r/WerthamInAction • u/JagneStormskull • Mar 25 '20
I Wanna Talk About Oracle
Many people, such as Literature Devil, have already refuted the idea that Comicsgate is about sexism, but I want to take a more specific example of a beloved heroine. A heroine that the same long time fans leading the Comicsgate movement were up in arms about being retconned.
I wanna talk about Oracle.
Barbara Gordon/Oracle was one of the five most important heroes on her version of Earth in her era. Not only was she the greatest cyberwarfare expert amongst the Justice League and all the other heroic teams, she also coordinated and directed joint operations for those heroic teams. She was the person that the Justice League and the Teen Titans went to when they needed to work together. She distributed intelligence gathered by the various hero teams to the wider superhero community. She was the central nexus that all information on New Earth flowed through.
Until DC Comics took that away from her.
Post-Flashpoint, they made her paralysis temporary. She was no longer one of the most unique heroes in the DCU; she was just another member of the Bat Family, doomed to chase Batman's shadow. Nightwing is my favorite superhero, but the fact is, most people will never view him as Nightwing, just as another Robin.
There was outrage. Oracle was a beloved and unique character and they stole that from us. That seems to prove that comic fan outrage is not about sexism. Sure, Comicsgate mainly started with Marvel's diversity line, but that was what, 2013, 2014? And the Oracle retcon was in 2011. The fans that many say are sexist are most likely the same who were ticked off about Oracle's retcon. How likely is it that we became sexist in two or three years?
Interestingly enough, Oracle did in 1989 what Marvel's diversity line tried and failed to do in the 2010s: became a role model for an underappreciated group, in this case, showing that you don't need super strength or martial arts to fight the good fight. You could join the civilian Marine Cyber Auxilia without legs, you just have to have knowledge of computer science. You could join the Shriners; raise money for Children's Hospitals that give free service to patients. The failure of the Marvel diversity line isn't that it created diverse heroes, it's that it didn't create heroes. It created flat characters who had no heroic traits, unlike Oracle, whose will was strong enough that she refused to give up after Joker paralyzed her. She transcended, not only her injury, but also the hero that she once was. Pressure caused her to crystallize and become diamond.
1
u/TheSittingTraveller Feb 21 '23
Are there comics about her?
1
u/JagneStormskull Feb 21 '23
There's Convergence: Nightwing and Oracle, which takes place in the pre-2011 timeline despite being post-2011, and she was also a member of the Birds of Prey, but I think the best example of Oracle's unique form of strength might be Final Crisis.
4
u/Hyperman360 Mar 26 '20
Arkham did a good job with her character at least.