 Up until a few weeks ago, I didn't know much about Barbara Gordon. I knew that she was the daughter of the iconic commissioner Jim Gordon. I always thought about how she became the one thing her father despises, and how she turned from Batgirl into Oracle. So after brushing up on my babs, I wanted to share my findings. I wanted to explore the first woman to don the bat symbol, who would turn into so much more. So I asked, who is Barbara Gordon? After picking up Batgirl year one, it became immediately clear to me who the young Batgirl was. Barbara Gordon or Babs had a personality that was immediately alluring, from the moment she appeared on the page or on the screen. She had a genius intellect, she was cunning, and she was very spirited. Barbara wanted to do everything that anyone said she couldn't do. Barbara had a chip on her shoulder. And when she donned the bat costume, the one thing that jumped out to me was how she offered a different perspective to being a Bat, especially when she began. As she would state in one of the panels, there wasn't a patent on wearing the bat symbol, or on wearing a mask. Especially since she wasn't aligned with the Bat family, at least not yet. And her morality also differs from the others, as she shows that she's not afraid to use lethal force. Barbara Gordon, daughter of Jim Gordon, wanted to be a detective. She possessed a genius mind, the proper training, but was halted by her father. At the time, soon to be commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department. Jim Gordon would, under no circumstances, allow his daughter to become a detective on the field. She was too small, she was his daughter, his world. Too fragile. She wasn't ready for the life as a detective. A theme that would come up incessantly, which is the underestimation of the feisty Barbara. So with this underestimation, Babs would don a cape and cow, and she would add a little flavor to it, to first become exactly what her father hated. Jim Gordon, under any circumstance he is placed in, his identity in each iteration is devoted to being by the book. Even after the Joker utterly humiliates Jim Gordon, even showing him explicit pictures of his daughter and shooting and paralyzing her, he still wants the Joker taken in by the book. The commissioner is a man so rigidly tethered by his sense of justice, which is ironic considering how closely he works with the Batman, who is willing to do nearly everything not by the book, except kill. Commissioner Gordon explicitly hates vigilantes, or anyone who wears a mask, an idea that his daughter mocks as she parades through Gotham City as Batgirl, slowly integrating herself into the city's crime field, as well as joining the Batman, and especially getting close to Dick Grayson. Through her short solo stint and a few interactions with Batman, she proves herself worthy of being part of the Batman. She tells Batman about how she sees the future of Gotham City. It's need for the three of them, and she also proves her loyalty. After a few years of being Batgirl, the Joker enters the story, with the killing joke. The Clown Prince of Crime plans on using Barbara to get at her father, and to get at Batman. So on one night, Babs hears the doorbell. Without any thought to looking through the peephole or anything, she opens the door and is greeted by the Joker. The Joker holding a gun, shoots Barbara in the waist, and the bullet travels to her spine, paralyzing her from the waist down. As we see in Oracle Year 1, the entire incident brings Barbara so much shame and disappointment in herself and in others. She is Batgirl, or she was Batgirl, and the daughter of the Commissioner. Because of her status as Jim's daughter, how could she let her guard down? Possibly making a commentary on the choice by Alan Moore, writer of the killing joke. Barbara showed signs of PTSD and she was depressed. Her identity was stripped from her, along with her happiness. Barbara searched for her purpose. Oracle Year 1 ventures through 20 pages of the mind of Barbara Gordon. After being ridiculed, Babs goes in search to find a way to defend herself. When she finds her master, a man by the name of Richard Dragon, he tells her that she needs to find who she wants to be in this world. He almost looks at it as a second chance at life. Barbara was a dancer, a gymnast, Batgirl, but now she is Barbara. In her dreams, the Oracle of Delphi tells her that she has not lost anything of importance. Everything she needs is still with her, also giving her the origin for her name. And in one specific moment in the Suicide Squad comic, in her earliest days of being Oracle, she comes across a villain named The Thinker, or Cliff Carmichael. And Carmichael threatens her entire being. He threatens her as Oracle, threatens her entire family, and he plans to kill them. Barbara releases her frustration out at a firing range, one that triggers memories of the Joker. Barbara begins to question every fiber of her being. She questions her morality, she questions Batman's, and she questions her father's. Whether it is right to use a gun, whether it is right to kill for protection or for revenge, Oracle didn't know what she planned to do with that gun, and if she had it in her to kill him. So when it came time to meet him with the aid of Amanda Waller, she gets in position to shoot and potentially kill Carmichael. While holding the gun, Amanda Waller asks her a weighted question. Who are you trying to kill? Was Barbara trying to kill the Joker whom she saw a flash of? Was she trying to kill all of those who were responsible for her paralysis? As the panel shows the Joker, Batman, her own father, and herself. Was Barbara trying to kill herself? Her current or her past self? As Batgirl was a part of the people she saw, was she trying to move away from that part of her life? Barbara has so much inner turmoil and anger and soul searching to do, and for good reason. It wasn't her fault at all, but Babs made the conscious decision to choose change, to move away from self pity and to move on. Which began her transformation first from victim to survivor, then from Batgirl to Oracle. When she was Batgirl, she was another bird in the Bat family, like Dick Grayson, like Stephanie Brown, like Cassandra Kane. But as Oracle, Barbara becomes so much more valuable to the team and to those around her. And she even becomes incredibly important to the Justice League, easily superseding her old self. And in the Birds of Prey run, we get to see the Oracle live and indirect. We see Oracle flex her vast intellect, her photographic memory, and her self-made supercomputer. She shows her leadership, her cunning, and at times her fighting skills. Oracle was truly a force, and the Birds of Prey, the Justice League, and even the Batman, would all benefit from her. It must have been so tough for Barbara whose life was hinged on freedom. She was a dancer, a gymnast, but what Barbara would learn was that her disability was not a crutch on her life. Her motive, when she was younger, was to defy the expectations. She was too small, too fragile. And as Oracle, she just defied the expectations one more time. She hadn't lost anything important. Barbara trained what she already had, a genius mind and arguably became more valuable than she ever was as Batgirl. Barbara was tired of being a victim and ready to help, in any way that she could. And she would become incredibly valuable. She also showed that she was worthy of love, as she still held the Grayson's heart, like the first time he saw her, back in her Batgirl days. So who is Barbara Gordon? She is someone who will defy expectations. She is the model of strength, someone who would build herself back to becoming even stronger than she was before. And she is good representation for those with disabilities. To dig Grayson and Black Canary, she is incredibly loyal and will do anything to protect them. Barbara Gordon is a survivor. Barbara Gordon is strong, both as Batgirl and as Oracle.