MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Barbara Gordon was introduced to comics in 1967 for the express purpose of increasing the audience for the steadfastly declining Batman television show. Her identity as Batgirl was largely defined by her relationships to existing male characters: the police commissioner’s daughter, Batman’s assistant, Robin’s love interest. Even through retcons and reboots that continually characterize her as an independent young woman rejecting their orders—Batgirl: Year One, for example, sees Barbara donning the cowl specifically to spite her father for rejecting her police academy application—Batgirl has maintained this subservience to male characters with larger legacies. Barbara’s most powerful self comes through in her incarnation as Oracle, an identity conceived as a direct reaction to the infamous comic, “The Killing Joke,” in which Barbara was shot and paralyzed. Oracle was created by Kim Yale and John Ostrander to re-empower Barbara; she rejected the control of the men who had wounded her. A subsequent story arc had Oracle undergo a healing procedure that reinstated her as Batgirl. Barbara regained the ability to walk, but lost an element of agency. Following Glen Weldon’s assessment of the interlinking of nerd culture with the growth of the Batman universe, this paper explores how ableism and misogyny intersect in the foundations of DC’s current Batgirl and how fan perception led to the mistaken idea that Oracle needed to be “healed” to be powerful. Barbara is a character who, because of the intersection of her gender and her disability, is able to deliver a more nuanced representation of both aspects of her identity. Although discounted by mainstream, male-dominated fandoms, she remains a character who shows unprecedented growth and development, presenting a stark contrast against more traditional heroes.