Barbara Gordon is a vigilante super-hero operating as a member of the Batman Family, and (depending on which continuity) the daughter or niece of Gotham City's Police commissioner James Gordon. Beginning her career as Batgirl working alongside Batman and the first Robin, she is an extremely intelligent detective and martial artist who maintains a civilian identity as a librarian. Following the events of The Killing Joke where the Joker paralyzed her from the waist down with a gunshot, she began using the name Oracle to help Batman and other heroes using a massive world-wide communications and espionage network. There are several others who take up her mantle as Batgirl during this time, including Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown whom she mentors, but she is eventually able to walk again and returns to her position. She is a founding member of the Birds of Prey, but has also been involved with the Justice League, the Suicide Squad and the Seven Soldiers of Victory.
Barbara Gordon was created by Julius Schwartz, Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino after a concept by William Dozier, first appearing in Detective Comics #359 (1967). John Ostrander reinvented her as Oracle in Suicide Squad #23 (1989), although this new identity wouldn't be fully revealed until Suicide Squad #38 (1990).
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