Oracle Create-a-Thon

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I love Barbara Gordon as Batgirl. She was one of the main highlights of the 90’s Batman cartoons for me in my impressionable youth, and when I started getting into the main DC Comics canon a few years ago, she was one of the first characters I started searching for stories of. In fact, I’m almost totally unashamed of having the world’s biggest, geekiest girl crush on her.

And I learned to love her as Oracle too, not only because as an information jockey to the superheroes she was an incredibly unique sort of character, but because she still managed to be amazingly independent despite her confinement to a wheelchair. Despite being paralyzed below the waist, she could still take out a bunch of assailants whether in her chair or out, using nothing but her brain and some tonfa. Not to mention that her wheelchair didn’t have any handles, because she refused to let other people push her chair for her, and often got offended when they offered to.

But like I said, I love Barbara Gordon in both forms, so I’m still happy to see her return to being Batgirl in September (as long as her paralysis is somehow addressed in-story, as opposed to just rolling back the clock to before she was shot, but because Gail Simone’s the writer, I’ve got faith). The only problem is, I love the other Batgirls too, and their respective relationships with Oracle as a mentor and a support system. Heck, between the three of them, if asked who my favorite Batgirl is, my response is almost always going to be dependent on which one of them I’ve read most recently. They’ve all brought distinctly different things to the role—Barbara her sass and inventiveness, Cassandra her childlike innocence and role as a societal outsider, Stephanie her perseverence in the face of overwhelming odds including her own failings. I just love all these girls, they’ve all been a part of my life in their own ways, and I hope to continue into the future with them in whatever forms they take.

-R. Ordway