Originally Posted by
kjn
She was the co-lead for Birds of Prey, until the team was made too large.
And yes, Oracle goes against the grain in how superheroes are supposed to look and act. I view that as a good thing. Keeps writers and editors on their toes, and helps them improve and forces them to think outside the box.
As for being chained to the chair, they could have "fixed" Babs and still kept her in her role as Oracle. It would have caused other meta-narrative issues, but it could have been done. But more than that, I'm reminded of a friend of mine who says that if she can choose between hobbling around on crutches or zipping around in a wheelchair, she chooses the wheelchair every day of the week.
Now, if DC had decided to give her her legs back and keep her in her role as Oracle, I'd probably been fine with it, though it would have brought with it a new set of meta-narrative issues, just a different set than keeping her in the wheelchair or making her back to Batgirl.
I would claim that there is no question that Babs and the Batgirls got off worse, especially once Simone left the title. In the original series, she had a ton of experience, as Batgirl and as Barbara Gordon. ALL of that was removed, except TKJ. A comparison with Dick Grayson and the Robins is instructive.
Steph and Cass were removed as entirely. Babs had her experience as Oracle erased, and had to go through trauma recovery after TKJ again (I don't blame Simone for that choice, the alternative was worse). Later on even the experiences that Simone had given her were erased in the Burnside Batgirl. That is exactly what I mean by infantilising her. To her credit, Mairghread Scott writes a better Babsgirl.
All the Robins (except Steph) got to stay as former Robins, their experience as such basically intact. Dick Grayson is demoted from acting Batman, but keeps his role own-created role as Nightwing.
Basically, the Robins (except Steph) got through New 52 reasonably intact. The Batgirls didn't.
In a way, I believe that part of why Babs was so ill-treated not only has to do with misogyny (though it certainly does play a part) but also in that Babs as Oracle was an implied critique of the DC practices towards their female characters and of the underlying dogma that Batman's ethics and morals are not to be meaningfully critiqued. And Babs was the living embodiment of that critique.