Oracle is the superhero alter ego of the hacker Barbara “Babs” Gordon, daughter of Gotham City’s Commissioner Gordon. She and her friend Benjamin attempted to intervene in a robbery, but Babs was shot and left paralyzed in her legs. She was sent to The Arkham Center for Independence, a rehab facility, but once she got over her own bitterness, she discovered strange happenings at the ACI. While I thought Nijkamp sensitively portrayed Ms. Gordon’s trauma and the physical challenges she was facing, there was also a rather heavy-handed message that people who have disabilities don’t necessarily need to be “fixed.” This graphic novel was an interesting reimagining of a superhero origin story. ( )

Barbara Gordon is a teen hacker with a tendency to run towards trouble. Then she finds herself in a wheelchair, paralysed from the waist down after a gunshot wound. she goes to the Arkham Centre for Independence to undergo physical and mental rehabilitation. She's trying to adjust to her new normal but she can't help feeling that something here is wrong. She can't ignore it and keeps pushing, but everyone seems to think it's just her trying to avoid some truths. Still she finds friends and a purpose and a future.
Interesting to see Barbara as younger when she loses her ability to walk and I have to wonder if this Barbara will become a librarian. ( )

The Oracle Code by Marieke Nijkamp is another book I have recently read that was published this year. This graphic novel first caught my eye because I love Batman and anything set in Gotham. Oracle is a character from the Batman comics whose actual name is Barbara Gordon— commissioner Gordon’s daughter. In the original comics, she begins her crime fighting career as Batgirl. After an attack from The Joker in The Killing Joke results in spinal cord damage, she is rendered paraplegic and begins using a wheelchair. It’s at this point that Barbara decides to become The Oracle and use her skills with computers, hacking, and her general intellect to aid other superheroes.

Interestingly, this YA retelling of Oracle’s beginnings follows a new storyline. Barbara is much younger for one, still a teenager. When hacking computers one night and overhearing about an armed robbery, she races off to help without much of a second thought. The incident ends with her injured and in a wheelchair. Thus begins her stay at The Arkham Center for Independence.

Soon after arriving at the Center, Barbara realizes not everything is as it seems. While the general plot of this story is the mystery of what’s going on in the Center, the greater focus is placed on Barbara’s experience as she tries to come to terms with what happened and how it did, and didn’t, change her. Just as she is trying to get her bearings, one of the other patients suddenly disappears. While a reasonable explanation for her departure is given, Barbara thinks there’s something more to the story. Will she be able to put the pieces together in time to help her new friend?

I really enjoyed this retelling of Oracle’s origins. Of course I loved seeing and reading a book with a physically disabled main character, both in the story and on the cover! There really needs to be more disability inclusion in books. Not only does this story focus on a strong female superhero, but it also shows some of the struggles she must go through along the way. Barbara begins to learn that she doesn’t have to give up on her passion or the life she dreamed for herself, she will just need to adjust the way she goes about it.

The illustrations were by Manuel Preitano and complimented the themes of the story perfectly. I particularly loved all the ways the puzzle pieces were incorporated into the panels and layouts.

The Oracle Code: 5/5 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ( )

Meh! Readable. Lazy. Very, very heavy handed. Many racially diverse background characters, but the nonwhite characters stay very background and very flat, even Babs' two "best friends." Plot holes galore: how did Jena find all this out? and why is she so evasive if she's already solved the whole mystery? The visual puzzle piece theme bugged me irrationally---have the artists ever seen puzzle pieces before? If they have, you really couldn't tell! ( )

A nice story about Oracle, with some great art. A lot of good themes about friendship and not trying to go it alone, particularly when people offer to help and care about you.

I'm a little confused on some of the plot details, like how a particular character knew important plot details for no apparent reason, but maybe she's some kind of psychic? I guess?

Otherwise I really liked that the narrative was very much about women and women helping each other. And how Babs kept fighting against the "fix us" narrative. That was great.

Overall, nice little Oracle GN. ( )