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Quote1 The whole world thinks I'm just a plain Jane -- a colorless female 'brain'! I'll show them a far more imposing girl tonight! Quote2
Batgirl src

Batgirl has had her origin story retold several times over her many years of publication, with significant variations in continuity.

History

Silver Age

Batgirl Barbara Gordon 0004

The first apperance of Batgirl.

In the first version during the Silver Age, Barbara Gordon and her alter-ego Batgirl debuted in Detective Comics #359 as the daughter of Gotham City's Police Commissioner James Gordon. Batgirl's original adventures - published during the Silver Age of Comics - depict her as a librarian by day and as a spirited crime-fighter by night. In her debut story, while driving to a costume ball dressed as a female version of Batman, Barbara Gordon intervenes in a kidnapping attempt on Bruce Wayne by the villainous Killer Moth, attracting the Dark Knight's attention and leading to a crime-fighting career.

Modern Age

The Crisis on Infinite Earths ended the Multiverse and streamlined the DC Universe into a new continuity. Following the reboot, Barbara Gordon is born to Roger and Thelma Gordon, and is Jim Gordon's niece/adopted daughter in current canon. In Secret Origins #20: Batgirl and the Golden Age Dr. Mid-Nite (1987), Barbara Gordon's origin is rebooted by author Barbara Randal. Within the storyline, Gordon recounts the series of events that lead to her career as Batgirl, including her first encounter with Batman as a child, studying martial arts under the tutelage of a sensei, memorizing maps and blue prints of the city, excelling in academics in order to skip grades, and pushing herself to become a star athlete.

In 2003, comic book authors Scott Beatty and Chuck Dixon revised Barbara Gordon's origin with the miniseries Batgirl: Year One. Gordon is a highly gifted child having graduated from high school early, but initially desires to join law enforcement as opposed to vigilantism in the previous origin myths.


Issues

Barbara Gordon


Notes

Trivia

Links and References

Footnotes

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