Barbara Gordon

Early Life: 1989-2003
Barbara Gordon was born in the fall of 1989. She's the daughter of two Gotham City Police Officers: James “Jim” Gordon and Sarah Essen-Gordon, she also has a little brother, James Jr., which we do not need to say much about. At night, after she and her brother were sent to bed, she would postpone sleep and instead listen through the thin walls of our home as her parents talked about the horrors they had witnessed that day on the job. She said that she feels comfortable enough to say she was equally horrified and intrigued.

At a young age, She spent a lot of time on computers and discovered she had a knack for not just their use, but deciphering code. By the time she was ten, she made myself into a self-trained hacker and would often become involved in a variety of causes, becoming a hacktivist before the word had ever been coined. Of course, she was what we called a “White Hat”, a good guy.

As a teenager, she stowed away in the backseat of her father's squad car hoping to sneak into the GCPD mainframe and hack their database (again, she was a good guy- she had good intentions, she promises) but instead she found her dad lied to her mom. He didn’t go to the precinct that night; he didn’t even get a call to a crime scene. Nope, he went to a secret meeting with an urban legend.

She kept quiet and the next week, Sal Maroni and Carmine Falcone were both arrested by her father on charges that actually stuck. Her father was promoted from Desk Sergeant to Lieutenant of the Vigilante Task Force. Within a month, the Gotham Gazette had caught a picture of the “Bat-Man” and just like that, Gotham was as obsessed with vigilante justice as she was.

She talked her dad into letting me enroll in self-defense classes. After studying Internet videos of the Batman, she realized I’d need more than just karate lessons and a few hours at the gym and so she lied about joining a few extracurricular activities in order to enroll in three other defense courses (Aikido, Stick-Fighting, Judo) with a guy called Dragoncat, in addition to Boxing at the Wildcat Gym.

After news had broke that Batman was working with a teenage boy, she decided that it was time for a girl to show them how it’s done. So, she traded her black belt in for a utility belt…

First Outings
Batgirl began with a whimper. She had the mask, the homemade costume that she and her friend Marcy designed (complete with cape and utility belt), and the attitude. But, it still took her weeks of rooftop patrols and back-alley stakeouts before she got a chance to prevent my first mugging… and I failed. She tripped on her way down a fire escape, but she didn’t give up. She did a sketch of the culprits and She made sure to commit their faces to memory. Later that month, She stopped a carjacking and recognized the tattoo on that guy’s neck. Borrowing her dad’s GCPD login credentials, She was able to gather that the tattoo belonged to the Badger Boulevard Ballers, a lower west side gang. So armed with this information and her unique brand of moxy, she paid the Ballers a visit.

She took a few lumps and maybe broke a rib or two, but she found that first victim’s wallet and returned it. It was a lot to go through for thirteen bucks and an expired gym membership card, but she was not going to let Batgirl start out as a joke. She believed in this… and it paid off. Her take down with the ballers caught the attention of a certain duo who started investigating her. She is a bit ashamed to say it took them three hours to figure out who she was. They paid her a visit in the middle of her patrol the next night. She still remembers the words of warning Batman gave her, “Stay out of this, Barbara”, he told her, she's sure in an effort to scare her… but Bruce didn’t know her then as much as he thought he did.

As her wounds mended, she set her sights on a new gang in town, calling themselves the Terrible Trio. While she was in the middle of my research during her lunch hour in the school library’s computer lab, a boy that didn’t go to her school slipped her a note and had her follow him to a chauffeured car in the parking lot where she met billionaire Bruce Wayne who told her that he was aware of my research and realized that she wasn’t going to quit. So he made her a deal. He’d give her a computer with unlimited access to finish her research, an armored costume, actual crimefighting training, and all she had to do was let my injuries heal completely before he would let her go out on patrol again. Longest five weeks of my life.

A few weeks later, she found an opportunity that would ultimately change my 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 had gotten word that someone was planning to crahs the event. 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.

She tackled Killer Moth in the hopes of rescuing Bruce Wayne from his clutches. What she realized but didn't tell him, 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 saw that Barbara had already beaten Killer Moth and knocked out all of his thugs.

