Batgirl

Barbara Gordon was the daughter of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon. She took on the mantle of Batgirl, and became Batman's partner and protegé for many years. Later in life, she followed in her father's footsteps by becoming Commissioner of the Gotham Police Department herself.

Pre-Costume
When the renegade artificial intelligence HARDAC attempted to replace the most influential members of Gotham (including Commissioner James Gordon, Hamilton Hill, and Harvey Bullock), Barbara was one of the few who initially felt something was wrong. Using a few detective skills she picked up from her father, Barbara managed to help Batman save everyone.

Batgirl
Barbara Gordon takes after her father, James Gordon. Like the Commissioner, Barbara is a skilled crime fighter dedicated to wiping out Gotham City's lawbreakers; but not necessarily as a police officer. When Commissioner Gordon was framed by the notorious villain Two-Face, Barbara donned a Bat-costume and discovered that the uniform fit her better than she ever imagined. The cowl was ripped from the back by Robin when he tried to stop her from running away from him. Whether they liked it or not, Batman and Robin soon realized that they have a new redheaded ally in the form of Batgirl. She gave suttle hints towards her identity at the time, but, they would fail to reach the ears of the two.

When Dick Grayson returned as Nightwing, she began to date him, often being interrupted for missions. In her daily life, Barbara is a student at Gotham State University. Her academic skills are matched only by her gymnastic ability, which she utilizes to her full advantage as Batgirl. Batman and Robin learn to trust and rely on Batgirl's contribution to eradicating Gotham's criminal element. Barbara and Dick Grayson also dated, though they were unaware of each other's costumed identity at the time.

Early on, Batman deduced the masked redhead who fought so hard to clear Commissioner Gordon could only be Gordon's daughter, Barbara. Barbara was also found to be the only organ donor (either living or dead) to Nora Fries, Mr. Freeze's wife, and she was kidnapped. However, Dick Grayson was present during the kidnapping, and though he failed to save Barbara, he was aware of Freeze's plot. Batman and Robin managed to interrupt the operation before it took place, and the battle that ensued caused Freeze's lair to explode. Batman, Robin, and Barbara were able to evacuate Nora and Koonak in time, but Freeze had fallen into the fiery blast and was assumed dead. In actuality, he and his polar bears survived. Nora was subsequently cured in Gotham.

In Mayfields Department Store, Barbara was just purchasing a new tie for her father when all of a sudden an ear-piercing wail cuts through the air. The shop attendant comments on how they've been crying all day, at which point we see why: Harvey Bullock is playing Santa. With his partner, Montoya, he's on a stakeout. Bullock, showing rare sensitivity, comforts a young girl who's father he put in prison, and winds up giving her cash to soothe her Christmastime woes. Clayface gets a shocking surprise. Barbara, walking through the store, happens to spot a child shoplifting, but when she tries to apprehend him, his clothes and hand seem to dissolve into nothing. Then, Montoya gets a call through her earpiece that detectives are in pursuit of four child bandits in the store. Just when the children seem to be trapped, they meld! Moments later the truth is revealed: Clayface! He begins tearing up the place and no one can stop him, that is, until Barbara gets changed into her Batgirl outfit and delivers a blow to the head the sends him crashing out the window and into the skating rink below. Montoya and Bullock arrive on the scene and with a little guidance from Barbara, succeed in halting the giant shapeshifter by way of electrocution. When Dick Grayson left Gotham, Batman found himself calling on Batgirl to work with him on special cases. Eventually, Batman told Batgirl the secret of his dual identity and granted her free access to the Batcave and all its technology. The Batcomputer quickly became her domain and now she even surpasses Batman, Robin and Nightwing in cyber-expertise. When her then-boyfriend, Dick Grayson, learned of her identity as Batgirl, he got into an argument with Batman over bringing her into the team, and left Gotham to became Nightwing.

Barbara lived in a private townhouse near Gotham's trendy Park Ridge. A service lift in Barbara's bedroom closet ran down to the secret basement where Barbara stores her Batgirl crime fighting gear. In addition to costumes and weapons, the basement also serves as garage for Batgirl's highly advanced Batcycle, a gift from Batman.

Her double life as Batgirl sometimes put Barbara at an emotional crossroads. As the daughter of the Police Commissioner, Barbara was raised with respect for law and order, but her actions as Batgirl technically label her a vigilante. If Batgirl were ever caught and unmasked, the scandal would certainly destroy Commissioner Gordon's career. Still, Gotham is a city that breeds an extreme kind of criminal and extreme crime fighters are needed to handle situations that overwhelm regular police. Barbara believes the good she does as Batgirl is worth the potential risk to herself and her father. Batgirl often takes on some of Batman's dangerous villains solo, including Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy.

