Because Barbara Gordon is awesome.

[thespis]

I have... let's just say I have strong feelings with regard to the rebooted Batgirl. Most of them negative. But rather than going into that and getting myself all grumpy, I thought I'd celebrate the kick-ass character that is Barbara Gordon with some of my favourite Oracle-being-awesome moments.


Birds of Prey #6. Bruce has been secretly monitoring Babs to confirm that she's stable and capable of operating on her own. Babs has a few choice words for him on the subject.



Birds of Prey #8. 'Nuff said.



Birds of Prey #15: "rollingthunder"'s first face-to-face meeting with "bumblebeeb".









Birds of Prey #21. Oracle's being hunted down. Of course, she's not going down without a fight.









Like I could do a Birds of Prey post without including that scan. :D


Birds of Prey #34. Barbara gives up the chance to walk again for Dinah. Without so much as a second thought.





Birds of Prey #58-59. The beginning of Gail's run! Yay! Savant has taken Canary hostage in order to force Oracle into working for him.




But you don't piss off Oracle.


Why? Because she will kick your ass.








#61, after Savant's escape from prison:



Birds of Prey #64-65. Babs is cool under pressure, despite her identity as Oracle being close to being compromised.










Cue backup, in the form of Huntress.

Incidentally, Helena, I love you, but that costume is horrendous.
Oh, and just because it's Ed Benes, we get a gratuitous ass shot.




Birds of Prey #73. With Dinah's aid, Babs fights off possession at the hands of Brainiac.







Batman Chronicles #5.

Comments

[icon_uk]

In amongst the awesomeness, I'd point out that it seems pretty hypocritical for Oracle to complain about "BabsCam" when she then sets up "GraysonCam" and it's not clear that Dick is even aware of it.

[darkknightjrk]

THIS. Seriously, it seems like for every couple of awesome Oracle moments, there's at least one that makes it REALLY hard to like her.

[big_daddy_d]

It's been my complaint about her. As much as I love Babs, she's a hypocrite. She's a hell of a lot more like Batman than I think she realizes.

[maridee42]

Well, to be fair, here it doesn't seem she's so much angry at Bruce for watching her as she is at him questioning her competency and stability.

[icon_uk]

Fair point.

Though, thinking about it, how would one assess someone who you were worried about being close to the edge in such a situation? Bats can't exactly ask her "Are you close to snapping?", or make her attend mandatory therapy sessions the way an organisation might, and if this was after Azbats, a little precautionary checking up might be wise.

[maridee42]

This is...Birds of Prey #6? Published 1999. Wiki says Azrael debuted in '92. not sure how much that changes things.

I think she'd been attending regular therapy sessions as part of her recovery after Joker. She might not have been able to talk about Batgirl, but it wasn't like she was shot because of Batgirl. She was shot because she was Commissioner Gordon's daughter. Her being Batgirl was just extra ironic icing on that cupcake of sadness.

[icon_uk]

Azrael was a clear example of what happens when the stress of the Bat-life gets too much for the person who is in the role, Az-Bats couldn't cut it as Batman and that ended in near disaster for a lot of people.

A trusted confidante, with the resources at Oracle's command is someone you want to be absolutely sure is A-OK in terms of stability.

Icon says all

[aeka]

This post only made me realise how much I miss Babs as Oracle, and Ted/Barbara cybersexing. :(

Also Barbara scolding Batman for Babscam was her crowning moment of awesome in that issue. Bruce and Alfred's expressions on that last panel are effen priceless. ♥

Re: Icon says all

[darkknightjrk]

And, oddly enough, that Babscam moment is one of the reasons why I'm kinda glad that a lot of her history in this period has been wiped out of her existence. It really epitomizes her hypocrisy, IMO.

Re: Icon says all

[auggie18]

Y'know, until this post, I never really got Babs/Ted.


Now I want it like burning.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

Goddamn, I miss Oracle. She's my favorite superheroine, and I wish they'd kept her as Oracle, because she had a pretty unique role and wholly independent identity. Also, SUPER-LIBRARIAN. ♥

[thespis]

I wish they'd kept her as Oracle, too. D: I just find it so inconceivable that Babs, having come to realise that the bat didn't define her, having reinvented herself and forged her own path and succeeded on her own terms... would just decide to regress to an identity she's so obviously outgrown.

...and now I kind of want a Barbara Gordon: SUPER LIBRARIAN icon.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

So much motto!

(I want one, too! It's been part of her identity forever, and she really puts that skill-set to use as Oracle. She's actually part of why I decided to finally pursue certification as a library technician--I couldn't afford a real degree, but I was happy just to learn some of the same skills to help people out.)

[junipepper]

motto. many times.

[moetushie]

Bruce got told.

[runespoor]

Seriously. What would he think if someone did that to him?

(now I'm thinking, pride.)

[maxisanacorn]

UGH DC YOU SUCK. They really should have went with Morrison's net avatar thing like Motoko Kusanagi

[citygod]

That was fun - I've never read Oracle/Birds of Prey, but I really enjoyed this. Can you recommend a collection to start with? And who's the artists on these pages? The art on the first story looks very familiar, but I can't place him.

[thespis]

Glad you enjoyed it! :) Gail Simone's run is a great place to start - she wrote issues 56 to 108, the first collection being Of Like Minds. Chuck Dixon's run (#1-46) is also good, but it's Gail's writing more than anything that made me fall in love with Birds of Prey.

Artists, let's see - #6 and #8 are Greg Land; #15, #21 and #34 are Butch Guice; #58, #59, #61, #64, #65 and #73 are Ed Benes and the Batman Chronicles one is Brian Stelfreeze and Karl Story.

[citygod]

That's Greg Land? Before he discovered PhotoShop, I guess. Wow, he can actually draw (a bit).
And Ed Benes started out with a serious Mike Golden thing, didn't he? That Brainiac section is totally Micronauts!

[weber_dubois22]

Before I found about his tracing mentality in the latter part of his career, I always wondered why people kept saying he couldn't draw, especially when I was reading his run on the Nightwing/Birds of Prey title back when.

[kurenai-tenka.livejournal.com]

Aah thanks for posting this, this was a really fun read. I seriously need to get round to reading BoP.

[lieut_kettch]

Ahh, how I miss Babs/Ted. They totally cyber-did it.

Ahh, how I miss Babs/Dinah. They totally just plain did it.

[eyz]

My favorite thing, what kept me originally reading BoP was this on-going thing between Babs and Ted...

I miss 'em so much <3

[gerardotejada]

There was an actual poll that ranked Lex Luthor, Oracle, Mister Terrific and Ted Kord as the most inteligent people in the DCU´s earth (most intelingent in the universe would probably be leaded by brainiac), In that order, the next were people like Doctor Sivana.

I always thought that Tim should study under Babs, I mean he did find out who batman was (Babs couldnt) found out that Bruce Wayne was alive, Bruce clearly said one time "we are going to work under him" (Without mention that half the superheroes work under Oracle) and one of his "posibles futures" that was presented as options in Red Robin showed him in front a computer filling the role of oracle (other showed him as Batman and other showed him dead at young age).

PD: The whole Babs/Dina It only can be compared with Zutara as how wrong It is but how good It feels to some people. It has been clearly proved that there was a delusion on the artist part, that pose of Dina holding Babs is pure male libido.