Career as a Vigilante
As the past night proved, after she recovered from her beating, Batman kept his promise and not only did he officially endorse her for patrol duty, he even gave her a Kevlar bodysuit form-fitted to her dimensions. I’m not sure I want to know how he got it fit so right in some areas… Anyway! So, while Ishewas recovering, Bruce did let her take the Bat-Computer for a spin. He was really protective of his “baby” at first (and she doesn't blame him), but after he saw that she was the better hacker (he hated to admit it, it was a bitter pill for him to swallow), Bruce let her do the work on tracking down the Terrible Trio’s movements and wtheyfigured out they planned to make a heist at the Ace Chemicals plant. This was her first big team-up with Batman and Robin and they did kick some major teeth in! Yeah they beat up the Terrible Trio and apprehended them very quickly.

As Batgirl, Ishesaw a lot of action. The rise of many of Gotham's most notorious villains happened during her turn under the cowl, in what they called the “Long Halloween” (because it all started on Halloween night with Riddler and Mr. Freeze and kept going for several months like a parade of costumed freaks); She was present for Harvey Dent’s scarring and drastic shift into Two-Face; and she also got to join “the Super Friends” (what Supes called the “team” of him, Double Dubs, AM, Bats, Robin, and herself when they teamed up a few times before they discovered the Ultimen. Barbara also developed a close friendship with Supergirl.

Now for the twist, even though Ishewalked on the wild side, risking life and limb every night fighting ganglords and crocodile men, it was not being Batgirl that landed her where she is now. No, she was targeted by the Joker simply for being the daughter of Jim Gordon, Gotham’s top cop. Can you say irony?

Oracle: 2005- Present
Okay, yes… she is paralyzed. She lives her life in a wheelchair now, all because a madman shot her in a bid to drive her father insane. It nearly worked, to tell you the truth. Hell, it nearly drove her insane, too. But after Ishewas done feeling sorry for herself, She realized she had a lot of work to do. First thing to do was take care of herself. She needed help and admitting that was difficult. So, She got herself into some physical, occupational, and psychological therapy. With that underway, shestarted to work on getting the Dynamic Duo back together, Bruce and Dick had a falling out and since she was in a coma, Ishewas unable to talk some sense into them before they reached their breaking point. By the time she woke up, Dick was struggling with finding a new purpose in his life and Bruce was in a dark place. So first course of business, she helped get Dick set up as Nightwing, giving him a chance to carve his own path and step out of the shadow of the Bat, hoping that in so doing he would begin to see all that Bruce had offered him that he had been overlooking due to his rage.

With Dick taken care of, she then talked to Bruce, opening him up to the prospect of taking on a new Robin. she could not have predicted that he would choose a street-kid like Jason Todd to fill that void in his life, but to Batman’s credit, he saw what others never had seen in Jason before and was beginning to coax it out of the kid… and then the Joker broadcast his online torture and murder of Jason Todd and that’s when something happened that she could have never predicted… they were powerless to stop it. The Joker had devised a cyber-plot they were unprepared to handle, technologically and emotionally.

She knew the very moment she became Oracle, it was the moment she saw Jason’s blood dripping from his body. 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.

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).

Now, just Batman has his Gotham, She has the World-Wide-Web. Now, she is not just Bat-Girl in a wheelchair, she is a critical part of the entire “capes and tights” franchise as an integral part of the operations of not just Batman’s crusade, but also those of the Justice League, the Titans, and the Outsiders… but also the leader of her own team: The Birds of Prey.

The Black Mirror
Barbara's cousin and adoptive brother James Gordon, Jr. returned to Gotham after many years. Barbara told her father not to trust him because he was a psychopath. At the time, she was helping Grayson take down a new super-villain called the Dealer. Barbara first started distrusting her brother when he was implicated in the murder of her friend as a child. Oracle investigated the medicine James Jr. used to reduce his psychopathic tendencies, and discovered that he had reversed it to increase them. Commissioner Gordon deduced that his son was using connections with Leslie Thompkins to poison an infant nutrition plant and turn babies into psychopaths. When her step-mother Barbara was attacked with Joker Venom, Batman and the Commissioner went after Joker, while James Jr. kidnapped Oracle. James Jr. tried to murder her in a secluded place, but Batman and the Commissioner stopped him in time after Barbara stabbed him non-fatally through the eye.

An Arranged Marriage
While Barbara was on the phone to her mother she went silent. Determined to find out what happened she was contacted by who she thought was the Joker. The door then burst down and three of the Joker's thugs came in.

After dropping them (much to Alysia's shock) she was given the location of her mother by the would be Joker who revealed that he knew Barbara was the first Batgirl. She then travelled to the location that the Joker informed her of found her mother bound. It was at this time that Barbara realised the person on the phone wasn't the Joker as he revealed himself to be her brother James Jr.-escaped from Arkham. The Joker then revealed the severed ring finger of Barbara's mother and proposed with it. After being forced to accept the proposal by Joker she was given another location to be at within an allotted time.

