10 Smartest Decisions In DC Superhero History

7. Barbara Gordon Becomes Oracle - Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad v1 49 Oracle
DC Comics

The Killing Joke is in many ways essential reading for Batman fans, but there's also no ignoring the overall tackiness of the story.

For as much as Alan Moore and Brian Bolland were able to provide the definitive "multiple choice" origin story for the Clown Prince of Crime, as well as distil the essence of the character's relationship with Batman, the comic itself is also dripping in misogyny. Barbara Gordon, the first Batgirl, was used as little more than a device to showcase the Joker's wanton cruelty. Moore has even gone on record to say that editor Len Wein - when signing off on Moore's plans to maim Batgirl - told him to "cripple the bitch".

Moore has all but since disavowed The Killing Joke, despite its other successes, but it thankfully didn't spell the end for Babs. The character found new life in John Ostrander and Kim Yale's Suicide Squad comic, with the latter reportedly frustrated by her fate in The Killing Joke.

Rather than have Babs return with the full function of her legs however, the pair decided to take the character's fate in The Killing Joke and give readers a disabled hero in Oracle. Starting with Suicide Squad #23, Babs became the information broker known as Oracle and assisted DC's heroes in fighting crime. She would later found the Birds of Prey, ensuring Yale and Ostrander's decision would remain one of DC's best.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.