Barbara Gordon In This Week Comics

[superfangirl1]

DC Universe Legacies #6





Bruce Wayne: The Road Home Oracle #1

Comments

[book_of_daniel]

I seem to remember liking a story where Babs rips Bruce a new one for having a nice long laugh with the Joker...for whatever reason...at the end of the Killing Joke. I don't remember where it was from although I always like it when someone calls Bruce out for going deep into douchebag mode.

[icon_uk]

It was, IIRC a Batman Chronicles, where Bruce comes to visit her in the hospital and she basically tears him a new one "When you were laughing, was it over me?"

[bmaryott]

There was also a stretch in there between The Killing Joke and when she became Oracle where she was "just" a computer hacker/nerd...

[icon_uk]

Hate to say it, but, given the range of his crimes, and his death-toll, is "Joker shoots but does not kill librarian" REALLY going to make a news splash, even if she is Commissioner Gordon's daughter?

[taggerung301]

I dunno, I kind of figure that any time the Joker does something nasty it would end up on the news

It seems to me that Joker + daughter of public official = news

[laddical]

I can get that it would make the news, though not because she's a librarian - did her time as a congresswoman get crisis'd out at some point?

But librarian or congresswoman, I think her story would have been but a mere footnote to the headline story, "Joker kidnaps Gotham Police Commissioner James Gordon!"

Since... you know... that was going on at the same time.

[minyandu]

I faintly remember a research report on Sciencedaily said that, people did process and remember the situations differently on large number life lost and small number, particular person's bad day.
It doesn't make the big lost better, but I think people are more easy to connect to a particular person's experience than a hell lot of people. Especially in this situation Babs was someone quite easy to address and related to someone they all know about. Her condition was quite a living torture. It didn't make things easier for her either. And comparing to death experience, people might actuall more easy to related to living torture.

[recognitions]

I think it would. I'm just imagining if even some Joe Schmoe killed the daughter of, say, New York's police commissioner, it'd be splashed all over the front pages of the Post and the Daily News in huge screaming type. Gotham is presumably not quite as large as New York, but I think it's safe to say it's as big as, say, San Diego or St. Louis. An event like that would certainly make the top story in those particular cities.

[blackruzsa]

Barb is hella smarter than everyone else then, if she's the only one who's figured it out XD (other than Selina, but you know, it doesn't count cuz she wasn't sure)

[laddical]

Barb is hella smarter than everyone else

I thought that was just a given, full stop.

[aulayan]

Y'know, I like this Bruce a lot more. Yeah, to me it sorta sucks that Bruce was at least somewhat a motivation for Babs to become Oracle but...At least it shows him not being an ass. This Bruce I could like and understand why he'd have a large Bat-Family and a huge respected and liked role within the Meta community.

[mad]

ARG, that Road Home comic is so full of stupidness I can't even.

I'm all for Babs and Bruce being BFFs (Bat-Friends Forever), but uhg that is not how it works, DC.

I think there must be a typo in there somewhere. What Barbara MEANT to say was, "If it hadn't been for Bruce, I don't know if would have been inspired to make sure my next wheelchair didn't have handles, thanks to his pushing me around all over the place that day. The jerk."

Also, MY PARENTS ARE DEAD =/= getting shot by the Joker and subsequent paraplegia. Also, Babs has a set of dead parents too, ya know.

How fucked up is it that the only alternative option Bruce can see for her is to "wither and die"? Why hullo thar ableism. It's like he thinks he can browbeat all her problems away.

Really, this comic is a horrible and disrespectful retconning of the "Oracle: Year One" story from Batman Chronicles #5 which was written by Kim Yale and John Ostrander.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Would 'drown in self-pity' suit you better than 'wither and die'? Because I think that's basically what he means.

[jarodrussell]

Two TKJ refs in one month...It keeps happening!

[thebigapricot]

I believe you can find a Killing Joke reference every month of the year in DC.

[philippos42]

Yeah, too much making Bruce the hero & in on Oracle's origin for me.

[turtlefu]

Somewhere, John Ostrander and Kim Yale are crying in shame of this crap.

I see ableism, sexism, and batdickery in this, and it also completely ruins Babs's character.

How about we just pretend this never happened?

[minyandu]

Now I read it more carefully, I'm just happy Babs ask about Dick and Damian. >_>*glare at Bruce*

[llei]

Though that panel is all kinds of wrong when read out of context.