After rendezvousing with Batman and the Robins Batman informed them that Joker had been gone for a year but had come back and slaughtered 19 police officers, he had then proceeded to commit crimes mirror several of his early crimes. He had also kidnapped Alfred and was torturing him, and had had his own face cut off by Dollmaker as a calling card for Batman. After fanning out to look for the Joker she received a message from Red Robin that the Joker had kidnapped him and that she should advice the Teen Titans on where to look. After doing that Barbara travelled to the church the Joker had instructed her to and he revealed his plan- to kill all of Batman's allies who were making him soft and weak. She was about to be killed when James Jr. walked in with a grenade telling her that their mother was free. This tipped the scales allowing Batgirl to beat the Joker, she was about to kill him when James Jr. knocked her out as he wanted her out the picture for his plans. When she woke she was at a dinner table with Alfred and the Robins. There Joker tried to convince Batman to give up on his family, not convinced, Batman broke free and defeated the Joker- seemingly killing him.

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 Red 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.

Metropolis
Having left Gotham, and after a temporary world trip with her team, Barbara relocated to Metropolis. She later became infected with an advanced virus delivered by Brainiac, which caused her to develop cyberpathic powers that allowed her to psychically interact with computer information systems. She lost these abilities, however, after the virus was rendered dormant. Following an operation by Doctor Mid-Nite, she discovered she could move her toes. However, this proved to be a short-lived effect, and Barbara remained paralyzed.

Although Barbara and Dick Grayson (now Nightwing) re-ignited their romance, Barbara ended the relationship when she felt Dick is being over-protective of her. In truth, the villain Blockbuster was attacking all areas of Dick's life. Barbara and Dick still loved each other and remained in each other's lives; after the destruction of Blüdhaven by The Society, Dick proposed and Barbara accepted.

However, their romance was cut short. Alexander Luthor's master plan to recreate the multiverse relied upon diverting the attention of the world's heroes. Dick was severely injured in the battle for Metropolis, but he had bigger problems on his plate.

Post-Infinite Crisis
After Bruce Wayne's apparent death, Barbara learned of Nightwing's hardships and visited him at his base in New York City, where she managed to break in and upgraded his security systems as a favor. Some time later, on her birthday, Dick took Barbara skydiving.

When Nightwing returned to Gotham, he summoned a group of heroes that would team up to maintain order in the city. Oracle returned to Gotham and resumed her position as the main informant for the Bat-Family, and her first act was the summoning of the Outsiders to Gotham. Later, she reported Arkham Asylum's destruction to Nightwing and also informed him about a mysterious assassin whose M.O. resembled that of Azrael. Oracle's surveillance system spotted this new Azrael and also a new vigilante acting as Batman. Later, she was able to locate Damian Wayne, allowing Nightwing to reach the boy's location

Having settled in a low-rent apartment, Barbara started searching for the fragments of the Anti-Life Equation and discovered that the Calculator was collecting them, hoping to save his dying daughter Wendy with it. Later, Oracle organized a plan of action when she uncovered a gambling rake by Hugo Strange, which she disabled with help from Batgirl, Huntress, Manhunter, Misfit and Ragman.

Hoping to stop the Calculator from getting the Anti-Life Equation, Oracle traveled to Hong Kong to steal Calculator's data by the means of an advanced supercomputer, but after getting the data, Calculator tracked her signal and almost destroyed her. Oracle returned to Gotham, where she managed to defeat Calculator, curing the Anti-Life Equation's fragments and she vowed to help Wendy, who had become paralyzed just like Barbara.

Barbara continued to lead the Birds of Prey and expanded the ranks of the operation. Black Canary left the team, having decided to devote herself to raising her adopted daughter, Sin. Huntress remained as the de facto field leader for the team, and Big Barda was brought in as the group's heavy-hitter alongside a larger, rotating roster.

Oracle and her team clashed with Barbara's childhood friend Katarina Armstrong, who had since become a government agent and adopted the alias Spy Smasher, who attempted to take over the Birds of Prey organization. After the completion of a mission in Russia in which the team rescued the resurrected Ice, Barbara challenged Spy Smasher to a hand-to-hand fight: the winner taking the Birds of Prey. Although Barbara won the fight, Spy Smasher reneged on the deal. Every agent Oracle had ever employed, male and female, appeared to provide support. Black Canary led the group and, deploying reason and threats, convinced Spy Smasher that the Birds of Prey could not exist without Oracle in charge. Spy Smasher was forced to admit defeat. Barbara later found Misfit, discovered she was an orphan and adopted her into the Birds of Prey.

