"portrayals) has been heavily criticized as ""cheap, misogynistic writing"". Rosario Dawson voiced Barbara Gordon in ""The LEGO Batman Movie"". This incarnation is the new Police Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department after her father retires. But when the Joker causes chaos around the city and releases a few major non-DC comics villains from the Phantom Zone, Barbara helps Batman, Robin, and Alfred recapture the villains, and later on after she and the gang team up with the original Joker Gang, Barbara becomes Batgirl. Her Batgirl costume is purple with gold accents to reflect the costume from the '60s TV"
"television series, DC editorial was approached about adding a female character back into the Batman family. Revising the character history and motivation, Julius Schwartz created Barbara Gordon. This character held the role of Batgirl from 1967 to 1988 when she was retired by DC editorial decision. The character's role was changed to a paraplegic source of information for all members of the Batman family and codenamed ""Oracle"". She was later restored as Batgirl during The New 52 relaunch of the entire DC publication line in 2011. During the """" storyline, Cassandra Cain was given the role of Batgirl under the"
"her own TV show."" Yvonne Craig portrayed the character in the show's third season. Barbara Gordon and alter ego Batgirl debuted in ""Detective Comics"" #359, ""The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl"" (1967). In the debut story, while driving to a costume ball dressed as a female version of Batman, Barbara Gordon intervenes in a kidnapping attempt on Bruce Wayne by the super villain Killer Moth, attracting Batman's attention and leading to a crime-fighting career. Although Batman insists she give up crime-fighting because of her gender, Batgirl disregards his objections. In her civilian identity, Dr. Barbara Gordon Ph.D. is depicted as"
"a career woman with a doctorate in library science, as well as being head of Gotham City public library, ""presumably one of the largest public libraries in the DC Comics version of reality."" She was given a regular backup slot in ""Detective Comics"" starting with issue #384 (February 1969), alternating issues with Robin until issue #404, after which she had the backup slot to herself. Frank Robbins wrote nearly all of these backups, which were penciled first by Gil Kane and later by Don Heck. Barbara Gordon’s Batgirl exceeded the earlier Bat-Girl and Batwoman characters in popularity, and readers requested"
"Yale and Ostrander oversaw the development of Barbara Gordon's new persona as Oracle for the next several years. The character made her first comic book appearance as Oracle in ""Suicide Squad"" #23, anonymously offering her services to the government's Task Force X. In the following two years, Oracle, under pen of Ostrander and Yale, made guest appearances in various DC titles until her identity was revealed to be Barbara Gordon in ""Suicide Squad"" #38 (1990) and she officially becomes a member of the Squad in issue #48 following an invitation from Amanda Waller. In 1992, Dennis O'Neil wrote Oracle as"
"appears as the radio guide alongside Alfred Pennyworth, as they both serve as Batman's guides in the sequel, """". A teenage Barbara also appears in the prequel """", voiced by Kelsey Lansdowne. In the 2008 live-action film, ""The Dark Knight"", a very young Barbara Gordon is depicted. She is credited as ""Gordon's Daughter"", while the name ""Barbara Gordon"" is reserved for Commissioner Gordon's wife. She also acts as the primary contact for hero characters as Oracle in ""DC Universe Online"", voiced by Katherine Catmull for the PC and the PlayStation 3. She assists the player through the tutorial and will"
"featured alternate versions of the character. Barbara Gordon, as both Batgirl and Oracle, has made several appearances in ""Elseworlds"" comics since 1997. The ""Elseworlds"" imprint takes the company's iconic characters and places them in alternate timelines, places and events making heroes ""as familiar as yesterday seem as fresh as tomorrow."" The character is given starring roles in the noir-style storyline ""Thrillkiller: Batgirl & Robin"" (1997), its sequel ""Batgirl + Batman: Thrillkiller '62"" (1998), and the one-shot comic """" (1998), all of which depict worlds where Barbara is Gotham's first bat-themed hero (Bruce Wayne is a police detective who becomes Batman"
"on Earth until after Gordon has established herself as Oracle, and many of the adventures she shared with Batgirl are retroactively described as having been experienced by Power Girl. In ""Secret Origins"" #20 (1987), Barbara Gordon's origin is rebooted by author Barbara Randal. Within the storyline, Gordon recounts the series of events that lead to her career as Batgirl, including her first encounter with Batman as a child, studying martial arts under the tutelage of a sensei, memorizing maps and blue prints of the city, excelling in academics in order to skip grades, and pushing herself to become a star"
