B+

The Oracle Code

DC comics has been publishing graphic novels for YA readers that retell the origin stories of some of DC’s comic book heroes (see: Shadow of the Batgirl). This has been a really fun run of stories, with an emphasis on inclusion among writers, artists, and characters. Each story is a stand-alone so you don’t have to worry about committing to following a character for hundreds of issues or for knowing anything about them ahead of time.

In The Oracle Code, teen Barbara Gordon loses her ability to walk after being shot while fighting crime. She moves into the Arkham Center for Independence, where she is supposed to get physical and emotional therapy and learn to use her wheelchair. Many of these therapies seem very helpful – but the head of the Institute keeps talking about “fixing” people so you know that’s not good – and then people start disappearing. What’s a hacker crime fighter to do?

I liked the combination of gothic (creepy house, ghost stories) with modern (computers, sleek medical facilities), as well as the mix of humor, tragedy, terror, and super fun mystery solving. I also thought that Barbara’s journey from grief to acceptance and finally to embracing her new life was well done. Friendship is shown to play a critical role in healing and thriving and I adored the other teens that Barbara meets at the Institute. Meanwhile, it was made abundantly clear that no one who uses a wheelchair needs to be fixed, although some therapies and training sessions are handy.

The anti-ableism message of the story is not subtle, but sometimes subtly is overrated. I enjoyed this story and it gave me a new perspective from which to approach persona and fictional disability narratives. The only thing holding this story back is the sense that it has so much emotional and plot baggage to sort through that it could have used a bit of expansion and breathing room. I recommend this for comics fans as well as people interested in disability representation.

– Carrie S

The #1 New York Times bestselling author Marieke Nijkamp (This Is Where It Ends) and artist Manuel Preitano unveil a graphic novel that explores the dark corridors of Barbara Gordon’s first mystery: herself.

After a gunshot leaves her paralyzed, Barbara Gordon enters the Arkham Center for Independence, where Gotham’s teens undergo physical and mental rehabilitation. Now using a wheelchair, Barbara must adapt to a new normal, but she cannot shake the feeling that something is dangerously amiss. Within these walls, strange sounds escape at night; patients go missing; and Barbara begins to put together pieces of what she believes to be a larger puzzle.

But is this suspicion simply a result of her trauma? Fellow patients try to connect with Barbara, but she pushes them away, and she’d rather spend time with ghost stories than participate in her daily exercises. Even Barbara’s own judgment is in question.

In The Oracle Code, universal truths cannot be escaped, and Barbara Gordon must battle the phantoms of her past before they swarm her future.