Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Young Justice season 4, episode 7.
Young Justice season 4 revealed how its version of Barbara Gordon was paralyzed, changing the origin story of how Batgirl became Oracle. In doing this, the series made Barbara into a stronger character with more agency, by making her paralysis the result of an act of heroism and sacrifice. This is a marked contrast from the comics, where Barbara was victimized as an afterthought as part of a larger story.
In the original Batman comics, Barbara Gordon was shot through the spine by the Joker in the graphic novel The Killing Joke. While many consider The Killing Joke to be one of the best Joker stories ever written, it has drawn fire for its treatment of Barbara and for how her injury was only examined within the context of how it traumatized Batman and Commissioner Jim Gordon. Shockingly, the animated movie of The Killing Joke is even worse in how horribly it victimizes Barbara. If it hadn’t been for writers Kim Yale and John Ostrander giving her a new life as the hacker Oracle in their Suicide Squad series, Barbara might have gone on to be a mere footnote in DC Comics history.
The Young Justice season 4 episode “The Lady, or the Tigress?” spins quite a different story of how Batgirl was paralyzed. A flashback revealed that, in the reality of Earth-16 where Young Justice is set, Barbara Gordon was struck down in the line of duty as part of a team of heroes working to stop the Joker from gassing the General Assembly of the United Nations. As the Clown Prince of Crime was making his escape when the power went out, Batgirl spied a shadowy figure chasing after the Joker. Batgirl recognized the figure as Cassandra Wu-San, who had been trained from birth to be the deadliest assassin in the world—but had yet to kill anyone.
Knowing that Young Justice‘s Vandal Savage had put out an order to kill the Joker, Batgirl threw herself into him, with Cassandra’s katana blade cutting through her armor and into her back. Cassandra froze up, as her League of Shadows training did nothing to prepare her mind for the possibility of harming an innocent accidentally. This added yet another dark layer to Cassandra’s origin in Young Justice. Cassandra stayed with Batgirl as they waited for medical treatment to arrive, and Barbara told the young assassin that “I wasn’t trying to save Joker. I was trying to save you.”
This led to Cassandra seeking redemption as the hero Orphan, as well as Batgirl becoming the hacker Oracle. It also led to the two young women becoming sisters in spirit, much like their relationship in the comics. Impressively, this Young Justice flashback improved upon the backgrounds of two DC Comics heroines who used the Batgirl name by making them both into active heroes rather than victims of circumstance.
