Origin – Early Career

Barbara Gordon is the daughter of Gotham Police Commissioner James Gordon. Barbara started her crime fighting career as Batgirl when she was on her way to a costume ball dressed as a female Batman. Barbara accidentally stumbles on an attempt to kidnap Batman by Killer Moth.

Eventually Barbara would reveal her secret identity to her father, James Gordon. However, he had already discovered his daughter’s alter ego on his own. Barbara would give up her career as Batgirl to pursue politics. Batgirl would be brought back in Superman comics when she was set up as a blind date for Clark Kent. They developed a great friendship and also fought along side each other.

It's just one of those days...

While Barbara was still into politics, she (as Batgirl) would eventually team up with Robin(Dick Grayson). Dick worked for Barbara and was her intern during the summers. He had a crush on her but she was currently dating a Senator. Eventually they would both discover each other’s alter-ego and continue fighting crime together. Batgirl has also teamed up with Supergirl many times, and the two have become close friends.

Retconned after Crisis on Infinite Earths

Batgirl

Barbara Gordon’s back story was changed after Crisis on Infinite Earths. She was now the daughter of Roger and Thelma Gordon. Jim Gordon was Roger’s brother and Barbara’s uncle. Her mother and aunt were killed in a car accident because of her father’s drinking. He bad become a heavy drinker and started taking his aggression out on Barbara, eventually died from too much alcohol and self-abuse. Jim would adopt Barbara to live with him, his wife also named Barbara, and his son in Gotham City. At first Jim and Barbara did not get along, but with time they grew close. However when Batman discovered a letter that Barbara had been keeping in a safe, it reveals that Barbara knew that Jim had been dating her mother before she married Roger and that there is a chance that Jim is her biological father. She also says that she does not want to confront him with this because it might not be true.

Batgirl is now in Gotham

Barbara was a gifted child and she quickly became a skilled martial artist and graduated High School at an early age. She had always wanted to work in law enforcement but Jim disapproved of this saying she did not meet the height requirements and she needed a less dangerous life. She applied to the FBI but was dismissed because her body was not physically built for the job.

Operating as Oracle now

She became angered at her father’s disapproval of her wanting to go into law enforcement that she crashed the Gotham City Police Department annual ball dressed as a female Batman. Coincidentally Killer Moth attempted a robbery at the ball and this helped launch Batgirl’s career. Batman and Robin would take her in and help train her. Also, Dick and Barbara had also been dating for a long time already. With Supergirl’s origin being retconned, her early adventures with Supergirl was changed into adventures with Power Girl.

Oracle

Barbara as Oracle

Barbara was soon paralyzed by the Joker in The Killing Joke storyline. Joker wanting to kill the commissioner knocked on Gordon’s door and Barbara was the one to answer it. He shot her immediately going from her waist and piercing through to her spine, ending her costumed career forever. Her paralysis caused her to go into depression that she could no longer help people in need. Eventually she realized that with her wide variety of skills including photographic memory, computer knowledge, hacker skills, and with all the technology in the world, she could help fight crime in a different way.

Barbara then adopts the code name Oracle and continues to help law enforcements and the superhero community by feeding them information on criminal activity. She has also been trained by a man named Richard Dragon, he trained her to use martial arts from her wheelchair. Barbara would later receive an invitation to join the Justice League Of America. She worked as an information and communications resource. She worked with the league a for a good amount of time before she went inactive.

Birds of Prey

Birds of Prey

Barbara is the founder of Birds Of Prey, a team of female heroes. Her member was Power Girl. However when one of their cases went wrong and caused several deaths, Power Girl quit working for Oracle, but helps her out occasionally. Oracle would eventually team up with Black Canary as the two have similar backgrounds. They became best friends and would form Birds of Prey together. The next person to join was Huntress, and then Lady Blackhawk joins them.

During No Man’s Land story arc, Batgirl was able to save the life of Jim Gordon. Barbara realizes that she is a highly skilled martial artist and that Batman needs as many allies as he can get. She gave her blessing to Cassandra to become the new Batgirl and mentored her while Cassandra began her new career.

Need new members for the Birds of Prey

When Batman took her computers and satellites during the War Games story arc, it resulted in her headquarters and home destroyed. She became angry at Batman and left Gotham City to move to Metropolis. During her time in Metropolis, Dick and her fell in love with each other again. Barbara ends their relationship when she felt Dick became too over-protective. Eventually though, after the destruction of Blüdhaven, Dick Proposed to Barbara and she accepted. However Infinite Crisis interrupts their moment and Oracle helps the superheroes out as a communication link between all the heroes.

One Year Later

Orcale continues to work as a crime fighter in Metropolis and the couples engagement was broken off for unknown reasons. At first Oracle did not know about Cassandra’s retirement and status with the League Of Assassins, however she does find out and mentioning Cassandra becomes a sensitive topic for Oracle. It was later revealed that Barbara helped Dick recover after the crisis. Dick tries to talk to Barbara about the proposal but she keeps pushing it off. Batman would call Barbara to check up on Dick and ask her if he should go with him out of the country to train for a year. She says yes. She talks to Dick about it, and the next morning she leaves him a letter telling him to go on, and that she will be there when he gets back.