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WHO COUNTS IN COUNTDOWN? – Episode #39 By Bruce MacIntosh
Countdown is DC's weekly title that follows successful 52 series, and is building to a climactic finish in May, 2008. Like 52, Countdown features long-running stories about characters with whom the average fan may be unfamiliar. If you are a reader who may be afraid to dive into Countdown because you don't know everything about these characters, fear not! The PULSE is here to peer into the identities of these characters and give you their histories. Appropriately, this week we look into our crystal ball to divine the story of the Oracle – who plays a prominent role in Countdown #39.
Barbara Gordon is the secret identity of the character we now know as Oracle. And secret it is: Only a select few people know the civilian identity of the person who mans what is literally the nerve center for all the heroes in the DC Universe. She is the "go to guy" when a hero needs information about a villain, a crime, or literally any place or event in the world. What is perhaps most unique about this character is that while Oracle is exceptionally intelligent and technologically capable, Barbara is one of the only physically disabled characters in comics. Although she is wheelchair bound, however, she is still a superb fighter – as the events of the latest issue of Birds of Prey prove.
But Barbara Gordon wasn't always Oracle. She first appeared 40 years ago as Batgirl, in Detective Comics #359 (Jan 1967). She was a librarian and the daughter of Gotham City's Police Commissioner, James Gordon. Her crime-fighting career began as she foiled a kidnapping attempt on Bruce Wayne by Killer Moth, while on her way to a costume party dressed as a female version of Batman. She liked crime-busting so much, she kept the costume and continued adventuring.
Like her namesake, she had no super powers. But unlike the Batman, she also lacked Bruce Wayne's motivations for fighting evil in the night. However, this deficiency had no negative impact on her popularity in the Silver Age, and she was given a regular back-up feature in Detective soon after her debut. (Her form-fitting black costume probably didn't hurt sales, either, since comics' readership was largely boys in their early teens.) She appeared sporadically throughout the Seventies and Eighties in team-up books like Worlds Finest and Teen Titans, and even had another recurring feature in Batman Family and then again in Detective Comics. Batgirl became disillusioned with crime fighting in the late 1980s, and even retired her costume, choosing instead to do good as a social worker.
Like so many characters in the DC Universe, Crisis on Infinite Earths changed things for Barbara Gordon. As a result of revised continuity, she was now the daughter of Roger and Thelma Gordon, and Jim Gordon's was her uncle. (However, in Batman: Gotham Knights #6 (Aug 2000), Batman discovered a letter which revealed that Barbara knew Jim Gordon had dated her mother before marrying Roger. It is possible that James Gordon might be her biological father, although he is unaware of this.) James Gordon adopted Barbara after the death of her parents, and she came to think of him as her father.
Barbara also briefly served as a Congresswoman. Although this resumé item has never officially been retconned out of existence, it has not even been mentioned in over a decade. She also has been romantically linked to Dick Grayson (Nightwing) in the past.
In Batman: The Killing Joke, a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, the Joker shot Barbara with a handgun, with the intention of driving Jim Gordon insane. The Clown Prince of Crime chose Barbara because she was Commissioner Gordon's daughter, but did not know she was Batgirl. The bullet severed her spine, permanently paralyzing her from the waist down and ending her career as Batgirl.
She was initially consumed by depression, but eventually realized her technological and electronic skills, photographic memory and training in library sciences could be used to fight crime as well as her former physical prowess. She had a dream in which Batgirl saw an omniscient woman - similar to a Greek Oracle such as the one at Delphi - with Barbara's own face. This inspired her to adopt the codename of Oracle. She now serves as an information broker to the superhero community and law enforcement organizations.
Barbara continues her physical training, not being limited by her wheelchair. She has learned a form of martial arts called Eskrima from Richard Dragon (DC resident martial arts expert and trainer of heroes such as Batman, Huntress and Lady Shiva), which emphasizes combat with sticks or swords. She also continues to develop her upper-body strength and mastery of weapons.
The comic Birds of Prey started in 1999 and features a team of female heroes whom Barbara employs as agents. The first hero was Power Girl, who resigned in disgust after the first mission went awry and resulted in loss of life. Barbara then joined forces with Black Canary, and despite their own temporary resignations and the comings and goings of dozens of other female DC heroes, the two still form the heart and soul of the team. (Currently, Huntress and Zinda/Lady Blackhawk are the two other core members of the team. Another new character, Misfit, has recently added a touch of both comedy and pathos to this drama. She promises to be an interesting addition to this book.)
