Barbara Gordon's career as Oracle began almost accidentally. In the months following her crippling encounter with the Joker, she'd hidden herself away from the world, going out only for her physical and emotional therapy sessions. But the woman who had been Batgirl quickly got tired of being afraid and feeling useless. She used her researcher's talents from her job as a librarian and a grant from the Wayne Foundation to begin anew, this time using computers as her library, community and her battlefield.

Her first case as Oracle was solving one of the GCPD cases that her father was driving himself nuts with. Someone was using computers to steal money, and Barbara decided to help without anyone realizing it was her. She had nothing better to do and computers were in her filed. While on the case Barbara slowly started to rediscovered herself for who she was. She couldn't let her life go down the drian despite what her condition was. With Batman's help, she was sent to train with the martial arts master, Richard Dragon in escrima, the Phillipine art of stick fighting. While learning this discipline honed her body and her confidence anew, it also helped her to discover her new path.

One night she had a dream where she spoke to the wise Oracle who told her to become a hero once more. This time however she did something no other person had done to help the world. Not even Batman or Superman. Oracle made her "on-line" debut helping the Suicide Squad as a mysterious hacker who had invaded the squad's database, and she eventually became a member of the team (under the alias "Amy Beddoes") and the Squad's leader Amanda Waller's second-in-command. When the Suicide Squad ended, Oracle continued with her work as a free-lance. She became more and more interesting and useful as personal computers and the internet became more prevalent in everyday life and has emerged as the premiere investigator and information broker in the DCU. The superheroes of the world come to her to handle the tasks too big for their superpowers and she has always come through to them. Physically confined to a wheelchair, she is intellectually unrestricted by any barriers. She is a presence throughout the world, watching, tracking, and getting involved, via her operatives and allies, where she believes her and their combined skills could help out. And she "sits" at the round table, taking her place amongst the DCU pantheon as the JLA's resident Athena, the goddess of wisdom. She is one of the few heroes long with only Robin & Nightwing -- who operates within the confines of Gotham City with the Batman's blessing and encouragement.

During No Man's Land, Barbara managed to maintain both her databases and her health by tailoring her skills to the radically altered circumstances of Gotham City, and she took it upon herself to keep the history of this extraordinary epoque in the life (or death) of one of the two most famous cities in comic book history. Towards the end of that story arc, she gave her blessing to the ascendancy of a young, nameless girl, trained as an assassin but with a code of honor as strict and unyeilding as that of the Batman's own to the role of Batgirl after the Huntress was revealed to be the mysterious Batgirl II. The new Batgirl lives with Oracle who, along with Batman, is continuing to mentor her.

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