Oracle

James Gordon, Jr. (brother)

Dick Grayson (fiancé)

Batman Incorporated

Computer Hacking

Dancing

Driving

Genius Level Intellect

Business Management

Eidetic Memory

Multilingualism

Indomitable Will

Interrogation

Intimidation

Investigation

Leadership

Lock Picking

Martial Arts

Boxing

Eskrima

Judo

Karate

Muay Thai

Tae Kwon Do

Psychology

Throwing

****Barbara Gordon**** is a hacker and member of **Batman Incorporated**, the **Bat-Family** and the **Birds of Prey**. He was Batgirl before she was shot by the Joker and became Oracle to assist the Bat-Family.

## **Biography**

### **Early Life**

**Barbara Gordon** was born the daughter of James Gordon and his wife Barbara Eileen in the suburbs of Chicago and the older sister of James Gordon, Jr.. Even as a young girl, Barbara wanted nothing more than to be a superhero. She and her best friend, Marcy, would spend endless hours designing superhero costumes and heroic identities for themselves. At this precocious age, the seeds of Barbara's future crime-fighting career began to foment.

Barbara had become completely obsessed with the Batman and learned everything that she could about him. One evening, she snuck into her father's private home office to discover him engaged in a secret conversation with the Batman. Barbara had no idea that her adoptive father actually worked with the mysterious Dark Knight. Her obsession with the vigilante only intensified.

The following morning, Barbara insisted that James enroll her in martial arts classes. While reluctant at first, he recognized that the daughter of Gotham City's police captain could definitely benefit from some knowledge of self-defense. Barbara excelled in her training and earned her black belt within a short span of time.

As dedicated as she was towards her physical development, Barbara equally committed herself towards her academic achievements. Gifted with a photographic memory, she easily rose through the ranks of Gotham Heights High School and graduated early at the age of sixteen.

That same period, Barbara earned herself a scholarship to **Gotham State University**. She became one of the University's youngest students, graduating with honors before she was even a legal adult. She became friends with **Katarina Armstrong**, but that friendship ended when Katarina tripped Barbara on the running track to win a race. They did not speak again for several years.

Barbara continued with her self-defense training, this time learning the art of **Jujitsu** under a sensei named **Dragoncat**. To supplement her income, she accepted a position as a research assistant at the Gotham Public Library. Her true dream, however, was to one day work in the field of law enforcement. She asked her father about joining the police academy, but James laughed at her, claiming that she did not even meet the height requirements. She also attempted to enroll at the local FBI office as a field agent, but they dismissed her, citing many of the same reasons.

### **Batgirl**

A few nights later, Barbara found an opportunity that would ultimately change her life forever. **The Gotham City Police Department** decided to host the Million Dollar Masquerade Ball at the Bristol Country Club. Dozens of Gotham City's most affluent leading citizens, including the likes of **Bruce Wayne**, and **J. Devlin Davenport**, were expected to attend. Barbara sewed a stylish, feminine version of Batman's costume based upon designs that she first conceived as a child. For the most part, she intended on crashing the party as this "Batgirl" merely to spite her father.

When she arrived, however, she found that somebody else had decided to crash the party before her. A costumed criminal named **Killer Moth** and his cronies raided the country club, grabbing Bruce Wayne as a hostage. It was their intent to rob the charity proceeds as well as extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from Gotham's wealthiest patrons.

Barbara now found herself acting as Batgirl in deed as well as in name. She tackled Killer Moth in the hopes of rescuing Bruce Wayne from his clutches. What she did not realize though, was that Bruce Wayne was actually Batman. He allowed Batgirl to "rescue" him so that he could sneak off to change into his "work" clothes. Returning to the scene with his sidekick, **Robin**, Batman discovered that Killer Moth had gotten the better of Batgirl. In order to free her from the morass of Killer Moth's silk-spinner gun, they were forced to let the criminals get away. Batman chided Batgirl harshly for her foolish antics and warned her against pursuing such a reckless lifestyle. Hearing such criticism from a man she idolized for so long was a shock for Barbara, but it did not deter her from her chosen path. Despite his disapproval, he sent her batarangs via Dick Grayson, who subtly revealed to her that he was Robin. Barbara was able to solve the case, and shortly after, Batman swore her in an oath and also revealed his identity.

