Not familiar with the comic continuity, what made Barbara Gordon decide to become Batgirl? Or more specifically, in what way was she damaged?

BWAH! It's so funny you ask this, because Thomash just posed this same question to me when I relayed this conversation to him.

Babs is, admittedly considerably better adjusted than the rest of them, save for the whole she's doing it just because she wants to part. That's it's own particular brand of nuts - yes, Bruce is a driven and fractured personality (refering to "when he used to be Bruce Wayne...), but I can see where dressing up as a bat and beating the shit out of criminals is sort of a healthy response to his experiences (sort of). Doing all that because it seemed like a good idea at the time? That's just whack, yo.

Barbara is still sane in a way Tim Drake (Robin III, who, like Barbara, just wanted the job) is not, however. I'm not exactly sure how to express why at the moment. I'll have to think on it for a while.

Pre-Oracle Babs wasn't especially damaged so much as frustrated, smart, and stubborn.

Yeah, getting shot through the spine by the Joker earned her a whole new set of Issues.

Babs right now has issues that rival even those of Bruce. She's startin' to scare me. In a very Wesley kind of way, now that I think about it.

I really need to find a way to get more caught up on current Bat stuff. No Man's Land stuff is the last I really read, I think.

I'm currently reading Batman: Year One, having just read an old New Teen Titans TPB -- The Terror of Trigon.

The Bat doesn't seem quite so crazy at this point. I look forward to seeing him get progressively nuttier.

I've just looked at Amazon and realized that my copy of Robin: Year One doesn't look like this at all. Instead, it's yellow, with Robin in the foreground holding his cape up like he's going to cover his face, Batman stands behind him - it looks like he's holding two cloaked people (one under each arm) and then the Hatter is on one side and three little girls dressed up like Alice on the other.

Are these just two different editions of the same book? (My Robin: Year One alsos says No. One of Four on the cover. Does this mean, I should be looking for three mor books? Or are the other three books other Year One things?

The version on Amazon is a collected trade paperback that contains all four issues of "Robin: Year One." You apparently only own Issue #1, which is pictured on the right side of this page. It'd probably be cheaper for you to just buy the collected version rather than hunt down the remaining three issues you lack, however.

I always liked Batman Beyond, but I think I was attracted to it more stylistically than I was thematically. It was beautifully shot, with an interesting combination of animation.

Babs is the Oracle, right?

Then who is the Batgirl I see in "Bruce Wayne, Murderer?"

Babs is the Oracle, right?

A-yup.

Then who is the Batgirl I see in "Bruce Wayne, Murderer?"

That's a newer Batgirl, the daughter of an assassin who was one of the people who trained Batman how to fight.

Also--fans of Outsiders Ho-yay really need to pick up the current issue. Immediately.