Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon is a DC Comics heroine who has worn two very different identities, Batgirl and Oracle. The artist Carmine Infantino helped create her, and he summed up her beginnings with a boast. In Infantino's words, "Julie and I came up with the real Batgirl, who was so popular she almost got her TV show." That last clause is the clue. Barbara began life as an answer to a business problem that had nothing to do with comic pages. Since then, readers, writers and editors have fought over what she should be, and some of those fights remain unsettled. Why was she created in the first place? What happened to her that sent later writers back to the drawing board? And why do people who love the same character disagree so sharply about which version is the real one?
William Dozier, the executive producer of the 1960s Batman television series, wanted a female counterpart for the hero. He asked editor Julius Schwartz for a character who could debut in the comics and on the show's third season at the same time. Schwartz said he had been asked to draw a female audience to the program. He had also removed two earlier characters, Batwoman and her sidekick Bat-Girl, as outdated and unrealistic.
Dozier supplied the core idea himself. The new heroine would be the daughter of Gotham City's police commissioner, James Gordon, and she would take the name Batgirl. When Dozier and fellow producer Howie Horowitz visited the DC offices, they saw Infantino's rough concept art. They optioned the character, hoping she would help sell a third season to the ABC television network.
The comic itself came first. Gardner Fox wrote and Infantino drew Detective Comics #359, titled "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!", which reached readers in January 1967. Barbara puts on a black bodysuit with yellow gloves, boots and utility belt, plus a blue cape and cowl, while heading to a costume party. At the party she stops Killer Moth from kidnapping Bruce Wayne. Batman objects to a woman joining his fight, and she carries on regardless. The actress Yvonne Craig played her on screen in the season three premiere, "Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin", that September.
By 1971 the character was popular enough that DC answered critics in print. A letter in Detective Comics #417 called its new heroine "a capable crime-fighter." It told nostalgic fans that Batwoman and the other Bat-girls were "gone for good."
Barbara Gordon, Ph.D., held a doctorate in library science and ran the Gotham City Public Library. The job suited a woman with a secret. To hide her double life from her enemies, her father, Batman and Robin, she played the part of the day's stereotypical librarian. Her hair was tied up in a bun, and her clothes were deliberately dowdy.
Her creators meant her to reflect the women's liberation movement of the 1960s. She was an educated young woman with a career and a talent for crime-fighting. The writer Mike Madrid argued that she differed from Batwoman because she wore Batman's symbol without being his girlfriend or handmaiden. Because she showed no romantic interest in him, Madrid wrote, Batman could treat her as a brilliant peer. Some details still seemed dated, though. Much of her gadget kit lived in a Bat-purse attached to her utility belt.
Her popularity earned her space on the page. From Detective Comics #384, dated February 1969, she had a regular backup slot, first alternating with Robin and then on her own after issue #404. Frank Robbins wrote nearly all of those stories, with Gil Kane and later Don Heck as penciler. She also guest-starred in Justice League of America, World's Finest Comics, The Brave and the Bold, Action Comics and Superman.
In June 1972, a story called "Batgirl's Last Case" sent her to Washington, D.C., planning to retire the cowl. She also revealed her secret to her father, who had already worked it out, and she served in the United States House of Representatives. Schwartz brought her back a year later in Superman #268, where she goes on a blind date with Clark Kent and fights beside Superman. She then teamed with him twice more, and with Supergirl in Superman Family #171.
In 1975 she received a starring role in Batman Family, partnered with the original Robin, Dick Grayson. The pair were often billed as the "Dynamite Duo: Batgirl & Robin." In issue #10 she meets the retired Batwoman. The two fight Killer Moth and the Cavalier, and they learn each other's secret identities. The series lasted three years. Her backup stories in Detective Comics continued through issue #519, dated October 1982.
By the mid-1980s, Frank Miller's influence had made Batman comics dark and gritty. In that atmosphere, there was little room for a librarian fighting crime in high heels. On the page, Barbara grew doubtful about her own usefulness and decided to quit for good.