"all their monthly publications during The New 52 relaunch. In the revised continuity, Barbara Gordon recovers from her paralysis following a surgical procedure and stars in the relaunched ""Batgirl"" series as the titular character. These changes were retained as part of the 2016 DC Rebirth event. As Batgirl, Barbara Gordon has been adapted into various media relating to the Batman franchise, including television, film, animation, video games, and other merchandise. The character's popularity from adaptations factored into the decision to have her return to the comics, and Dan DiDio, co-publisher of DC Comics, expressed that she is the best-known version"
"portrayal of women in comics, commentary on Barbara Gordon's Batgirl has focused on her character's connection to the women's liberation movement, doctoral degree and career as a librarian, while analysis of Cassandra Cain's Batgirl has focused on the character's double minority status as a woman and a person of color. Since her debut in DC Comics publication, and fueled by her adaptation into the ""Batman"" television series in 1967, Barbara Gordon's Batgirl has been listed among fictional characters that are regarded as cultural icons. Author Brian Cronin, in ""Was Superman A Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed"" (2009) notes"
"of debate among comic book writers, artists, editors and readership. Viewpoints range from sexism in comic books, to the limited visibility of disabled characters and the practicality of disabilities existing in a fictional universe where magic, technology, and medical science exceed the limitations of the real world. As both Batgirl and Oracle, Barbara Gordon has been featured in various adaptations related to the Batman franchise, including television, film, animation, video games, and other merchandise. The character has been portrayed by Yvonne Craig and Dina Meyer and has been voiced by Melissa Gilbert, Tara Strong, Danielle Judovits, Alyson Stoner, Mae Whitman,"
"generation of readership. According to Dan DiDio, ""These books are created to literally reach the widest audience possible, and not just the comic book audience, but anyone who has ever wanted to read or see anything about Superman or Batman."" Barbara Gordon appears in the fifth issue of the comic book continuation of the television series ""Smallville"". In ""Smallville Season Eleven,"" she is Nightwing in this continuity instead of Batgirl or Oracle. She does however, joke about her mainstream code name, stating that she chose Nightwing instead because she hated how Batgirl sounded. She later introduces her boyfriend Richard ""Dick"""
"that following her 1967 debut, ""Batgirl was soon popular enough to appear regularly over the next two decades and Yvonne Craig certainly made an impression on many viewers with her one season portraying young Ms. Gordon."" In 2011, IGN ranked Barbara Gordon 17th in the Top 100 Comic Books Heroes. Cassandra Cain's Batgirl has become one of the most prominent Asian characters to appear in American comic books, and her understated sexuality is notable as being contrary to the common sexual objectification of female characters, especially those of Asian descent. In ""The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of"
"Barbara Gordon as Batgirl have appeared in storylines published in and out of mainstream continuity titles. Variants of the character within continuity often appear in stories which involve time travel, such as the crossover limited series ""Zero Hour: Crisis in Time"", a follow-up story preceded by the 1985 limited series ""Crisis on Infinite Earths"" which altered mainstream continuity. Notable imprints of DC Comics such as ""Elseworlds"" and ""All Star DC Comics"" have also featured alternate versions of the character. The ""Elseworlds"" imprint takes the company's iconic characters and places them in alternate timelines, places and events making heroes ""as familiar"
"the years and one of them was Barbara Gordon, who called herself Batgirl."" As Batman and Batgirl continued to fight the Joker for control of the city, the battle came to an end with Joker's loss. However, the Joker swore revenge not on Batman himself, but on those he loved. While a hit-man was sent to murder Catwoman, the Joker, in a scene adapted directly from """", guns down Barbara at her apartment. With Gordon paralyzed and Kyle dead, Batman abandons Gotham never to be seen again. Seven years later, in the present day, Barbara Gordon has now become ""Oracle"""
"with her husband, fellow comic writer John Ostrander. Rather than allow the character to fall into obscurity, the two decided to revive her as a character living with a disability—the information broker, Oracle. Eleven years after the editorial retirement of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, a new version of the character was introduced in ""Batman: Shadow of the Bat"" #83 during the multi-title story arc ""No Man's Land"" (1999). In """" #120 (1999), the new Batgirl is revealed to be Helena Bertinelli, an established DC comics superhero alternatively known as the Huntress. Bertinelli is eventually forced to abandon the mantle by"
