This was such a GOOD young Oracle origin story! I really loved watching as a teenage Barbara Gordon found herself and discovered the strength within her to continue. I loved how she was already a hacker and how she used those skills to save so many other kids like her in the hospital. I love how she came to accept her new situation in the wheelchair, and I really liked this graphic novel showing all these young people in wheelchairs and showing how strong and capable they all were. This was just such an incredible story and i loved every moment.

First off: I loved this book. What a great addition to the DC Ink lineup!

The Oracle Code is the story of teenage Barbara Gordon who is struggling after an accident has left her paralyzed. Her mental health is as broken as her physical body. Her father, Commissioner James Gordon, sends her to The Arkham Center for Independence, a rehabilitation clinic for young people. Barbara is stuck in limbo. She resists all forms of therapy, pushes her father away, and is reluctant to make any new friends at the center. Frustrated and stuck, she misses her old life and the computer hacking she loves. It isn’t until a late-night visit from another patient that she starts to break out from her shell of depression.

Jena’s parents were killed in a house fire that left only herself and her brother alive, and now he is missing. It sounds like a mystery for Barbara, something to focus on, but the head psychiatrist says to let it go. He dismisses her and tells her to just focus on her own recovery. But Barbara is not a young woman who can be told to let an investigation go… she has a feeling that things in the wards are not on the up and up.

Not only is the plot of this graphic novel so well developed, but the way it is told is fantastic. Barbara uses the metaphor of a puzzle to describe many of the problems facing her in her life. Her life in the wheelchair since the accident, her friend Ben who won’t text her back, the ghosts who may roam the halls, and the odd history she has uncovered. These are all pieces that she tries to put together in a coherent picture of healing.

The artwork features phenomenal shadow work and a palette of colors that include purples and blues and bright reds. It’s a range of color that I’m not used to in comics, but works very effectively in this piece. I also like how the style changes at points to illustrate the difference between reality and the stories the characters tell each other.

This is a powerful work because it focuses on the after effects of the accident. It reveals the pain and frustration, and also the resilience.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Preview and Buy the Book HERE.

Thank you to NetGalley, DC Comics, and the author/ illustrator for an advanced copy for review.

I am not familiar with the storyline/universe so some parts were not very clear as to what is overall going on, but I did enjoy the story contained in just this graphic novel.
Barbara is new to her wheelchair and sent to the center for rehabilitation. She is unhappy and closed off until a young patient starts visiting her in the night and sharing stories. Then that girl goes missing and Barbara starts to open up to others in order to solve the mystery of what is really happening at the center.

So, Barbara Gordon is a hacker in this TPB, and then she gets shot. She goes to the ACI, a rehabilitation center.... or is it. She meets three other girls there, Issy, Yeong, and Jena, who all have quite the stories. (Especially Jena).

And then Jena goes missing and even though she's wanted to leave her hacking in the past, Barbara does it again for her friend, as well as some, 'in person hacking' too (otherwise known as breaking and entering, heh).

There weren't as many well known DC characters in this TPB, but, the story was interesting, and is what kept me interested. And it was Oracle, not Batgirl, that was one of the coolest things about this book. I like Barbara as Batgirl, but, I love Barbara as Oracle, always have, always will. I mean, there are like, four million Batgirls now right? But, Oracle was unique and amazing, and I wish that we still had her in the main DC universe as well as in these other stories.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of DC Entertainment

Dear Readers, 

I am a big comic fan, but I don't know every character as much as I liked. Reading this book however not only made me interested in Barbara Gordon, it was able to help me learn more about her and crave more stories about her. 

Marieke Nijkamp's The Oracle Code is a graphic novel about Barbara Gordon, a teen hacker who ends up paralyzed in a wheelchair after being shot when she tries to go out and fight crime one night with her friend Ben. Now at the Arkham Center to help her get treatment, Barbara soon begins to find out that the halls of this center may be filled with secrets, mysteries, and codes she will need to solve to save not only her new friend who has mysteriously vanished, but other residents as well. 

The first thing I enjoyed about this book was the characters of Barbara. I really liked how she was written and how they portrayed her character development. The showcasing of her slowly warming up to people, making friends, solving mysteries, etc. was just done to perfection. 

Another thing I liked about the book was the use of stories that were told to Barbara by her friend. They were not only different stories, but they were even in different art styles. Which made them more symbolic and interesting in my opinion. 

Finally, I really like the message of the book. I don't wanna give too much away, but it is one that we don't see a lot in books with disabled characters or about disabilities. It is something I'd like to see more and it even made the villains of the story's motivation for doing what they do even more interesting. Villains with motives you can somewhat understand, but you don't agree with at all are always going to be better than the evil for evil sake villains (with a few exceptions of course). However, I think the message of this story and the villain reveal are both two things that make this book fantastic.

The only part of the story I did not seem to like is the fact that there were a few times when I wanted more details about a person or scene and it just was not there. For instance, there is a part where two characters need to go down the stairs in wheelchairs. The scene looks like it is going to showcase both of them getting down or at least show us Barbara coming down the stairs or starting to, but it just skips to the next scene. I feel like the scene set up that Barbara was a little nervous but determined to go down the steps, but we just completely skip over it it seems. Maybe there was a reason the author had for doing so. However, it was just something that stuck out to me when I was reading and left me wanting more. 