Continuity itself shifted next. The 1985 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths was written to simplify DC's tangled history. Barbara's role was small, since she only delivers Supergirl's eulogy in issue #7. After the reboot, she was born to Roger and Thelma Gordon and became Jim Gordon's niece and adopted daughter. Author Barbara Randall rebuilt her story in Secret Origins #20, from 1987. It now featured martial arts lessons with a sensei, memorized maps of the city, and skipped grades at school. It was the last major portrait of her as Batgirl before DC closed the book on that identity.
Barbara Kesel wrote Batgirl Special #1 in July 1988 with one job, which was to retire the hero. Author Brian Cronin noted that DC hired her specifically to do that and to put Barbara in place for what followed. Later that year came Alan Moore's graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke. In it, the Joker shoots Barbara through the spine and leaves her paralyzed. His aim is to drive her father insane and prove to Batman that anyone can be morally compromised.
The book changed her life, yet it barely concerns her. Moore later said as much. He told Wizard in 2006 that his treatment of the character was "shallow and ill-conceived." He recalled asking DC whether they minded him crippling Barbara. He spoke to editor Len Wein, and after a conversation with Executive Editorial Director Dick Giordano, the answer came back as a yes.
Other writers sharpened the criticism. Robin Anne Reid took up the point in her 2008 book Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy: Overviews. Moore, she wrote, showed none of the intelligence and resourcefulness that had made Barbara Batgirl. Instead she appeared as a cocoa-serving homemaker fretting over the news clippings her father was cutting and pasting.
Gail Simone placed Barbara on a list of major female characters who had been killed, mutilated or stripped of powers. She dubbed the pattern "Women in Refrigerators," after a 1994 Green Lantern story in which the hero finds his girlfriend's body in his refrigerator. Simone also pointed to a double standard. Batman's back had been broken by the villain Bane, and within a year he was fine. Barbara was shot in her own home, never given a chance to fight, and stayed in a wheelchair for years.
Not everyone shrugged it off. The comic writer Kim Yale found the treatment distasteful and said so to her husband, the writer John Ostrander. Rather than let Barbara fade into obscurity, the couple decided to bring her back as a character living with a disability.
A Batgirl plushie sat beside a computer in Suicide Squad #26, and it was the first hint of who was behind a mysterious voice. That voice debuted in issue #23, offering its services anonymously to the government's Task Force X. The name was Oracle. Her identity as Barbara Gordon came out in issue #38, in 1990. In issue #48 she officially joined the Squad, invited by Amanda Waller. Yale and Ostrander oversaw her development for several years.
In 1992 Dennis O'Neil wrote her as Batman's only source of information in Batman: Sword of Azrael #1. That story marked her as the hero's intellectual equal. A 12-issue miniseries, The Hacker Files, followed in 1993. O'Neil later explained the logic in plain terms, saying Batman would need someone like her.
Her origin as Oracle appeared in "Oracle: Year One", a story in The Batman Chronicles #5 from 1996. Her paralysis first sinks her into reactive depression. Then she realizes that her training in information science is a weapon. One night she dreams of an all-knowing woman who has her face, like the Oracle at Delphi in Greek mythology. That dream gives her the codename.
Her abilities are written on a large scale. She has a genius-level intellect and a photographic memory, with deep knowledge of computers and electronics. She is an expert hacker, with graduate training in library sciences. Gail Simone called her the most intelligent member of the Batman family. BusinessWeek once placed her among the ten most intelligent superheroes in American comics, and she was the only woman on the list. According to Simone, she controls 12 advanced satellites that Lex Luthor built while serving as President of the United States.
Her body was trained as hard as her mind. She had earned black belts in ten disciplines, including Capoeira, Judo, Eskrima and Muay Thai. As Oracle she studied under Richard Dragon to fight from a wheelchair. She builds upper-body strength, shoots small firearms and throws batarangs, and she keeps a pair of eskrima sticks in the armrests of her chair.