"Psylocke in The Uncanny X-Men (as well as his work on Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, Misty Knight and Coleen Wing) became known in the industry and amongst fandom as ""Claremont Women"": smart, powerful, capable, multi-faceted women super heroes. During the events of Alan Moore's iconic work """", Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl is crippled by the Joker. She eventually made the best of her situation to become Oracle, a vital information broker for the DC Universe's superhero community who also leads her own superhero team, the Birds of Prey. In the 90s, a popular feminist comic book girl was Tank Girl (by"
"small firearms, and batarangs; she customarily keeps a pair of eskrima sticks stored in the armrests of her wheelchair as a contingency. In the revised continuity of The New 52, she reflects on the fact that she has been taking self-defense training since age six in ""Batgirl"" #0 (2012). Gordon is written as having a genius-level intellect and naturally possessing a photographic memory. She is described by Gail Simone as the most intelligent member of the Batman family and among all characters having operated out of Gotham City. Prior to the character's career as a vigilante, Barbara Gordon developed many"
"1987 in the ""New America"" limited series, a spin-off of Timothy Truman's ""Scout"" series published by Eclipse Comics. She married fellow comics creator, and frequent collaborator, John Ostrander the same year. Yale and Ostrander developed the character of Barbara Gordon into Oracle, and wrote her origin in the short story ""Oracle: Year One"" published in ""The Batman Chronicles"" #5 (Summer 1996). The two co-wrote ""Manhunter"", a series which DC launched in the wake of the ""Millennium"" crossover. Their collaboration on ""Suicide Squad"" included the ""Janus Directive"" storyline in issues #27–30 and the creation of the character Dybbuk in issue #45"
"a pre-existing condition as part of their origin myth, ""[a]s Oracle... Gordon stands tall as the most empowering disabled superhero. Readers witnessed her tragedy, and watched her rise above it."" James B. South's chapter ""Barbara Gordon and Moral Perfectionism"" in the 2004 book ""Superheroes and Philosophy"" analyzes how the changes in her life ""from librarian to Batgirl to Oracle"" drive her to pursue a higher self, illustrating the philosophical theory of moral perfectionism. Portrayed by Yvonne Craig, the character's first adaptation outside of comic books took place in the third season of ""Batman"" (1967). Les Daniels, in ""Batman: The Complete"
"former Batgirl Barbara Gordon using an updated version of the character's original costume, with red accents in place of the traditional yellow. However, since Gordon served as one of a very small number of disabled superheroes of DC Comics as Oracle, DC's editorial staff decided to revitalize the original Batwoman instead. In an interview with Newsarama, Ross states ""They had me change the mask and hair to make it a bit more Batwoman, rather than Batgirl...I pointed out to them that the mask makes her look like the Huntress a little overall—but there weren't many options. The original mask that"
"broke hers when she was ambushed in her home and shot in the spine by the Joker, never given a chance to fight]. Less than a year later, Batman was fine. Batgirl—now named Oracle—was in a wheelchair and remained so for many years."" In ""Superheroes and Superegos: Analyzing the Minds Behind the Masks"" (2010), author Sharon Packer wrote that ""[a]nyone who feels that feminist critics overreacted to [Gordon's] accident is advised to consult the source material"", calling the work ""sadistic to the core"". Brian Cronin noted that ""[many] readers felt the violence towards Barbara Gordon was too much, and even"
"Barbara Shelley Barbara Shelley (born Barbara T. Kowin; 13 February 1932) is a retired English film and television actress. She was at her busiest in the late 1950s (""Blood of the Vampire"") and 1960s when she became Hammer Horror's No. 1 female star, with ""The Gorgon"" (1964), """" (1966), ""Rasputin, the Mad Monk"" (1966), and ""Quatermass and the Pit"" (1967) among her credits. She also appeared in ""Village of the Damned"" (1960). Although she is known as a scream queen, her most famous scream (in the aforementioned Dracula film) was dubbed by co-star Suzan Farmer. Her television appearances include the"
"Claire Gordon Claire Gordon (16 January 1941 – 13 April 2015) was an English film actress and comedian known for leading and cameo roles in many British films from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, and for working with most of the television comedy stars of that time. She was best known for her leading roles in the cult films ""Konga"" and ""Beat Girl"", Gordon became the subject of singer Scott Walker's song ""Archangel"". Gordon was born in Cambridge, in England. Her father was a doctor and her mother a make-up artist who worked for Max Factor. After being photographed"
"(1988) built on the Joker's 1951 origin story, portraying him as a failed comedian pressured into committing crime as the Red Hood to support his pregnant wife. Batman's interference causes him to leap into a chemical vat, which disfigures him. This, combined with the trauma of his wife's earlier accidental death, causes him to go insane and become the Joker. However, the Joker says that this story may not be true, as he prefers his past to be ""multiple choice"". In this graphic novel, the Joker shoots and paralyzes Barbara Gordon and tortures her father, Commissioner James Gordon, to prove"