[swatkat]

I haven nothing against Bruce and Babs friendship, or Bruce being an inspiration to Babs - but the whole 'I soldiered on because I didn't want to disappoint Bruce' is annoying. Even more so after Beechen had Bruce say, 'I LOVE MY BOYS AND ALFRED WHO ARE MY FAMILY... Oh and even Babs, Cass, Steph and Damian.' /hyperbole

[kelvintage]

Completely agree. The whole 'I didn't want to disappoint Bruce' is ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. Who wrote this crap? Good Lord, this guy is a terrible writer.

Babs matured and grew because she decided to. For herself. Not for Bruce, Dick, or anyone else. That's not selfish, that's realistic. Screw these comics...most of them are awful.

My apologies for the rant guys.

[psychopathicus_rex]

You know, I know it's a defining moment in her life and everything, but I wish Babs would get a flashback story that DIDN'T focus on 'Killing Joke' and/or its aftermath. Why not one set just prior to that, or one where she's still struggling to adapt to her new role as Oracle?

[omgwtflolbbqbye]

Hell, I wish we could get flashback stories of her time as Batgirl.

Aside from the recent Batgirl: Year One I can't think of any memorable post-Crisis stories of her tenure as a caped crusader.

[stubbleupdate]

TKJ really is Barbara's defining moment for writers, just like spousal abuse is Hank Pym's.

As for Batgirl flashbacks, what about the Batman Confidential story about a nude fight with Catwoman for a notebook?

[jeyl]

Sigh. Just what the world needed. Comics dedicated to the support characters getting on their knees and worshipping the god being that is Bruce Wayne/Batman. I hate love letter comics.

[skalja]

Is it just me or is "cripple" really not the word a news organization would use? I mean, 1) it's a word that's quite offensive to many people with disabilities, and news orgs are really careful about that because they want good ratings/publicity, 2) it's very colloquial. I'd expect "paralyzed" or something like that.

[benicio127]

It's not at all. News organizations aren't just careful about the words they use because they want good publicity, but because they are the ones who inform and educate. You'd never even see in a newspaper "confined to a wheelchair" because that would be a) disrespectful and b) do you know how many letters to the editor a newspaper would get because of that?!

In Canada, we actually have a style book that's updated yearly that tells journalists terms to use and some terms to not use (ie. there's a section on certain words you would never use when describing a differently abled person, such as confined or any other term that would suggest the person is imprisoned by the disability)

[sistermagpie]

So just to be clear, the issue devoted to Barbara naturally told the story of TKJ yet again. What a shock since that's the only thing of note that ever happened to her in her life (and BG:YO only encourages that, btw!)

[benicio127]

Seriously

[biznizzonpeyote]

Umm... I didn't mind this. Does this make me sexist on how Babs became Oracle? Or Babs in general? Because while I kinda liked the idea that Babs rebuilt herself as Oracle on her own, I thought it was kinda callous that Bruce didn't do much to console her (if he did, could someone tell me an ish? I don't have many comics from the 80's OR 90's.) or try to use his whole "You're in a low place right now. I've been there too. You can either stay there... OR you can pick up as many of the pieces as you can and move onwards." Even WITH Jason's "death" at the time, I'd think that would make him MORE attentive to his proteges...

[mad]

I don't think it was Bruce neglecting to be there for her, it was more that Babs was so angry, hurt, and frustrated by what happened to her, and she directed some of that at Bruce. She needed distance away from him, and away from how she saw herself as Batgirl.

For Babs, emotionally, she didn't want a shoulder to cry on, and someone bullying her or even providing friendly reasonable arguments wouldn't have done much good to help her, because she needed to find her own reasons, for herself, to live her life and figure out how to deal with the changes in her life.

I think Bruce was a good friend to her by being there at the ready when she asked him for help. Because even in the "Oracle: Year One" version, she sought out the Wayne Foundation money to get her computer systems, she sought out help from "Matches" (and IMO there's no way she didn't know it wasn't him) to hook her up with Richard Dragon for training.

Sometimes people do need friends to sort of invade their space and demand they let them help, but this was not one of those times IMO. Bruce was a friend to her by being there when she wanted it, not by forcing his presence when she didn't want it.

I'd say the sexism comes into play because there is so little respect and attention paid to Barbara's history and character in this comic. Especially when you notice it's a pattern between this book and the Batgirl Road Home comic. The underlying theme is that all Barbara, Cassandra, and Stephanie's decisions about how to lead their superheroic lives were actually made by Bruce.

[rickperry]

Christ Barbara looks horrible on that television.

[felinephoenix]

I keep trying to come up with a coherent response to this, but screw it. My leg is giving me a lot of crap today, so I'm not in the mood to dissect all the ableism in this. Besides, I think everyone's said what I was going to say, and better than I would say it.

I think this had potential to be a good story about the Bruce/Babs friendship... but ugh. I'm sorry, but it just comes off as condescending and cliche.