The writer Devin Grayson described the personal cost. In her view, Barbara is hyper-defensive about her paralysis and has overcompensated. Her determination to be self-reliant is admirable but leaves her less willing than ever to accept help.
Her ethics set her apart too. In Chuck Dixon's Birds of Prey issue #10, "State of War", she uses lethal force, which contradicts the code of her closest allies. Dixon said she does everything possible to avoid killing, but when it comes to a choice, she accepts what must be done. Her sharpest disagreements came with the people nearest to her, starting with Black Canary.
Chuck Dixon's Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey, published in 1996, was successful enough to launch a series starring its two title characters. During the crossover Nightwing: Hunt for Oracle, Barbara Gordon and Dinah Lance, the Black Canary, met face to face for the first time. They formed a lasting friendship and the core of the Birds of Prey organization. Oracle ran operations, and Black Canary became her full-time field agent.
The wider Gotham family kept growing around her. In 2000 the first Batgirl monthly comic starred Cassandra Cain, with Oracle as her mentor. When Gail Simone took over Birds of Prey with issue #56, she made the Huntress a central character and Oracle's second field agent. In 2003, Scott Beatty and Chuck Dixon revisited the origin in the miniseries Batgirl: Year One. Their Barbara, a gifted child who finished high school early, wanted to join law enforcement rather than become a vigilante.
Disaster came in 2004, during the crossover Batman: War Games. Black Mask seized Oracle's computers and satellites and fought Batman to the death. To stop Batman from killing his enemy, Oracle triggered the Clock Tower's self-destruct sequence. That forced him to rescue her instead, but it destroyed her home and headquarters. She left Gotham, cut her ties with Batman, and settled in Metropolis.
A stranger crisis followed in 2005. The villain Brainiac possessed her to become a biological being, and she expelled him. Yet the advanced virus he delivered stayed behind and grew cybernetic attachments across her body. She gained psychic access to computer systems, and after an operation by Doctor Mid-Nite she lost the ability. She also found she could move her toes, though that proved short-lived. She remained paralyzed.
The team shifted again. Black Canary left in Birds of Prey #99, and the Huntress became de facto field leader, with Big Barda as heavy-hitter. In Simone's final arc, "Whitewater," a government agent named Spy Smasher took over the organization before surrendering it. Oracle also took Misfit into the organization.
In The All-New Booster Gold #5, from 2007, the hero Booster Gold is sent back in time to prevent the Joker from shooting Barbara. He tries several times and fails. Rip Hunter convinced him that her destiny was to become Oracle. Batman revealed that he had kept the Joker's photographs of Barbara for years.
Then came 2008's Final Crisis, in which Darkseid tried to spread the Anti-Life Equation across the internet. Oracle and Mister Terrific tried even to shut down the entire Internet, and both failed. Afterward she fought the Calculator, her opposite number, and began doubting her abilities. She disbanded the team. Birds of Prey was cancelled in early 2009, with a final issue numbered #127.
Oracle remained active. She mentored the Calculator's daughter, Wendy Harris, and in 2009 the Batgirl comic returned with Stephanie Brown in the title role. Oracle first discouraged Brown, then accepted her. In Scott Snyder's Black Mirror, Barbara's brother, the serial killer James Gordon Jr., stabbed her in both legs. He placed the knives so she would bleed to death if she pulled them out. She survived by stalling him with words until Batman and her father arrived.
For Barbara's would-be return as Batgirl, the costume was to be red instead of yellow. Artist Alex Ross and writer Paul Dini designed it for a plan to heal her in a Lazarus Pit. In the DC Universe, that is a chemical pool with rejuvenating effects. Red suggested she would be somehow compromised by the pool. Ross said editor Denny O'Neil rejected the pitch, because, in O'Neil's view, everyone loved Barbara as Oracle and DC did not have enough disabled characters. The design went into a drawer. Kate Kane, the modern Batwoman, later wore a variation on it.
