After losing her parents to a car accident (caused in part by her father's drink-influenced recklessness, a detail which does maintain -- or at least implies -- the unhappy childhood which would result from living with an alcoholic) Barbara Gordon at age eight left her home to go live with her aunt and uncle, James and Barbara Gordon.

Either way, however, it was after she moved to Gotham that she discovered her uncle was no ordinary policeman. He knew and was even friends with the Batman! Inspired by equal parts hero-worship and ambition, she set out immediately upon this discovery to train herself to become the Batman's partner and did not waver from her goal for the next several years until college and more "grown-up" dreams sidetracked her.

When she did become Batgirl, her first case was stopping the notorious hitman Drury Walker AKA Killer Moth. After she stopped him, she planned to stop but the adrenaline rush was addicting. She started to go out at night as Batgirl, looking for trouble and putting a stop to it whenever she could. It didn't take long for Batman to figure out who she really was. But confronting her and making her actually stop proved harder than the Dark Knight expected and, in the end, it was she who won the confrontation while also convincing Batman to train her. For the next few years, Batgirl had all sorts of wild adventures, captured all sorts of villains and baddies, teamed up with the original Boy Wonder on a number of occasions, and eventually won the Batman's respect and became one of the few to know his true identity -- both equally impressive achievements.

Her old friend Marcy turned up in her life just at the time she was seriously questioning her effectiveness as Batgirl and during Marcy's visit, "The Last Batgirl Story" took place. She conquered the foe she feared most, Cormorant and was able to put Batgirl behind her with no regrets.

Even though Barbara had put Batgirl to rest, that didn't mean she had seen the last of her rogues gallery. On a quiet evening with her father, the Joker appeared at their apartment and shot barbara through the spine. Luckily she didn't die because it was a doctered gun. Ironically, Joker didn't know he had crippled one of his old foes but only gunned in her in part of his master plan to drive the Commisioner insane. Although she survived, she was to be forever bound to a wheelchair and face the world with a new, more difficult life.

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