I agree with that. No, she doesn't *need* to be crippled to be Oracle. But she does need to *stay* crippled to be Oracle.

Yes, that always seemed like a silly pointless change, done for pretty much no good reason at all.

That said, the reality of the situation is that superhero comics are shackled to nostalgia. Only editorial dictates or seemingly insurmountable issues will keep nostalgic creators from wanting to revert characters to whatever status quo they were during said creator's days as a fan. If Barbara Gordon is walking again in the next ten years, it's just a matter of time until she's somehow-or-other Batgirl again, and Cass Cain is thrown under the loser bus. If she's not walking for another, say, 20 years, then you're likely to have a generation of creators that only ever knew her as Oracle with Batgirl as just part of her backstory. In those circumstances, it's quite possible she wouldn't be immediately thrown back into her Batsuit, but allowed to remain as Oracle despite not being stuck in the chair.

Yeah, because there's no way you could conceivably carry communications equipment around in your uniform and be either a mobile Oracle or transform into some kind of tech-based, post-cyberpunk hero. For that level of science fiction you need prose...and Neal Stephenson, Charles Stross, or Cory Doctorow.

Though I DO hope she gets cured one day, for one reason: to erase another of Joker's "victories" over Batman. (They have already brought back Jason Todd, the other one.) Sorry, but I don't enjoy serial killers, much less those who "win" over the heroes, and then hang those facts over his head forever. Bring back Joker the master villain, not the two-bit killer who uses crowbars and might be a rapist.

Does anyone else think it's rather silly that Barbara isn't Gordon's natural daughter? I mean, the justification for that has been "she wasn't in Year One," however Frank Miller himself uses Barbara in All-Star Batman, as if she was at some boarding school for the duration of Year One. And I'm fine with that.

I don't think it is entirely necessary for Barbara to be Gordon's natural daughter, but I don't really understand why that connection has remained severed. It's needlessly confusing, especially Devin Grayson's retcon of "He may be his natural daughter, because he had a relationship with her mother before she married his brother," which doesn't really cast ol' Jimmy Gordon in the best light...

I sometimes wish more comics writers were wrestling fans: there's far more similarities between the two from a business perspective than people think, with the distinguishing factor that comics have a longer turnaround time (wrestling's quick, week-to-week turnaround is what makes it so fascinating to look at the business side of things). In the case of Oracle, keeping Barbara crippled allows for the time-tested wrestling approach of teaming up a main eventer with a midcarder in the hopes of making the midcarder into someone the fans view as approaching the status of a main eventer. Oracle's one of the few comic characters that has this element built into the core character concept, and if Barbara could just get up and walk to a crime scene to investigate it, there'd be a far smaller available role for the field characters.

I suppose there's people who get upset about the negative symbolic / thematic point of a crippled female heroine in the male-dominated comics industry, but screw that; everything's secondary to business, and Oracle being crippled is good for business.

And making her into an Oracle/Batgirl combo just makes her into a female Batman/Iron Man...

I like the way it works with the brawn belonging to someone else and the dynamics of the team, where Barbara does the thinking and others do the actions...

At least it’d free her up a bit in terms of different things the writers could do with her. She’s always seemed a bit one-note to me as Oracle.

I think that's more a ctricism of the way some writers have used her than of her options as a character. Just because she can't walk doesn't mean she can be nothing more than a sort of Deus Ex Machina. I agree with Richard; “Former Superhero now helps fight crime through technology” is a lot less interesting than “Former Superhero, crippled by major villian, now helps fight crime through technology”. It has instant drama, resilience and a strong motivation. Plus it makes her a good role model and a nice contrast to all the physically perfect superheroes. I think there are enough power horses in superhero comics for one decent disabled character.

I really don't think people understand what a stroke of luck Oracle turned out to be. If Ostrander/Yale had tried that with anyone else, it never would have worked. It just so happened that there was a sidelined, crippled, genius, boookwormy superhero apprentice to the World's Greatest Detective just laying on the trash-heap for them to reinvent. And it just so happened that Denny O'Neil's proprietary '90s Bat-office hoarded Oracle in their isoloation chamber long enough for her storytelling engine to develop, and that Chuck Dixon knew what to do with her when it did. And it just so happened that Grant "Danny the Street" Morrison was given DC's flagship title and that he turned it into a blockbuster at the height of Oracle's exposure. AND it just so happened that Gail Simone saved BoPs from cancellation just as DC was looking for extraneous female heroes to torture, encraze, kill, and rape. Excepting the SUICIDE SQUAD years (that no one read) and the early-'90s in Gotham (where she was almost forgotten), Oracle's only been an A-lister for twelve or so years....that she's lasted this long as a compelling attracter of fanboys -- sans sex appeal, even -- is a miracle, not a bygone conclusion. As long as Oracle is working for DC's bottom line, they'd be smart to leave her alone.