Fangirling: Frankie Charles

If you aren’t in the know, Frankie Charles is an awesome character in the Batgirl arc. Without too many spoilers, Frankie is a bi, disabled, black female coder, who is Bab’s roommate in Burnside.

I actually wrote about her a little while ago as my favorite fictional character, and the reasons honestly haven’t changed.

Frankie Charles is a character that looks like me, and one I can relate to, in a comic universe where it’s kind of difficult to find any representation. Since she’s a coder, and spends a good portion of her comic book time online, I could totally see us hanging out together and laughing about the things we find on Twitter.

There’s been some not-so-subtle hints that she is going to be the next Oracle. Can this be a thing, DC? PLEASE?! Gail Simone made Oracle what she is today, and for Frankie to have the chance to fill that mantle would be awesome. Not only because she’s good at what she does and would literally kill for the opportunity, but because I would love to have a comic book character representing women of color in technology.

Can we talk about her fashion sense? Thanks to Babs Tarr I want every outfit she’s ever worn, especially when she pretends to be Batgirl for a short stint. That dress, when they go to the art show? TO FREAKING DIE FOR! I feel like anything that Babs draws just flows with inspiration. I’m itching to fire up my sewing machine.

I think that’s one of the biggest reasons I love Frankie; she’s a well-rounded, well-represented character that inspires me. Representation is so important. I’m not saying that every character created has to be of color. But in order to be one of the Big Two, you should probably create characters that look like your readers. No matter how much you want to believe that your only audience is cis white men–it’s not. People of color and women deserve inclusivity, and we spend great money to see it happen, so we should be included in the characters you create.  If you wanna know more about Frankie, go out and get the trade of BATGIRL, and make sure you read from #43 on, because Fletcher, Stewart and Tarr have some awesome things planned for her, I can feel it in my bones!

If you are a fan of Frankie, let’s talk about it, please! All my coworkers are guys, and they don’t read Batgirl so I don’t have an outlet for all of my Frankie love! So let’s fangirl together, especially if its about Batgirl, that’s a daily gush topic for me!