"Batgirl. In the film ""Batman & Robin"", Alicia Silverstone played a variation of the character: Barbara Wilson, Alfred Pennyworth's niece. She appears in ""The Lego Batman Movie"" voiced by Rosario Dawson. The character is introduced as Barbara Gordon taking over from her father Jim Gordon to become the new Police Commissioner of Gotham. Towards the end of the film, she dons her cowl and teams up with Batman as Batgirl in addition to her role as Commissioner. In addition to live-action television and animation, the character has appeared in a number of video games included in the Batman franchise. She"
"same things guys could do, and sometimes better. I think that’s lovely."" During the early 1970s, Craig portrayed Batgirl once again in a public service announcement to advocate equal pay for women. Since ""Batman"", the character has had a long history of appearances in television and other media. As Batgirl, Barbara Gordon plays a supporting role in a string of animated series, voiced by Jane Webb in ""The Batman/Superman Hour"" (1968), Melendy Britt in ""The New Adventures of Batman"" (1977), Melissa Gilbert in """" (1992), Tara Strong in ""The New Batman Adventures"" (1997), Danielle Judovits in ""The Batman"" (2004), and"
"with Nightwing as strenuous. The episode ""Over the Edge"" also implies this as Nightwing states that he ""can't believe it ended like this for us or Barbara"". The episode ""Girls' Night Out"" establishes Batgirl and Supergirl (Kara Kent) as close friends. Along with all other characters in the series, Barbara's civilian and superhero identity were redesigned. Her Batgirl costume was changed to a black body suit with yellow gloves, boots, bat-symbol and utility belt to match her original comic book design seen in ""Detective Comics"" #359. In the movie """", Barbara Gordon appears briefly when she calls Bruce Wayne to"
"character, even in light of requests from readers who also had disabilities that wished to see the character healed. However, part of her reasoning for reversing her decision and writing ""Batgirl"" with Gordon as the title character was that ""[a]rms and legs get ripped off, and they grow back, somehow. Graves don't stay filled. But the one constant is that Barbara stays in that chair. Role model or not, that is problematic and uncomfortable, and the excuses to not cure her, in a world of purple rays and magic and super-science, are often unconvincing or wholly meta-textual. And the longer"
"Stephanie Brown, made the DC Universe less diverse and inclusive. Responding to the criticism, ""Catwoman"" writer Judd Winick explained that it was DC that desired this tone for that book. In June 2011, DC announced that Barbara Gordon would be returning to the role of Batgirl in September 2011, in her own eponymous monthly comic, as part of a company-wide relaunch of all of their titles. In addition, former ""Birds of Prey"" writer Gail Simone would be writing the series. This announcement became one of the most controversial aspects of the DC Comics relaunch. Supporters of Barbara Gordon in her"
"Batgirl. She even gained her own title, Birds of Prey, about her and a group of superhero operatives she organizes[.]"" The character has been the subject of analysis in academia, regarding the portrayal of women, librarians, and disabled people in mainstream media. Throughout the course of the character's history, Barbara Gordon's intelligence has been one of her defining attributes. According to ""BusinessWeek"", she is listed as one of the top ten most intelligent fictional superheroes appearing in American comics, and is the only female character to appear on the list. In 2011, Barbara Gordon was ranked 17th in both IGN's"
"Batwoman had become popular with readers, editor Julius Schwartz considered the heroine, as well as other Batman-related characters, to be inappropriate for the new direction he planned to take the Batman universe. Following the revamp to ""Detective Comics"" in 1964, Batwoman was removed from the series. The 'new' Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, not only replaced Batwoman as Batman's female counterpart, she surpassed the original heroine in popularity. Batgirl also proved to be more appropriate for her time period and the realistic approach DC Comics began taking with its characters. Unlike Batwoman, Gordon's Batgirl used a utility belt and various gadgets similar"
"1964, Schwartz was made responsible for reviving the faded Batman titles. Writer John Broome and artist Infantino jettisoned the sillier aspects that had crept into the series (such as Ace the Bathound, and Bat-Mite) and gave the ""New Look"" Batman and Robin a more detective-oriented direction and sleeker draftsmanship that proved a hit combination. Other features and characters Infantino drew at DC include ""The Space Museum"", and Elongated Man. With Gardner Fox, Infantino co-created the Blockbuster in ""Detective Comics"" #345 (Nov. 1965) and Barbara Gordon as a new version of Batgirl in ""Detective Comics"" #359 (Jan. 1967). Writer Arnold Drake"