You know, just when I start to settle in to the current level of stupidity coming out of the entertainment industry someone comes up with something even stupider to say. For example, Russell T. Davies tells us that he and his staff were insistent upon giving Davros an unmutated body because they were concerned their audience would equate being in a wheelchair with being evil. You know, instead of brilliant scientist going mad after experiments mutated his body into a half-Dalek, thus inspiring him to create full Daleks. You know, the blobs that were once people but are still Nazis. So…barely people.

This is as dumb as Bad Wolf Productions seems to think their audience are. In the history of fiction I have to fight to recall three villains in a wheelchair. On the other hand, I could use kids shows alone to go over a bunch of wheelchair bound guest, main, and recurring characters who have fought for the forces of good, or at least helped in some way or were nice to other people. I wanted to limit myself to five, but a sixth insisted they get talked about. So here you go; six wheelchair bound heroes that were done because they could be good in a story as much as to show the handicapped/handicapable/whatever this month’s term is can still be cool.

Oracle (DC multiverse)

For many, Barbara Gordon is Batgirl, even though she technically wasn’t the first. However, what they forget is being shot by the Joker wasn’t what killed her superhero adventures, becoming a Congresswoman was. Barbara took the role for kicks but soon became so respectful of crimefighting and what Gotham City needed that she dropped the cowl to work within the system to find ways to benefit Gotham. This was character growth, and returning to superheroing is a step backwards for her character. At least as Batgirl.

After being wounded by the Joker, Barbara found a different way to help, by being the info girl for the defenders of Gotham. As Oracle, Barbara served as team researcher, and using her hacking skills kept track of the other members of the Bat Family. When she needed eyes and ears that weren’t available electronically, she formed the Birds Of Prey, a trio of superheroines who could be her field team, also to benefit the defenders of Gotham. This was a huge help to the team. Now Batman could focus on the investigation and let Barbara handle the research, thus speeding up his time when he needed it in the same way the police have a crime lab. That makes returning to being Batgirl TWO steps back for her character and robbing the heroes (she would also do some lab and research work for the Justice League on occasion) of a benefit just so someone could write Barbara as Batgirl again. It’s really a shame.

Chip Chase (The Transformers)

Speaking of brains in wheelchairs, Chip Case was a teen brain who often assisted the Autobots in their war against the Decepticons. He wasn’t afraid to stand up to Megatron’s goons, either. In one episode Chip memorized a formula the Decepticons were after and taunted Ravage when he tried to capture him, telling him the formula was destroyed. Then fought back against Soundwave’s attempts to read his brain, which ultimately Soundwave did for the plot to move forward but the fact that he put up a fight was still amazing. Then there’s the time he took over Prowl to fight the Decepticons.

Because computers are magic in fiction even today. Like most of this list, Chip was smart but used those smarts to make the world a better place. It’s a shame he disappeared by season 3 but at least we had him for two, and I bet that routine with Prowl helped lead to the Headmasters later on. Brainstorm seems the type to listen to old war stories.

Jacques (Action Man 1997)

Just Jacques, because when you’re part of a group called Team Extreme you don’t need a last name. Jacques was basically Oracle and Chip together. He served as the team data expert and hacker while also creating stuff for Team Extreme. Sadly I don’t recall a moment he got to be badass but the team couldn’t have done what they did without him at the computer, and nobody would have thought he was evil, because he wasn’t.

Rex (PAW Patrol)

Rex may not be an inventor or hacker like the rest of this list, but he helps rescue dinosaurs in the Dino Wilds because Adventure Bay is near every ecosystem possible. I haven’t watched every episode, so I don’t know if he had an origin for why he needed the doggy wheelchair, which could also allow him to travel really fast and extended to increase his height, but did you miss the part when I said he rescues dinosaurs!!!!!!! Rex is a good pup and I didn’t need Davies to tell me that. This is a show for five year olds, so five year olds are smarter than Russell T. Davies. Can’t say I’m surprised.

Susan Sparks (Steel)

I know, why didn’t I go with Professor X or Ironside? Well, I barely know the latter and the former I need a progress report to tell me which side he’s on these days and whether or not he’s still pushing for good human/mutant relations…if he’s even alive.

I also know that Steel is not that great a movie, looking more like a made for TV movie than a theatrical one and not being a good adaptation on top of everything else. However, Sparks is a wheelchair hero in the same mold as Oracle, serving as this Steel’s informant and inventor. She helped create the weapon that injured her but John Irons wasn’t going to let her give up. As for a weapon-packing wheelchair…

She did it first, and that’s only before Davies, not first ever. A later model even lifts her to a standing position. Speaking of standing…

Professor Miles Hawkins (M.A.N.T.I.S.)

I’ve already done a Saturday Night Showcase on our last entry. Shot by a sniper, Hawkins did something unusual for a Hollywood production and blamed the shooter (and the guy who gave the order) instead of the inanimate object that launches other inanimate objects (thus turning them into animate objects but still not alive) for his situation. He also worked to recover and turned a project intended to help him walk to instead start a war against the criminal world as MANTIS. He even created a dart gun filled with a chemical that put the target into suspended animation. In fact, everybody here created or used non lethal ordinance except for the two guys taking part in a war (Chip and Jacques. though Rex isn’t an inventor). Also, look at Carl Lumby (yep, the Martian Manhunter himself). Dude is ripped!

By the way, the pilot has an all-black cast long before Black Panther but after The Meteor Man. So you have no victories here, people.

My point in all this? I think we can deal with one disabled mad scientist (in fact they make the more interesting mad scientists) in a sea of heroes in wheelchairs. We KNOW it’s not the wheelchair that makes one evil, and coming up with evil wheelchair uses is a lower list just as evil tends to be a lower list that heroes. You’re audience isn’t as dumb as you are, Russ!