Speaking of wanting more, I also wanted to learn more about Bab's history and more about the friends she makes in the center. However, that doesn't really happen either. The book Is still great without these things, but it would have made the story a little better to fill in some blanks or at least give us a little more detail. 

Overall, this book is filled with interesting characters & has a cool art style/storytelling structure, an interesting villain plot, and a great ending.  I really want more from this world and I hope that Nijkamp writes a sequel. If not, I may want to look into the comics more. Either way I definitely did not regret reading this story and you won't either. 

This review will be out on my blog: Books 4 Jessica on March 16, 2020.

Thanks to Netgalley for an E-ARC!

This was an excellent read and an excellent YA comic! The plot is engaging and keeps you guessing, the characters have depth and growth, and the art style is excellent. For me the art was the best part of the book, its very immersive and engaging. The art style really gave insight into the characters and the setting. The full page illustrations were particularly good.

The plot is well paced, with enough twists to keep the mystery going, but not so that it feels over the top. I thought this was a nice change to the Oracle origin story, taking a different approach than previous ones. The tone is much less dark and focused more on overcoming the trauma and Barbara accepting what has happened to her. I prefer this take to that of The Killing Joke.

I really like the supporting characters and the emphasis on friendship and the acceptance of people as they are without change.

Overall, an excellent title and I would highly recommend it to middle and high school readers.

I really enjoyed this rendition of Oracle from DC comics. I thought it was captivating for a whole new audience, both young and old. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves inspirational stories, crime solving, and comics: all rolled into one!

Everything you know about Barbara Gordon up to this point, throw it out the window. This is a new story line that rocks. Barbara Gordon, hacker extraordinaire, has been left paralyzed following a gunshot wound. Now she is recovering and learning how to maneuver her new reality when a mystery grabs Barb by the ear and won't let go. Something strange is going on in the Arkham Center for Independence and anything name Arkham can't be good. Struggling with new friendships and past trauma, Barbara will use every ability she has to save a friend who accepts her just the way she is.

Overall I found this a great graphic novel. Barbara is a great hero for YA readers. Barbara may be in a wheelchair, but she refuses to let anyone say she or her friends need "fixed," because they aren't broken and they aren't alone. That is a good message.

Barbara “Babs” Gordan is a genius computer hacker. One night while she is attempting to solve a computer mystery, she is shot and paralyzed. As a result, she is sent to an Arkham rehap facility that is supposed to help her master her new wheelchair. Babs feels abandoned in this place and so she refuses to make any new friends. However, she can’t help herself and befriends another young girl who walks the halls at night. The young girl insists that her brother has disappeared and Babs is determined to find out the truth.

This was an interesting story and I found myself invested in the mystery. It didn’t feel like a traditional comic book, which is why I think it worked so well for me. I enjoyed the art and would be interested in reading more in this storyline. I love that Babs and her friends took their power. While this novel didn’t live in the superpower realm it was still empowering.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely loved this, I really appreciate the representation, the new perspective, I loved that we were taken through various emotions and stages of acceptance. I really appreciate the discussion of how old friends process new situations, how to grow together during this time, instead of growing apart. I'm glad that her and Ben were able to work together in the end. All in all, I'm got exactly what I expected from Nijkamp which was excellence.

I loved this backstory of Barbara Gordon of the Batman Universe. She suffers significantly after a gunshot wound, with both physical and mental injuries, and I loved that lesson that disabilities are not something that needs to be healed or fixed. It is such a fantastic and robust message to have in YA books, graphic novels, and the DC universe. The reader gets the whole story of how she became the oracle. At first, she pushes everyone away, and her story into her full potential as the oracle was great to see. I also loved the art style in this all-new graphic novel.

DC's re-imagined YA graphic novels continue to be well-worth the wait to get them. The Oracle Code tells of Babs and her recovery after being shot and paralyzed. Babs is frustrated, and feels like she can no longer trust her instincts. Her father sends her to a rehabilitation clinic where she meets some other like-minded students who try to help Babs get her focus back, but there is something hinky going on as well. Nijkamp is wonderfully suited to write this, it reads very realistic and does not shy away from Babs' trauma.

A very interesting book focused on Barbara Gordon of the DC universe. In this telling, Barbara goes to the Arkham Center for Independence for rehabilitation after getting shot and is soon wrapped up in a mystery at the mansion. One night, Barbara meets another resident, Jena, who wanders the halls at night to check on her brother, Timmy. Suddenly, Timmy is missing, then Jena is missing. Before long, Babs is putting all of her investigative and hacking skills to work as she tries to figure out what is going on with the missing teens.