### **The Killing Joke**

Barbara continued her career as Batgirl for a few years, until it came to an abrupt end when the Joker showed up at her house, shooting and paralyzing her before kidnapping her uncle Jim. Batman rescued Jim Gordon, but 19-year-old Barbara Gordon's career as a costumed crime fighter was over.

### **Oracle**

Recognizing she could no longer be the kind of superhero she had been, Barbara instead devoted all her time to developing one of the world's most complex and powerful computer systems and set to work accumulating information, renaming herself "Oracle."

Blessed with a photographic memory, Barbara read dozens of the world's top newspapers and magazines daily. She was also constantly gathering information from other, less public sources, such as the CIA mainframe, not to mention the data networks of the FBI, NSA, and Interpol (all without their knowledge or consent).

Oracle proved an absolutely invaluable resource to the Batman and his allies, as well as countless other superheroes, few of whom know anything about the person behind the name. Oracle was responsible for finding information about the **Order of St. Dumas** and shared it with Batman.

### **Birds of Prey**

Barbara founded the **Birds of Prey**, a team of female heroes, whom she employs as agents. Her first agent was **Power Girl**. However, when an early case went awry and several deaths resulted from it, Power Girl blamed Barbara and stopped working with Oracle on a regular basis.

Barbara joined forces with superhero Black Canary. The two – similar in both having lost their original abilities while fighting crime, yet managing to overcome their handicaps – would later meet in person and become best friends. The two formed the nucleus of the Birds of Prey.

The **Huntress** later joined the team as a full-time agent, as did **Lady Blackhawk**. Although the personnel on Barbara's team continued to grow and change, Huntress and Lady Blackhawk remained core agents.

During the **quarantine** of Gotham, Barbara employed various teenagers to be her eyes and ears on the street. One of these young agents was **Cassandra Cain**; who later saved Jim Gordon's life. Barbara realized that Cassandra was actually one of the world's top martial artists; it was revealed that her father, **David Cain**, had trained her to be a weapon from infancy. Barbara acceded to Cassandra taking up the Batgirl mantle and became Cassandra's mentor.

### **War Games**

When the gang war broke out in Gotham City, Batman started using Oracle in a way that made her feel like a "glorified operator" and at the same time, she broke up with Dick Grayson. Some days later, Batman took over the airwaves of Gotham, including Oracle's main system and prevented her from accessing her own information. Though it was a temporary measure, Oracle was further upset with Batman for not sharing his plans with her. However, when Batman's "war games" plan was foiled by Black Mask, Oracle was fast to contact the members of the Batman Family and sent them to Robinson Park to help Batman.

After this, Oracle supervised Robin's activities while he defeated the Ravens, Trickster and Mister Fun. Under Batman's instructions, Oracle hacked into the surveillance cameras of Gotham in search of Spoiler and found her location. Later, Tarantula contacted Oracle asking for help and Oracle reported the current situation to Batman. Oracle sent Batgirl to aid Onyx and a few minutes later, she realized that Black Mask had been gathering all the criminals in Gotham and leading them towards the Gotham Clock Tower; her home and secret headquarters. As the criminals stormed the tower, Oracle prepared a series of traps that stalled them while she tried to call for backup. Black Mask managed to overload the system by taking the power down and found Oracle in the main chamber. Batman arrived at the Clock Tower just in time to prevent Black Mask from hurting Barbara, and then both men engaged in a brutal fight to the death. Barbara couldn't stop them by talking and she activated a self-destruction mechanism to blow the entire place, which would have killed her as well. Batman was forced to stop fighting to save Barbara just as the building collapsed. Once outside, Barbara was carried by the reporter Arturo Rodriguez to a safe place. Barbara's home and headquarters was utterly destroyed, thus she decided that it was time for her to move away from Gotham.