#Kim Yale

[evilhorse]

Go back to sleep, kid.

(Manhunter #9)

[cantsayidont]

January 1996. Before it became a Harley Quinn thing, BIRDS OF PREY was Barbara Gordon's (barely) crypto-lesbian crimefighting polycule. After Babs was shot by the Joker and summarily discarded by the Bat-books, John Ostrander and Kim Yale reinvented the former Batgirl as Oracle, a computer hacker and information broker who for a while was Amanda Waller's second-in-command of the Suicide Squad. In 1995, Oracle became the costar of the leading homoerotic team-up franchise of the '90s, recruiting Black Canary and later various other superheroines for what was nominally a CHARLIE'S ANGELS type adventure series with Oracle as Charlie.

What's memorable about this initial special, aside from its horny Gary Frank art, is that Black Canary doesn't know who Oracle is except by reputation and as an electronically altered voice on the telephone. However, Dinah is going through a rough patch, so when she comes home to find an answering machine message from Oracle saying she has a dangerous job for her and has already bought her a first-class ticket to Gotham, Dinah decides she has nothing better to do but play out the string. Oracle has gotten her a fancy rental car and a swanky hotel suite, in which there's a throat mic and tiny transceiver that will let Oracle communicate with her (and surveil her, although Oracle already knows everything about her, from her recent breakup with Oliver Queen to her poor credit rating) 24/7:

So, Babs not only wants Dinah to do some legwork for her, but also dresses her up like a doll, watches her every move, and is a voice in her ear basically at all times. (The early BIRDS OF PREY stories often have scenes of Babs talking to Dinah from the bath or the hot tub, because that's the kind of series this is.) Rather than being creeped out by this weird stalker/control-freak behavior from an anonymous woman, Dinah says, "Sure, why not?" and decides to just go with it, even after Oracle starts bringing other women into the mix. (It seems pretty clear that when Dinah asks, "Are these your personal taste?" she's asking whether they're what Oracle wants to see Dinah in — which Dinah evidently doesn't have a problem with — rather than whether they're something Oracle herself would wear.)

This being a '90s comic book by right-wing homophobe Chuck Dixon, there are of course various no-homo evasions throughout, but I'm not sure how one is supposed to not read this as kind of gay. The second BIRDS OF PREY story, which teams Black Canary and Lois Lane (and is written not by Dixon, but by Jordan B. Gorfinkel, the editor of the initial special), has this little aside:

There's no way anyone writing something like this in 1995–96 wouldn't know how people were likely to read this. (Dinah does know that Oracle is a woman even in their first adventure, and while Babs typically distorts her voice when communicating with people as Oracle, it doesn't appear that she does that with Dinah.)

After a while, Dinah does become curious to know more about Oracle, but Babs refuses to let Dinah actually see her. Eventually, though, circumstances force the issue in BIRDS OF PREY #21:

Dixon's script for this issue contained the following note for artist Butch Guice:

The more drama you can squeeze from this the better. We’re going for The Pieta as opposed to anything that HINTS of the sexual. This scene is apparently RIPE for misinterpretation (or OVERinterpretation.) by some of our readers.

Mission accomplished — no lesbian implications here, boss!

So, as you can see, they have the "be gay" part down pretty well, and you may also be assured that Babs spends this series doing crimes. As a hacker, she of course commits computer fraud on the regular, breaking into restricted and classified systems (she's hacked the military GPS constellation so she can track Dinah, for instance), but she also routinely steals as much money as she needs to finance whatever equipment she needs and keep her girlfriend partner and their ever-growing list of attractive female cohorts in hot cars and fancy underwear. Vigilante superheroes generally take a pretty selective attitude about the law, but the number of felonies this once rather prim policeman's daughter and one-time congresswoman perpetrates honestly puts Catwoman to shame. The stories are frustratingly stupid and the art only gets hornier as it goes on, but what a good series this could have been if it were actually good.

[babsbadass]

The dynamic between Barbara and her mentor Richard Dragon is one of those things that I would miss, it would be interesting to see how Barbara is affected by his philosophy

[comicreadingorder]

Suicide Squad by John Ostrander (and Kim Yale) Reading Order

This is the run that influenced both movies to the point where James Gunn has given it multiple shoutouts.

It created Amanda Waller, distinguished the team, and gave many characters new characteristics, like Deadshot’s death wish and Captain Boomerang’s backstory. Because of the constantly rotating lineup Ostrander was able to bring characters out of limbo like Shade (who spun out into a miniseries that was so popular it became a 70 issue run), Vixen, Bronze Tiger, and Nightshade and make them significant. As well as turning Barbara Gordon into Oracle. Something I never see mentioned is that a couple dozen issues into the run Kim Yale —a DC editor and eventually wife of Ostrander— started being credited as co-writer through to the end. Bold=Main Story Italics=Optional

Legends 1-6 — Event miniseries by Ostrander that brings the team together. You can just skim the SS parts, which is any scene with Boomerang, Waller, or Flag.

Secret Origins 14

Suicide Squad 1-10

Doom Patrol/SS Special — Takes place around the same time as 11 and 12 but 12 spoils the end.

SS 11-12

Justice League International 13, SS 13 — Crossover

SO 28 — Backstory of Nightshade. Not by Ostrander but she has a detailed origin that shouldn't be skipped.