An in depth look at an overlooked character from the Batman universe. Check out more of what I have to say in our upcoming Teen Title Talk. (airing on 2/20/2020) https://teentitletalk.podbean.com/

Barbara Gordon is hacker extraordinaire in Gotham City, at least for a teenager. One night she makes the mistake of confronting a robber and ends up shot and partially paralyzed. She's sent to Arkham Center for Children to receive treatment and rehabilitate. While there she makes new friends and runs into a mystery. Her friend that sleepwalks claims her brother's disappeared, but the doctor says that he died in a fire. A few nights later her friend also disappears, only to be told that the mysterious benefactor can no longer fund her friend's care and so she was sent to a new place. Babs is ready to put her skills, and friendships, to the test and discover the truth behind the creepy old mansion and what really happened to the missing kids.

Great artwork, lots of diversity, I'm not someone that has a disability so I can't comment on the ways they were portrayed, but they seemed to be accurately and not grossly done. I really enjoyed this, though I do wish that for a story called Oracle Code, there was more actual hacking that took place. Most of her hacking involved breaking into actual doors and not networks, and she's not a very good one if the first time she tries to break into the network she gets caught.

Well worth the read and great for any middle schooler who enjoys the Batman world and wants to know more about the other characters involved.

Copy provided by NetGalley.

This was a great graphic novel. After Barbara Gordon is shot and her legs are paralyzed, she is sent to the Arkham Center for Independence to recover the use of her legs. However, it's not long before she's in the middle of another mystery with kids going missing from the center.
The artwork on this one is amazing. It did a great job of helping to tell the story. The book is a good mix of Barbara's struggle with her condition and the mystery with the missing kids. I think they did a good job of adapting this for a teen audience since Barbara's story is very difficult.

I don’t know how I felt about this one. I feel like these new YA DC stories have been either a hit or miss for me.Going in, I don’t really know much about Barbara and have only really read her beginning, her accident with the Joker and the new 52 of when she comes back. So I feel like I know a little about her character and her personality.

We start off the story with Barabara going to a rehabilitation center to help her get better. The story of how Barabra had her accident is different from the story we know. I think one of the things that was putting me off, is how everyone and I’m pretty sure I do mean everyone, just wanted to fix her. The word kept being thrown around so much, that I was getting tired of hearing it. I think I kept expecting to see the Batgirl or Oracle that I know, but this was just really more like the beginnings of it. Some of the personality was the same, but I don’t think I could get past all the differences.

I really loved the artwork. I thought it was fantastic and I loved the colors. In the end, I think the story was okay. Wasn’t my favorite and I think it’s because I was so in the mind set that It was going to be Babs dealing with the aftermath of the Joker shooting her, but it really wasn’t that at all. I think it would definitely be interesting to new readers though.

Note: I am an able-bodied person and am reviewing through that lens.

I’m not super familiar with the DC world, but I was very interested in a disabled main character and #ownvoices author. There is not enough representation of diverse voices and I’m happy to see that more is forthcoming.

Barbara “Babs” Gordon, teen hacker, is shot when she gets too close to an armed robbery. The resulting paralysis leads to her stay at the Arkham Center for Independence for rehab and working to adapt to her new normal. At first she resists everything and everyone, but as she makes new friends and learns more about her new surroundings, she wonders if something else is going on behind the scenes.

Even though the main character is white, many of the background characters and her new friends are people of color with a variety of different ability-levels. I really appreciated the emphasis on how disabilities don’t need to be “fixed” and how having a disability is not the end of a person’s life. This issue is not with the disability, but with our ableist society. Things are not accessible to everyone and society needs to work on changing, so people aren’t having to put so much effort into learning how to navigate the minefield of everyday life. Babs takes classes on how to navigate obstacles with her wheelchair. These “obstacles” are things like steep ramps and low curbs—something an able-bodied person might just step over. We should be making things easier for everyone, not making people with disabilities jump through extra hoops. Anyway, I appreciated that Nijkamp called attention to these small moments!

Overall, I enjoyed this peek into the DC Universe and loved the focus on a female disabled hacker, friendship, and a mystery in a mansion!

*Thank you to NetGalley and DC Comics for providing a digital copy.*

Whether you are an old fan liking Barbara Gordon in the wheelchair or a new one looking for a place to begin in comics, this YA story is ready for you. This time around there are no connections to the Bat family or Rogues Galley so Barbara Gordon is going solo to become her own hero. But it takes a lot for Babs to do that after what put her in a wheelchair. Not just the gunshot but what lead up to it. Not to mention being in a place with Arkham in the name feels dreading. Justly so because there seems to be something good on in the wall of the institute and Babs is going to need all the friends she can get.

This GN is practically the perfect parallel to Gail Simone's Batgirl. Stories of confronting trauma that force Barbara Gordon out of her comfort zone. Because by all accounts, trauma is something that haunts people and just because you can recover physically, the mental wounds are more serious. It's the attacks on what empowers people that really strikes at them, especially when they are the only ones who believe it.

Stay tuned for a full review on Monkeys Fighting Robots.

It seemed like a little bit was missing, but maybe that is because i don't know much about Barbara Gordon or her origin story. I'm not well versed in DC, and although I want to and am learning I had lots of questions with this book.

An intersting addition to this well liked author's body of work. I will have no problem getying my YA readers to pick this up.