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.