Barbara Gordon is the daughter of the Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon and sidekick to Batman before the shooting, seen in the above video. Her nickname “Batgirl” suggests that she would be subordinate to Batman, as her symbol is borrowed from him. But she was the most independent character at the dawn of the Bronze Age, having been created in 1967 by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino. She made her own costume, had her own supplies, and had no Bruce Wayne fortune to do so. (In case you didn’t know, Bruce Wayne is Batman.)

​

Even without the cape and cowl, Barbara was a great character. Pre-dating the Yvonne Craig portrayal in the live-action series of the sixties, she had a doctorate from Gotham State University, graduating summa cum laude, earned a brown belt in judo, and was the head librarian at the public library in Gotham City. And the best part was, despite being a female character in the Batman universe, she had no romantic interest in the Caped Crusader.

​

In Batgirl’s first appearance, the Dynamic Duo interrupt her fight with the villain Killer Moth, and tell her it’s a man’s job to fight crime. Eventually, she wins them over as a capable female crime fighter, to the point where Batman even tells Commissioner Gordon to call on her too should he need help. Annoyed by the limits of vigilantism, she even becomes a representative in the United States House of Representatives at one point.

​

Batgirl and Barbara Gordon would became a better feminist icon than Diana Prince, our Wonder Woman. Diana was regularly shown to be inferior to Barbara in the 1970s, with Barbara flipping traditional stereotypes at the height of the Women’s Movement while Diana was shown to embody them until Gloria Steinem revived her on her magazine.

​

Tim Hanley sums up Barbara’s way of doing things quite nicely:

​

Much like Diana, Barbara was also the victim of betrayal. She sponsored the rehabilitation and parole of a criminal she’d locked up as Batgirl, only to have him turn around and steal valuable books from the library. Barbara was livid, but instead of trying to cripple him and get vengeance, this betrayal made her decide to run for Congress and attempt to reform the prison system. Betrayal brought out the worst in Diana and only added to her quest for personal revenge, but for Barbara it created a desire to work for the betterment of society as a whole. Barbara was a modern, empowered woman, capable of achieving anything she set her mind to. She was exactly what a superpoweless Wonder Woman should have been.