Best Supporting Character - Eagle Awards 2000

The Barbara Gordon Batgirl first appeared in Detective Comics #359, originally she was the daughter of James Gordon. Barbara's origin was rewritten in Secret Origins #20 (1987) to make James Gordon her uncle who adopted her after her parents dies in a car crash. Barbara Gordon's Batgirl was not a particularly interesting character; it took for her to give up the costume and develop her new role and make her both interesting and popular, hence the above award.

Barbara Gordon had already decided to retire from being Batgirl when she opened the front door to find the Joker standing there in The Killing Joke. Babs is one of the rare cases in comics where the consequences have turned out to be long lasting. I can't be certain when Barbara found out that Bruce Wayne was batman, although like most people it would probably have been by finding out that Dick Grayson was Robin, but she certainly knew that he was Batman during The Killing Joke. Alan Moore is thought by many to be the finest writer working in mainstream comics and The Killing Joke is his take on Batman's relationship with The Joker. It told us more than we'd ever known about The Joker and showed just how terrifying he could be. In order to prove that any man is just a bad day away from insanity, The Joker shot Barbara Gordon permanently damaging her spine, kidnapped her father and brutalised him by showing him graphic pictures of the damage that had been to her. Neither James nor Barbara Gordon broke under the psychological onslaught.

Comics are notorious for reversing the irreversible; how many characters have come back after being declared dead; Batman came back from having his back broken by Bane. While Barbara has never recovered from her injuries, there is supposed to be a piece of her spine missing, it has forced the writers to develop her in a new direction.

I'm not aware of many stories having been written about how Barbara came to terms with her injuries and developed her new persona, although Oracle initially made her mark with the Suicide Squad, a government sanctioned covert organisation consisting of criminals. Oracle did get a Year One story in The Batman Chronicles #5 in which she received training in self-defence from Richard Dragon to enable her to protect herself, and to help her accept her situation.

"You have lost nothing that matters. You have everything you need. Everything before leads up to now and now leads to what shall be." Oracle to Batgirl, dream sequence, Oracle: Year One - Born of Hope

Ever since Oracle became an integral member of the Bat family her role has kept on increasing in importance not just to the Bat family but to the entire DCU. The role of communications and information provider should never be underestimated in these days when everyone seems to need to be in permanent contact. When the decision was taken to enlarge the JLA Batman put Oracle forward to carry out the same role for them. Unlike every other member of the JLA Oracle's membership has to be kept secret; there are obviously rumours circulating the DCU about Oracle because Catwoman knew that she existed before she spoke to her (See Birds of Prey: Manhunt mini-series) and Blockbuster is also aware of her. Outside of the Bat family and the JLA very few people are supposed to know that Oracle exists at all and no-one outwith the Bat family can be allowed to know her real identity.

Since Birds of Prey started Oracle has taken a more active role in the DCU outside of Gotham, utilising the services of a number of agents. It remains unknown how many agents oracle uses; other than Black Canary the only agent that we can be certain of is Power Girl. Oracle can, though, call on any member of the JLA for assistance should their services be required.

Babs is benefited from Chuck Dixon writing Birds of Prey. Barbara and Dick's relationship has been gradually developing, while they may have been attracted to each other for some time very little had been said about it until BoP #8 in which Dick takes the former Batgirl out "flying" again.

Throughout 1999 Barbara had the role of occasional narrator of No Man's Land. NML has of course seen the introduction of a new Batgirl...much to her dismay.

Barbara Gordon: "Did you think that I wouldn't find out? Did you think that I honestly wouldn't care? Someone else is out there, being me. How dare you! How dare you do this to me!"
Batman: "You know it wasn't as simple as that."
BG: "NO! No I don't know! I know only that some other woman is out there -- some other woman that isn't me! Some other woman with my legs...my identity...my job!" Detective Comics #732

Barbara was unaware that there was a new Batgirl in town and the scene in which she confronts Batman about there being a new Batgirl is one of the high-points of NML. With this in mind I find it surprising that after it Batman confronts Huntress about masquerading as Batgirl, that Babs is so quick to propose one of her couriers as a new Batgirl. Maybe she has come to the realisation that if there is going to be a new Batgirl then she should be the one to make the decision.