Barbara Gordon: Batgirl or Oracle?
By: F.T. Wolf
Tags: Comics, Batgirl, Batman, Oracle, DC Comics

When people think Batgirl, they think Barbara Gordon. When they think Barbara Gordon, they think Oracle.

This post was originally publised as Let’s Talk About Barbara Gordon: Batgirl or Oracle? on September 23, 2020 and can now be partially read here.

A few weeks ago, the ongoing Batgirl title from DC comics got cancelled with #50 to be the end. While this is, in hindsight, more likely the result of the mass-firing and restructuring the company is currently undergoing, the timing of said cancellation intrigued me. The ‘Joker War’ story-line across all of the Bat-books was (and still is) happening. Barbara Gordon’s tie-in story already focused on her (temporarily) losing the mobility in her legs again and with the ‘Joker War’ said to have far-reaching consequences I wondered to myself: ‘are they returning Barbara Gordon to her Oracle persona, wheelchair and all?’. At that time it was only a random thought echoing in my brain, but since then, some things have come to light that pointed towards this direction. Black and white preview pages for Batman #100, originally meant as Batman’s grand-finale before the 5G relaunch before that one got canned, sees not only Barbara seemingly back in the chair but also Cassandra Cain wearing her Batgirl uniform again and the former Batgirl Stephanie Brown with a bat-emblem.

Now, these preview pages have no context and the recently released Batman #99 confirms that Barbara goes back to her clock-tower to coordinate the bat-families assault on Joker’s forces on her own initiative and not because she lost the use of her legs again. It’s definitely meant as a callback to her time as Oracle. However, Bleeding Cool, who has a track record when it comes to these things, have reported on sources telling them that Cassandra will adopt the mantle again next year in 2021. How this would affect Barbara is currently unknown. There’s no way to tell if there’s any truth to this reported but however the situation ends up being if Barbara will go back to Oracle or stay as Batgirl, it has made me wonder the age-old question again of which version of Barbara Gordon is the one that should have a place in DC’s main continuity.

Batgirl

Some of you might not know this, but Barbara Gordon wasn’t the first Batgirl. No, that honour goes to Betty Kane, named “Bat-Girl”, the sidekick to the original Batwoman introduced in 1956. After accusations of homoerotic subtext in the relationship between Batman and Robin (Google it if you don’t know what I’m talking about) DC comics introduced female counterparts as love-interest to end these accusations once and for all. We must remember: this was the 1950’s. To say that their depiction were those of stereotypes would be an understatement. After only a few years both characters were removed and retconned out of existence as they weren’t ‘of the times anymore’ AKA were outdated and harmful representations of women. Batwoman would eventually make her way back and Betty Kane did as well post Crisis on Infinite Earth as the retooled character Firebird, but the fans had wanted female members back to the Bat-family earlier than that. Enter the Batman TV series of the 1960s. To sell the third season to the network the show’s producers decided that adding in a female character would give the show the boost in popularity it needed. They got their wish and the comics department was tasked with introducing the character and work out the finer details. Enter Barbara Gordon: the new Batgirl.

Debuting in 1967 in an issue of Detective Comics, the daughter of commission Gordon, this new Batgirl was much more independent then either Batwoman and Bat-Girl had been. There was some criticism against this new Batgirl when she was first introduced, mainly her role as a librarian and her ‘Bat-purse’ made here part of the same negative stereotype of many depictions of woman, but over time these elements were either nuanced on fazed out entirely. Barbara Gordon’s Batgirl exceeded the earlier Bat-Girl and Batwoman in popularity, and readers requested for her to appear in other titles. She was a regular in Batman stories during this time, had her own backup slot in Detective Comics and survived Crisis on Infinite Earths without too many scratches. She got an updated origin, yes, but aside from being retconned as Jim’s niece instead of his daughter no real significant changes were made. The Barbara Gordon Batgirl was as a success, both in the TV show and on the page, to the point that she became a mainstay of the wider Batman mythos. Batgirl became a permanent member of the Bat-Family, known even outside of comic books and a role-model to many young girls.

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