Batgirl: Year One - Continuity

Continuity

Several years after the publication of Crisis on Infinite Earths, which permanently altered the history of the DC Comics Universe, the company steadily began to publish mini-series rebooting the origins of its major characters. Batgirl: Year One makes several changes to Barbara Gordon's origin myth in order to reestablish her characterization in the Modern Age. Notable changes from the character's Silver Age origin include:

• Barbara's age and height are significantly changed. In the Silver Age origin, Barbara was 21 years old and stood at 5' 11". She was generally depicted as an empowered and independent woman. In Batgirl: Year One, Barbara is at 16–18 years old, having graduated from college early, and applied for field duty with the FBI, which rejected her application on the grounds that she was too short (the GCPD rejects her on the same grounds). She is portrayed as a constant victim of sexism, which gives her a motive to become a vigilante: to prove a point.

• Batman is no longer Barbara's superhero idol. While the Silver Age Barbara Gordon fashioned a Batgirl costume out of admiration for the Dark Knight, in Batgirl: Year One she does so as a practical joke to play on her father. The Black Canary serves as her main inspiration for becoming a vigilante.

• This story takes place around the fourth year of modern Batman's career; Robin's role has been established, but James Gordon is still a Captain.

The story also inserts themes and motifs which foreshadow her transformation into the information broker Oracle:

• Barbara's college major was in "Computer Science and Data Retrieval", she is shown to have computer hacker friends, displays an interest in gadgets and computers, and has a part-time job as a library researcher (a variation of her pre-Crisis career as a librarian).

• There is a panel in which Robin shows Barbara an image of the Joker on the Batcave's computer, and he warns her that she should run away if she sees him; and in the final chapter, when she fights simulations of Batman's rogues, Barbara is confronted by a mannequin of the Joker who is drawn similar to how he appears when he cripples her in The Killing Joke.

• Barbara comments through narration that she is fighting for control of her life against a fate she has no say in. This could apply to the struggles with her father, Batman, and society to live the life she wants, or serve as an allusion to her fate in The Killing Joke.