The argument had already been running for years. Comics Bulletin reviewer Ray Tate wrote that Barbara had no reason to stay in a wheelchair. In his view, Batman's science already exceeds anything in the real world. He rejected the idea that fans preferred Oracle to Batgirl because of her disability. In his view, Batgirl had fought more crime and saved Batman's life more often.
Supporters of Oracle took the opposite side. John Ostrander said he received letters from disabled readers who were very supportive of the character. Dan DiDio argued that some stories are so strong that undoing them would be a crime. Marc Dipaolo, author of War, Politics and Superheroes, wrote that editors refused to cure her because there were too few disabled heroes. He added that it would be strange to see her walk away from a wheelchair when Christopher Reeve never could.
In June 2011 DC announced that Barbara would return as Batgirl that September, in a series written by Gail Simone. It became one of the most controversial parts of the company's relaunch. Journalist Jill Pantozzi, who has muscular dystrophy, said Oracle had always been treated with the utmost respect. She called this move the most disrespectful she had seen in a long time. Dennis O'Neil said he had valued a hero who overcame a disability without violence. He also allowed that her fame as Batgirl was a fair consideration. Ostrander stayed loyal to Oracle but expressed faith in Simone. "Times change and characters and people evolve," he said.
Simone had once fought to keep Barbara disabled, even when disabled readers asked for a cure. What changed her mind was a continuity reset. In a world of magic and super-science, she said, graves do not stay filled and severed limbs grow back, yet Barbara stays in the chair. The relaunch placed nearly everyone earlier in their careers, which removed her main objection. DC's Bob Wayne said the Killing Joke still happened and that she would go through rehabilitation. Simone pointed to real treatments and said Barbara's spine was not severed, which made her a candidate for experimental surgery in South Africa.
Batgirl #1 sold out at the distribution level before release, according to Diamond Comic Distributors. More than 100,000 copies were printed in its first run. Retailers were required to order a second printing. Estimated sales ran from 81,489 copies for issue #1, ranked 12th, down to 47,836 for issue #6, ranked 30th. The hardcover collecting those six issues, Batgirl: The Darkest Reflection, reached The New York Times Best Seller list. Reviews were largely positive. The New York Times critic George Gene Gustines called it a must-buy series, and Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+.
Inside the book, Barbara was younger, with a degree in forensic psychology. She still carried the aftermath of her injury. She hesitated when gunfire might damage her spine again, and she felt survivor guilt over others who had not recovered. Simone said the book was about how trauma can strike even tough people, a subject comics often ignore.
In October 2014 the title was rebooted by writers Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart, artist Babs Tarr, and colorist Maris Wicks. Barbara now lived in the trendy Gotham borough of Burnside and worked on a doctorate. The tone was lighter, but the villain turned out to be her own brain scans, an algorithm echoing the old Oracle. Critics praised the book's social media savvy and Tarr's art. Others condemned the villain Dagger Type as a transphobic caricature, and the creative team apologized and revised the issue for its collected edition.
On the 13th of March 2015, DC released 25 variant covers marking the Joker's 75th anniversary. Rafael Albuquerque drew the cover for Batgirl #41. It showed a tearful Barbara with a red smile painted on her mouth and the Joker aiming a revolver. Critics said it recalled the darkest chapter of her past. The hashtag #changethecover drew hundreds of posts on Twitter and Tumblr. DC pulled the cover at Albuquerque's own request. He said he never meant to hurt anyone.
Another relaunch, DC Rebirth, arrived in 2016. Hope Larson wrote Batgirl in July, and Julie and Shawna Benson wrote Batgirl and the Birds of Prey in August. In the Joker War storyline, the team needed a greater tactical advantage, and her spinal support implant showed signs of overuse. Barbara returned to the Oracle role. She kept the right to put on the cowl again, alongside Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown. After the 2021 Infinite Frontier event, she continued to operate as both Batgirl and Oracle. In the 2023 Knight Terrors story arc, she fought Punchline and the Royal Flush Gang at the Clock Tower.
