If not, don't say that. I haven't pushed this before, but if we're re-examining its GA status, this needs to be addressed. Doczilla 05:06, 10 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Comment Both Secret Origins #20 (1987) and several issues of Birds of Prey (EX: Birds of Prey issue 71, by Simone and Adrian) have clearly stated that Barbara Gordon has a photographic memory. Its a very vaild longterm aspect of the character which is well cited within the article.Bookkeeperoftheoccult (talk) 06:55, 23 November 2007 (UTC)