nature boy

From Leviathan Strikes! Oneshot by Grant Morrison (2011).

Such a great concept for Barbara Gordon that is ultimately WASTED by DC Comics. For his Batman Inc. concept Grant  Morrison revamped the disabled hacker Oracle into the DC’s version of a “Ghost In The Machine” having her now able to physically dive into the net. Just like Major Motoko Kusanagi of Ghost In The Shell, complete with this amazingly designed net avatar.

Suddenly her disability isn’t an issue (though still existent in the real world) and for the first time in twenty-two years, Barbara Gordon wears a costume, and one that isn’t Batgirl.

This should have been the compromise between Barbara Gordon as Batgirl fans and those that preferred her as Oracle as well as fans of the Batgirl as a legacy mantle. The reboot stripped the mantle from the fourth(ish) and somewhat cult favorite Batgirl since 2009, Stephanie Brown (set to return to her first hero mantle the Spoiler), and gave the mantle back to a de-aged and walking again (due to a clinic in South Africa) Barbara.

Why I like this instead of what DC has done and what was before is that it is something that is both Batgirl and Oracle and yet, is also neither. Oracle as a “costumed” field agent. But not. Hacker. But not.

While the internet has these days lost most of the “mysterious” Tron novelty it had when Oracle was first introduced in 1989, for me as a writer, the idea of Barbara pulling the plug on Oracle’s vastness as an internet “entity” and deus ex machina plot device is entirely okay. The ‘Death of Oracle’ storyline is fine in that respect.

Instead she works covert, focusing her work via this digital avatar, acting like a debugger, antivirus and or virus in herself. Again, the Major. Instead of seeing Oracle at her desk blowing up a compound in North Korea with the click of a button, we instead see a personified version of her performing that task herself. Add the ability to jump into cybernetic bodies and tech in the real world, and you have a ton of story possibilities. I always thought having Barbara suit up into a cybernetic suit in the real world would also be a possibility, and still be disabled too. You can work around problems, but lazy writing did turn Oracle into a stale character.

Listen to the authority in her voice here. The power Barbara Gordon has. It doesn’t matter how old she is, this person has authority.

She no longer has that power with the “reboot”, and has post time and space hiccup been stripped of her experience down to a wishy-washy Stephanie Brown (or worse her 70’s self) redeux minus either Stephanie’s or Barbara’s endearing qualities, a severe lack of confidence (to be expected), constant ptsd from getting crippled by The Joker, and a psychological thrill-seeking “I need to do this just to prove that I can, here’s a lock of my hair to remember me by in case I die” attitude, nothing short of a death wish. And not even a death wish akin to Cassandra Cain Batgirl, who was so devoted to “justice” and saving people that she’d do anything to save people, even if it meant her dying. Barbara’s drive is in opposition, entirely selfish. Is she really doing this to save people? Or just to prove to herself that she can.

She’s been returned to her basic elements of her character from the 1960’s, which was a thrill-seeker and a “prove Daddy (and myself) wrong/won’t I surprise him!” sort of mentality who happened to enjoy beating people up. And had photographic memory.  Something that comes off as neurotic and far more selfish and shades of grey these days, the latter of which I like, as it shows she’s not 100% and the new Batgirl book shows that quite upfront. Broken people are Gail Simone’s strength and I give her plenty of praise for that aspect. 

I feel DC really did miss the ball with this new look and purpose for Barbara. She could go from hacker to more of really an e-terrorist. Plus it would make fun art showing holograms of her on people’s wristwatch communicators and the like.

As a writer I would have really enjoyed tinkering with the idea of Oracle being a figure in the net literally. Part of me almost wishes that an accident happened and Barbara was sucked into/fused with the net and lost her body completely. Then disabled or not disabled wouldn’t even be an issue. She’d  find ultimate “freedom”. But the fact she was disabled even after she “unplugs” at the end of the day is also extremely dual and sobering.

This was a fresh take and way to utilize her and to see DC ignore what Morrison was trying to build for her and instead shoehorn her back into Batgirl boots just because she was the most “iconic” is complete hogwash. Merchandise driven: yes. Good fiction writing; probably not.

Sure it’s making money upfront now…but how long before the novelty of Barbara Gordon walking again after twenty two years, my whole life, wears off and the book becomes just another Bat-book? Was the sacrifice of both Oracle and Stephanie Brown’s Batgirl (regardless if the latter had an ongoing comic) in that case worth it?