Barbara Gordon is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics and related media. From 1967 to 1988 she was the superhero known as Batgirl; since 1988 she has been known as Oracle. Description The librarian-by-day Barbara Gordon made her debut in 1967 in Detective Comics #359 as the daughter of Gotham City's Police Commissioner James Gordon. On her way to a masquerade ball dressed as a female version of Batman, Barbara intervened in a kidnapping attempt on Bruce Wayne by the villainous Killer Moth, attracting the attention of Batman and leading to a crime-fighting career. The original adventures of the Silver Age Batgirl depicted her as a spirited, if inexperienced, female copy of Batman. After a handful of guest appearances in Batman stories, she was given her own back-up strip in Detective Comics. This allowed the character to be fleshed out considerably, with the shy, mousey, bookworm version of Barbara Gordon quickly giving way to a more modern, confident Barbara (also known as Babs). Devoid of her plain-Jane glasses and hair bun, Barbara started to date what would be a succession of boyfriends, the most popular being Vietnam veteran turned private investigator Jason Bard. Barbara proved to be the most popular Batgirl with the readers as well, as they made requests for her to appear in other titles. In addition to her appearances in both Detective Comics and Batman, Batgirl made a guest appearance in World's Finest Comics where she met Superman, Supergirl, Bat-Mite, and Mxyzptlk for the first time. She also fought alongside the Justice League of America against the villainous Queen Bee. She encountered Supergirl again in Adventure Comics #380 when both heroines separately investigated a female criminal gang. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Gordon