New creative team taking Batgirl in a hipster-y direction
© DC Comics / via MTV News

DC Comics character Batgirl will be getting a fresh new look in October, Alex Zalben wrote in an exclusive for MTV last week. Gail Simone, who’s written the Batgirl books since the launch of the New 52 (DC’s initiative to reset all its major comic book series), is leaving as of issue #35, though fans of her take on the character need not despair: Zalben writes that Simone is moving on to another project with DC that will be announced soon.

The new creative team taking over Batgirl, a.k.a. Barbara Gordon, consists of writers Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher and artist Babs Tarr, who’s redesigned the costume to be more practical, not to mention more hipster-y, complete with Doc Martens and a leather jacket. This is all part of a clean break in her story, a move away from the somewhat overbearing grimness that’s characterized Simone’s arc. Stewart tells MTV:

Batgirl has really been put through the wringer in recent years—after being attacked and paralyzed by the Joker, her brother turning out to be a serial murderer, the trauma of her family breaking apart and the series of gruesome villains she’s had to contend with, we figured she deserved a break from all that. Just prior to the start of our story she’s pushed to the breaking point and decides that she’s had it with misery and darkness and wants a change. She wants the opportunity to have some fun and live the life of a young, single girl in the city, so she packs up and moves to Burnside, the cool, trendy borough of Gotham, to focus on grad school.

While the piece on MTV doesn’t actually mention Brooklyn, it’s fairly clear from the description—Fletcher further elaborates that Burnside is full of “expensive coffee, fixie bikes, vintage shops and breakout bands”—that Batgirl’s new corner of Gotham City…is basically Brooklyn. Maybe Portland.

Batgirl #35, the first issue by the new creative team, will be published in October 2014.