She also left the page. Dina Meyer, Alicia Silverstone, playing Barbara Wilson, and Jeté Laurence all portrayed her. Voice actors included Melissa Gilbert, Tara Strong and Mae Whitman. Savannah Welch played her as Gotham's new commissioner in the third season of the HBO Max series Titans. In 2011 she ranked 17th in IGN's list of the top 100 comic book heroes. A solo film for HBO Max with Leslie Grace in the title role was cancelled in August 2022.
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Updated
Common questions
Who created Barbara Gordon?
Television producer William Dozier, editor Julius Schwartz, writer Gardner Fox and artist Carmine Infantino created her. She first appeared in Detective Comics #359 in January 1967.
How did Barbara Gordon become Oracle?
After the Joker shot her in The Killing Joke, she used her computer and library training to become an information broker called Oracle. Her first appearance in that role was in Suicide Squad #23.
Did Barbara Gordon ever walk again?
Yes. In 2011, as part of The New 52 relaunch, she recovered from her paralysis after experimental surgery and returned as Batgirl. Later stories also returned her to the Oracle role.
Why was the 2011 change controversial?
Many readers saw Oracle as an important disabled hero and felt losing her was disrespectful. Gail Simone, who wrote the new series, argued that the cure was long overdue in a universe full of super-science.
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- 176Syma, C. K., Weiner, R. G., & Callender, D. (Eds.). (2025). Drawn to the stacks: Essays on libraries, librarians and archives in comics and graphic novels. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
- 177Unleashing the Superhero in Us AllT. James Musler — Lulu — 2008
- 178Superheroes and PhilosophyJames B. South — Open Court — 2004
- 179From the Library: Batgirl!Ashley McAllister — Bitch Media — August 15, 2010
- 180Girl Culture: Studying Girl Culture : A Readers' GuideClaudia Mitchell et al. — ABC-CLIO — 2008
- 181Meyer's 'Prey' Role Has A Different TwistIan Spelling — September 28, 2002
- 182'Birds' Has Looks But Flies Too LowRobert Bianco — October 9, 2002
- 183The WB's 'Birds of Prey' Needs Special Powers to Attract ViewersVince Horiuchi — October 9, 2002
- 184A.W.O.L.27 January 2016
- 185Exclusive: Which DC Characters Will Be On TNT's The Titans/Eric Diaz — Nerdist — February 2, 2015
- 186Barbara Gordon/Oracle Set To Join 'Titans' Season 3 (EXCLUSIVE)Discussing Film — January 13, 2020
- 187'Titans': Red Hood, Barbara Gordon And Scarecrow Set To Appear In Season 3 – DC FanDomeAlexandra Del Rosario — August 22, 2020
- 189Batman: Dark Tomorrow Bios #8IGN — February 27, 2003
- 190Game Informer features a two-page gallery of the many heroes and villains who appear in the game with a picture for each character and a descriptive paragraph. See "LEGO Batman: Character Gallery", Ga
- 191MagazineBatgirl joins the fray in exclusive Batman: Arkham Knight 'A Matter of Family' imageAaron Morales — July 6, 2015
- 192'Batgirl' Movie: Joss Whedon to Direct Standalone FilmDave McNary — March 30, 2017
- 193MagazineJoss Whedon will write and direct a Batgirl movie about Barbara GordonAnthony Breznican — March 30, 2017
- 194VideoSan Diego Comic Con 2017: Exclusive Access & Interviews – IGN LiveIGN — July 21, 2017
- 195Joss Whedon Exits 'Batgirl' Movie (Exclusive)Borys Kit — February 22, 2018
- 196'Batgirl' Movie Back On, Now With 'Bumblebee' Writer (Exclusive)Borys Kit — April 9, 2018
- 197Warner Bros. Wants a Female Director for DC's Batgirl MovieMansoor Mithaiwala — February 22, 2018
- 199Harley Quinn Season 2 Episode 2 Review: Riddle URosie Knight — 2020-04-10
- 201'Batgirl' Won't Fly: Warner Bros. Discovery Has No Plans to Release Nearly Finished $90 Million FilmUmberto Gonzalez — August 2, 2022