Oracle was based in the top of Gotham City clock tower for years. However, in DC's "War Games" storyline, her home and headquarters were destroyed. Since the destruction was a direct result of Batman's actions in taking over Oracle's computer systems, Barbara severed all ties to the Dark Knight and relocated the team from Gotham to Metropolis.
Oracle's computer network was later infected by Brainiac, and the virus eventually spread to Barbara herself. She was temporarily endowed with cyberpathic powers which psychically linked her to any computer system. The virus was eventually eliminated and following an operation by Doctor Mid-Nite she briefly regained movement in her toes. This gave hope to Barbara Gordon/Batgirl fans everywhere that she might return to her former Silver Age identity, but the improvement was temporary and she remains in her wheelchair.
Following the destruction of Blüdhaven by The Society, Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon resumed their previous romantic relation. In fact, he proposed to her and she accepted. Unfortunately, the events of Infinite Crisis threw cold water on their nuptial plans, as it was all heroes on deck to quell Alexander Luthor's plan to recreate the multiverse. Dick was injured in the Battle for Metropolis, and Barbara stayed by his side while he recovered. But when Batman enlisted Dick's assistance with Bats' vision quest, Barbara realized that neither of them were ready for marriage, and returned the engagement ring. Dick promised to eventually return to her, but this has not yet taken place.
Spoiler Warning for readers of Birds of Prey!
In the most recent story arc in Birds of Prey ("Whitewater"), Oracle and her team struggled for control of the team with Spy Smasher, a government agent who had taken over the organization. Barbara challenged her female opponent Spy Smasher to a hand-to-hand combat with the winner getting to lead the team. Barbara won the fight, but Spy Smasher refused to give up control of the team.
In an unusual double-double page spread, every agent Oracle had ever employed showed up to lend support. Through sheer presence of numbers, the assembled heroes convince Spy Smasher that there will be no Birds of Prey team unless Oracle leads them.
End Spoiler Warning.
This sequence of events is not referenced in Countdown. However, when Karate Kid and one-third of Triplicate Girl break into Oracle's heavily-reinforced headquarters, they find her struggling with a remote assailant to her computer files. Never looking away from her computer monitors, she informs her uninvited guests that their quest for assistance from Oracle will have to wait, because a powerful hacker is about to learn from her system the secret identities of all the superheroes.
NEXT WEEK IN WHO COUNTS IN COUNTDOWN? Fans of the new Batwoman have been wondering where she disappeared to following her appearances in 52. After her appearance at the end of Countdown #39, it is clear that she will be playing a large part in both that series and other DC titles. Next week, we'll take a look at the story of the new Batwoman, recap her brief appearances, and maybe even touch on the controversies that arose from DC's original announcements regarding the character's sexual preferences.
As always, tune in next week: Same Bat-Time, Bat-Channel!
Posts: 21255 | From: PA | Registered: Aug 2002
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Nice piece. As much as I liked Babs as Batgirl I'm glad that she's still Oracle and hope that she will stay in that cool role. (I'm a romantic who's still holding out for Babs and Dick to finally get together once and for all. I think they would make a fun married couple.)
-------------------- May you live in interesting times Posts: 102 | From: San Diego, CA USA | Registered: Aug 2001
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She can still wiggle her toes. Just because she can't walk doesn't mean she can't still wiggle her toes. I believe that Gail Simone wrote that about her wiggling her toes as a tribute to the improvements Christopher Reeve made in his paralysis.
Posts: 240 | From: Lakewood, OH | Registered: Aug 2003
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WHO COUNTS IN COUNTDOWN? – Episode #39
Like so many characters in the DC Universe, Crisis on Infinite Earths changed things for Barbara Gordon. As a result of revised continuity, she was now the daughter of Roger and Thelma Gordon, and Jim Gordon's was her uncle. (However, in Batman: Gotham Knights #6 (Aug 2000), Batman discovered a letter which revealed that Barbara knew Jim Gordon had dated her mother before marrying Roger. It is possible that James Gordon might be her biological father, although he is unaware of this.) James Gordon adopted Barbara after the death of her parents, and she came to think of him as her father. 
Spoiler Warning for readers of Birds of Prey!