Batgirl became great friends with Kara In-Ze, also known as Supergirl, and has teamed up with her in the past, most notably when Livewire escaped and joined forces with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Batgirl and Supergirl were not looked upon favorably with the Penguin, who requested Batman and Superman. The two were initially overwhelmed by the combined forces of the three, with Batgirl being taken down easily by Poison Ivy and Supergirl having to save her as the villains got away, but, through their combined efforts together they managed to defeat the three criminals and send them to jail.

She once was hit with fear toxin by Scarecrow that made her believe, Batman and Robin were being chased down by her father because he believed Batman to be the murderer. Batman and Robin were then chased down to the bat cave and aided by Nightwing in escaping. Nightwing and Alfred were put in jail and Tim had an idea on breaking them out, to which, Batman declined. The dream ended when Batman and Commissioner Gordon fell off of a building because of Bane. This event almost made Barbara tell her father of her secret identity.

As her career in Gotham went on, Batgirl had an ongoing rivalry with the villainesses Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy. She went on to play a central role in the mystery surrounding the disappearance of all of the men in Gotham City, an event that briefly brought her into conflict with the Gotham City police force, who had been taken over by a robotic duplicate of her father, and forced her to ally with her enemies. Eventually, she tracked down the true culprit, Dora Smithy, and defeated her in a final struggle at an abandoned ice cream factory, rescuing her father and ending the mayhem.

Batgirl was also with Batman when Tim Drake was kidnapped by the Joker and tortured into becoming a "son" of the Clown Prince. While Batman took on the madman, Barbara confronted Harley Quinn. In the fight, they fell off a cliff, and though Batgirl tried to get Harley back to safety, she fell into Arkham Canyon. She later comforted Tim when he cried after all of his torture he had endured.

Post-Costume


Barbara was the last of Batman's partners to relinquish their roles. She was also the girlfriend of Bruce Wayne for an undetermined period after the Joker had tortured Tim and found out his secret identity. She would eventually become police commissioner as her father had been. The details of her rise to the position of police commissioner are unknown. Over the years, she lost touch with Bruce Wayne. According to Barbara herself, the fact that Bruce Wayne's drive wouldn't allow him to "settle down" from his life of crimefighting eventually drove a wedge between them; Their intimate relationship was terminated after a time. She eventually went on to marry District Attorney Sam Young. Whether or not she told her husband about her time as Batgirl is unknown.

She came into contact again with Bruce when she found out he had a new partner and got a call from Bruce. She then, looked out the window to see the "get acquainted gift" Batman left her. It's the pieces of Inque, trapped in the ice.

Initially, Barbara was distrustful of the second Batman, Terry McGinnis; this distrust was stressed when Spellbinder used his technology to make her believe that Terry had killed Mad Stan. She also expressed a measure of resentment towards Bruce for not talking Terry out of becoming the latest Batman. At first, she strictly refused Batman's help and warned him to stay out of police matters. She mostly had anger towards him due to her old grudge towards Bruce and his decision to stop her from helping him and to continue doing it at his age. When the assassin Curaré targeted Barbara’s husband District Attorney Sam Young, a joint effort from herself and Terry stopped the planned hit. During this incident, Barbara saved Terry's life by throwing a discarded batarang at the killer; amazed she still "had it". Barbara then welcomed Batman back to fighting crime in her city. Barbara eventually formed a mentoring relationship with Terry, even helping him on occasion, especially when the Joker returned and had attacked Bruce in the cave. As she was one of the few trustworthy people who knew Bruce's secret, she was the person Terry contacted after Bruce was hurt in the Batcave and she likely helped him treat Bruce. As Bruce recovered, Barbara briefly took over Bruce's role, sitting behind the mainframe in the Batcave providing guidance to Terry in the field.

Barbara went to Sam's house to tell him to relax, but was insisted upon by him that he needed to put Dr. Cuvier out of commision. They were attacked by three spliced thugs, Barbara managed to fight off Tigress, but, she was soon captured. Fortunately, Batman arrives and attacks the thugs. Barbara calls up Bruce and tries to warn him of Terry's condition but it's too late. Terry arrives now greatly resembling the Man-Bat. Ace desperately attacks him and is hurled away. Terry then attacks Bruce who only manages to escape thanks to Ace's intervention. After escaping, Bruce hits him with a dart filled with the cure for splicing.