Later, after discovering that Green Arrow had proposed to Black Canary, Oracle tried to talk Dinah out of the marriage, reminding her of all the times that Oliver hurt her. In the end, Dinah stated that her love for Oliver was too deep to just give up. Dinah then asked Oracle to be her maid of honor at the wedding, which Oracle agreed to do. Oracle was later contacted by Catwoman, who asked her for all the information available on Thomas Elliot's bank accounts and Oracle provided the information without hesitation.

Batgirl Rising
Working with Leslie Thompkins, Barbara began to mentor the Calculator's daughter, Wendy, who had become crippled following an attack at the Titans Tower, which took the life of her brother Marvin. It came to Barbara's attention (thanks to Dick Grayson) that Cassandra Cain had once again stepped down from the role of Batgirl, having been replaced by Stephanie Brown. Still seeing Stephanie as an impulsive young girl, Barbara tried to talk her out of being Batgirl. When a new recreational drug known as "Thrill" hit the streets of Gotham, Barbara and Stephanie worked together to stop the drug trade which they discovered was being run by Scarecrow and Black Mask. After Stephanie defeated Scarecrow and proved her worth and maturity, Barbara gave Stephanie an unused Batgirl costume that was supposedly designed for Barbara. Barbara also accepted a new job as an assistant professor at Gotham University.

Blackest Night
When Green Lantern crashed into the Batsignal after a fight with the Black Lantern Martian Manhunter, Barbara and Commissioner Gordon were both present. After sending Green Lantern's intel of the Black Lanterns to every superhero community across the planet, the Gordons found themselves being attacked by the original Dark Knight's deceased rogue gallery members, who were all reanimated by the Black Lantern Corps. Barbara and her father were forced to fight for their lives as they witnessed the Black Lanterns massacring everyone on sight at Gotham Central. During the crisis, Barbara was possessed by Deadman, channeling Barbara's athletic capability to save Commissioner Gordon from the reanimated King Snake and the Trigger Twins. After being rescued by Batman, Robin, and Red Robin, the Gordons and their saviors were later attacked by Batman and Red Robin's parents, the reanimated Graysons and the Drakes. While Grayson and Drake battled the Black Lanterns, Robin took the Gordons to their underground base where Alfred tended to their wounds.

Return of Bruce Wayne
A new vigilante appeared in Gotham, the Insider, whom Oracle learned of when Batgirl confronted him stealing from WayneTech. Oracle tried to prevent further encounters against him and shortly after this, Barbara was interrogated about Batman by Vicki Vale, who had managed to discover their secret identities.

Barbara avoided giving Vale a straight answer and a few days later she was contacted by Insider, who informed Oracle that many criminals were on the lookout for Vale and her information. Oracle helped Insider rescue Vale from an attack by Penguin's mercenaries and later she discovered that the criminal after Vale was Ra's al Ghul. Oracle organized a few members of the Bat-Family to protect Vicki from the incoming threat of the Seven Men of Death, and during the battle she deduced that Insider was, in fact, Bruce Wayne, who had somehow returned from the dead.

Abilities

 * Archery
 * Computer Hacking: As Oracle, Barbara is an expert computer hacker. With her computer hacking skills, she is able to breach the highest security systems. Her skills are rivaled by none.
 * Computer Operation: Barbara is extremely proficient with computers. She is by far the most computer literate of the Bat-family, and one of the most efficient users of computers worldwide.
 * Dance
 * Firearms: Her dad used to take her shooting a lot. Since there were guns in the house, he and her mother felt it was important that she knew that they were not a toy, but a tool. Bruce had a hang-up with guns but he still felt it was important she learn to operate and dismantle them as a means of understanding how to defeat them. After the Joker paralyzed her with a gun, her dad insisted she keep a gun on her and in her house in case the clown ever returned to finish her off. She is a skilled markswoman and she does not share Bruce's view on these weapons, if someone threatens her or her loved ones and there's a gun handy, she will end them.
 * Forensics:
 * Genius Level Intellect: Barbara is shown to have a naturally high intelligence.
 * Business Management: Barbara is head of her own green energy company.
 * Eidetic Memory: Barbara can recall anything she sees.
 * Multilingualism: In addition to English, Barbara is fluent in Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese
 * Gymnastics
 * Historiography: Holds a Ph.D. in History.
 * Hypnosis: Batgirl learned hypnosis methods by reading several books on the subject.
 * Indomitable Will
 * Information Brokering: She has formed connections with numerous different superhero teams and individuals, often times assisting them when they require information and reference. She has a massive database on various costumed crusaders and criminals alike, utilizing the information she has attained in her investigations, as well as being an integral part in the operations of well over three hundred other crimefighters.
 * Interrogation
 * Intimidation
 * Investigation: Trained by Batman himself, Barbara is on a team of the world's greatest detectives.
 * Law: Barbara took a correspondence course in law obtaining a Juris Doctor degree which allowed her to sit for a state's bar exam, leading to a license to practice law. After getting the basic degree, she took an extension course in Harvard University, earning a Master Degree of Laws.
 * Leadership
 * Library Science: Few people know that she is Doctor Barbara Gordon thanks to correspondence courses which she used to attain her doctorate in Library Science. At one point in her life, she wanted to be a librarian so this was more or less her simply letting the Joker not take another thing from her.
 * Lock Picking: Batgirl is skillful at manipulating locks. She keeps at least one lockpick hidden in the lining of her cape.
 * Martial Arts: Barbara is a trained martial artist. She was trained by Kung Fu master Richard Dragon who helped Barbara hone her martial prowess during a time when he too was using a wheelchair.
 * Boxing
 * Jujutsu
 * Karate
 * Dragon Style Kung Fu
 * Judo
 * Eskrima
 * Muay Thai
 * Tae Kwon Do
 * Sensitivity
 * Stealth: More or less, she was a ninja. She still can be if you give her a second to spray some WD-40 on her wheels.
 * Political Science: 
 * Psychology: Barbara holds a degree in Forensic Psychology.
 * Throwing: Batgirl is accomplished at throwing Batarangs
 * Weaponry: She keeps a loaded sidearmsand a pair of escrima sticks stored in the armrests of her wheelchair as a contingency.

Weaknesses

 * Restricted Mobility: Barbara Gordon was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by the Joker, and uses a wheelchair.

Paraphernalia

 * Utility Belt: As Batgirl, her equipment included Batarangs, smoke bombs, a grappling hook, and some other gadgets.
 * Cowl Lenses: As Batgirl, Barbara could press a button on her cowl which put various lenses over her eyes. She had a clear lens, a telescopic-vision lens, a microscopic-vision lens, a thermal lens, and a multi-light tracer lens. The multi-light tracer device had eventually replaced her Batcycle's function.
 * Batcycle: As Batgirl, Barbara Gordon rides a specially modified motorcycle, with a built-in crime-detection lab.
 * Batrope
 * Batarangs

Trivia

 * Her favorite colors are green and purple.
 * She takes my coffee with amaretto creamer.
 * Her favorite drinks are water with lemon (boring, I know) and if I'm in need of alcohol you can't go wrong with sex on the beach.
 * Her all-time favorite meal has to be her mom's salmon with lemon, mashed potatoes, and vegetable medley... though Dick does a pretty good job at replicating this.
 * Her favorite guilty-pleasure snack food has got to be popcorn drenched in butter... or maybe a simple snickerdoodle cookie.
 * Barbara likes to refer to herself as a "ginger goddess", is extremely competitive with other computer experts (such as Kara Zor-El, Felicity Smoak, or Tim Drake), and is prone to saying "kick in their teeth" which she describes as her favorite part of being Batgirl.
 * Her friends point out that she's got some sort of issue with Koriand'r. That's simply not the case... at least anymore. She's made peace with her feelings about her. Barbara won. There's no problems between them... well, except for the fact that she went all turncoat and joined up with that traitorous Helena.
 * Oracle joined the Justice League in 2017 nominated by Batman.
 * She tried to record her first visit to the Batcave. Batman quickly discovered it and took the recorder.
 * She likes to play video games and is always destroyed in multiplayer by Audrey Spears.
 * There have been numerous attempts to fix Oracle's legs so she can walk again. Simon LaGrieve once mentioned that they couldn't use the brace used by Ravan because part of her spine is missing and there's been extensive neurological damage. Several surgeries have restored some sexual function and waster control, but so far nothing hasn't been able to restore motor function to her legs.
 * While she was infected with the Brainiac virus she had cyberpathic powers and could psychically interact with computer systems.
 * Barbara's online screen name is MarpleMiss99.