SS 14-18

Deadshot 1 — 4 issue miniseries by Ostrander. The character doesn't show up in SS again until 22 but this issue has a break between stuff and is mentioned in 19, whereas 2-4 are one story.

SS 19

Manhunter 6, SS Annual 1 — Manhunter sets things up but the Annual feels so different that it doesn't come off like the same story.

SS 20

Deadshot 2-4

SS 21-26

The Janus Directive: Checkmate 15, SS 27, CM 16, SS 28, CM 17, Manhunter 14, Firestorm 86, SS 29, CM 18, SS 30, Captain Atom 30 — long crossover, involving some other titles by Ostrander.

SS 31-66

SS (V3) 1-8 — Returned years later for an 8 issue miniseries that spins out of Rucka’s Checkmate. It works fine without reading Checkmate (which I still haven’t.)

SS 67 — The title comes back years later as part of Blackest Night but it's really more of a Secret Six tie-in and should be read with that instead.

See Also:

Firestorm — Beginning with 55 Ostrander takes over. This was written around the same time as SS and even crosses over during the Janus Directive.

Spectre 1-22, 0, 23-33, Annual 1, 34-62 — Beginning shortly after SS ends, Ostrander begins by far the longest run anyone has had with the right hand of God. Partnered with his frequent penciler Tom Mandrake.

Martian Manhunter 0, 1 Million, 1-36 — After Spectre ends he and Mandrake tell the definitive (and again, longest) run of the character. I would recommend it to anyone curious about MM.

Secret Six — Gail Simone was a big fan of Ostrander’s Suicide Squad and this is basically her version of it, even co-writing an arc with him. It goes through a couple volumes and short return during New 52.

Villains United 1-6, VU Infinite Crisis Special, Secret 6 1-6, Birds of Prey 104-108, S6 1-16, Suicide Squad 67, S6 17-30, Doom Patrol 19, S6 31-36, DC Sneak Peek: S6, S6 1-14

[comicarthistory]

Page from Suicide Squad #43. 1990. Art by Geof Isherwood.

[nerds-yearbook]

The Sportsmaster (II) first appeared in Manhunter 17#, cover date September, 1989. He was created by Kim Yale, John Ostrander, and Doug Rice. ("Turf", Manhunter 17#, DC Comic Event)

[dirtyriver]

House ad for the 1988 Deadshot Suicide Squad spin-off mini-series written by John Ostrander & Kim Yale with art by Luke McDonnell

[gothamcitycentral]

Top 5 favorite dc writers go!!

5. Bill Finger

Head writer for Cassandra Cain’s Batgirl solo,

4. Tim Seeley

Wrote what I consider the quintessential Killer Croc comic.

3 / 2. Kim Yale and John Ostrander

Legends who made Barbara Gordon Oracle

1. Stjepan Šejić

He’s a legend.

[humansofstarshollow]

-Autumn series-

[Young Adult] Paris Geller & Lane Kim

[call-me-oracle]

oracle in suicide squad #23

[eve-is-a-terf]

team jess people are the exact same people who thought christine belonged with the phantom in the phantom of the opera or wanted hermione to end up with draco malfoy... and i don't get it AT ALL. what's the obsession with assholes?? why & how can anyone find that attractive??????

[evilhorse]

Jackpot.

(Manhunter #8)

[cantsayidont]

November 1987. The de-aging of Batgirl begins, courtesy of Barbara Randall and Rick Leonardi, who attempt to reconcile Babs' pre-Crisis history with a condensed timeline and her omission from Miller & Mazzucchelli's "Batman: Year One" (which shows Jim and Barbara Gordon Sr. having their first child, James Jr., during the first year of Batman's career). Rather than Jim Gordon's natural daughter, this story establishes Babs as his niece, whom he adopts after the death of his brother Roger. Randall even tries to rationalize Babs' term in Congress, claiming that she could still serve despite being too young because of a fictitious law called the Knight Dependents Act of 1946 (probably a nod to Sen. Henry Knight, father of the Golden Age Phantom Girl) — cute, but clearly unconstitutional, and never mentioned again. It's a valiant effort, and really a decent Batgirl story despite the contrivances, but it's hard not to feel the whole mess could have been avoided with a little editorial clarity from Bat-book editor Denny O'Neil. The real problem was that almost nobody at DC other than Randall (who also did the okay BATGIRL SPECIAL around this time) had any further use for Batgirl or Barbara Gordon, who, if not for John Ostrander and Kim Yale's creation of Oracle in SUICIDE SQUAD, would almost certainly been written out altogether.

The Dr. Mid-Nite origin, meanwhile, is a straightforward retelling of the story in ALL-AMERICAN COMICS #25 (April 1941), explaining how being nearly blinded by a vengeful gangster gave physician Charles McNider the ability to see in the dark. I always got the feeling McNider was gay (likewise Pieter Cross, the third Dr. Mid-Nite), and kept wrongly thinking DC had eventually confirmed that at some point. I did a double-take when the version of Charles McNider in the STARGIRL TV show turned out to have a wife.

[babsbadass]

article about the beautiful woman who saved Barbara Gordon😊

[webginz]

shes soooo cute.. i wish she was in her wheelchair tho 😐 but shes cute ☺️

[comicarthistory]

Page from Manhunter #3. 1988. Art by Doug Rice and Kelley Jones.