Barbara came into the line of fire again when Dr. Cuvier attempted to have her husband killed, leading to a melee in her home with Cuvier's minions and a mutated, out-of-control Batman. After Terry was returned to normal and Cuvier was defeated, Barbara personally encouraged Terry (who had recently avenged his father's death) to give up his life as Batman. However, Terry was undeterred, and answered that the small rewards were sometimes the best.

Personality
During her time as Batman's sidekick, Barbara had excellent detective skills, often solving cases independently without Batman, Robin or Nightwing. She had a bit of a caring side, such as when she cuddled Tim after he was tortured by the Joker. She was shown to be caring of her father, constantly putting her life on the line to save his.

When she became commissioner of Gotham after her father, She could be hard and stern. Barbara had a tendency to keep grudges, such as when she kept a decade long grade against Bruce for how he treated the people he claimed to care about. Barbara could also be forgiving, such as when she reunited with Bruce and Tim after the latter's transformation into a new version of the Joker.

Background information
In the comics, Barbara Gordon is one of six women to have held the title of Batgirl. In the DCAU, the title is hers alone.

The original Bat-Girl was Bette Kane, the niece of Batwoman, who served as her aunt's "Robin". Barbara Gordon was the second, the niece/daughter/adopted daughter of Commissioner Gordon, after she was popularized by the 1960s Adam West TV series. In Batman: The Killing Joke, she was forced to retire from the Batgirl mantle after the Joker shot her in her spine and left her paraplegic. She operated as Oracle with the Birds of Prey for twenty-one years, until the 2011 reboot established her as Batgirl again with her legs full restored and taking on a whole new array of villians previously unseen in comics before.

Later Batgirls are Cassandra Cain, Helena Bertinelli (clandestine, during the No Man's Land arc), Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe (the later Misfit, also clandestinely) and the most recent Batgirl is Stephanie Brown, formerly the Spoiler and Robin IV.

Trivia

 * In an episode of an older Barbara Gordon looks over her old costume in the Batcave and remarks about the bullet holes being gone. In the  episode "Bat'ing Cleanup", Barbara is seen studying a bullet hole in her costume.


 * At one point during the later series, an episode featuring Batgirl was discussed. The episode would have featured Barbara being ordered by Batman to stay off a case involving Kirk Langstrom and an army of Man-Bats, in which she had recently gotten herself injured and put in traction. Defying Batman's orders she would have temporarily assumed an Oracle-like persona and recruited Huntress and Black Canary as her field agents (after finding Nightwing to be unavailable) who then help her to stop Langstrom's Man-Bats. The episode was never produced as the rights to the Batgirl character were not held over and were being used by the team on The Batman at the time, a show separate from the DC animated universe and lasted five seasons over the span of five years, Green Arrow and The Question were put in the episode's script, both substituting for her.

Appearances and references
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 * "Heart of Steel"
 * "I Am the Night"
 * "Shadow of the Bat"
 * "Harlequinade" {{mo}}
 * "Batgirl Returns"

Feature film

 * Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero


 * "Holiday Knights"
 * "Sins of the Father"
 * "Cold Comfort"
 * "You Scratch My Back"
 * "Double Talk"
 * "Joker's Millions"
 * "Growing Pains"
 * "Mean Seasons"
 * "Over the Edge"
 * "Torch Song"
 * "Love is a Croc"
 * "The Ultimate Thrill"
 * "Critters"
 * "Old Wounds"
 * "Girl's Night Out"
 * "Chemistry"

Feature film

 * "Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman"


 * "My Girl"
 * "Unity"


 * "Knight Time"

Justice League
 * "Lap Bat"
 * "Trick or Trick?"
 * "More Than One Way"
 * "The Three Babes"
 * "Lady-X"
 * "Miss Un-Congeniality"
 * "Strategery"
 * "Bat'ing Cleanup"
 * "Gotham Noir"
 * "Scout's Dis-Honor"
 * "I'm Badgirl"
 * "Ms.-ing in Action"
 * "Gotham in Pink"
 * "Hear Me Roar"
 * "Gotham in Blue"
 * "A Cat in the Hand"
 * "Jailhouse Wreck"
 * "Honor Among Thieves"
 * "No, I'm Batgirl!"
 * "Signal Fires"
 * "Cold Hands, Cold Heart"
 * "The Savage Time"
 * "Comfort and Joy"


 * "Epilogue"


 * "Rebirth, Part II"
 * "Black Out"
 * "Heroes"
 * "Spellbound"
 * "A Touch of Curaré"
 * "Splicers"
 * "Babel"
 * "Eyewitness"
 * "Zeta"
 * "King's Ransom"
 * "Out of the Past"
 * "Speak No Evil"
 * "Betrayal"
 * "Unmasked"

Feature film
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 * Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker