Celebrating Ten Years of Batgirl: April 2000

With recent revelations about what is going on with my favorite Batgirl in current continuity (I will do a post about this at some point soon) and her appearance in Red Robin, I am psyched once again to bring you the early adventures of our heroine. Today we will look at her two comics of April 2000: Batgirl #3 and Young Justice #20.

  As you recall from the previous issue, Batgirl’s crush, John Robinson, died while she was trying to save him. It was in no way her fault…but Batman for some reason feels that she could have done better.

The family dynamic is quite interesting. We’ve already talked about how Batman is very much a father figure to Batgirl, but this scene it’s almost like Oracle is the mother figure and they are arguing about how to raise her right.

Batman does actually talk to her about the “failure.”

  Despite her answer, Batgirl got what he was saying as you will see later in the issue.

Anyways, Batman and Batgirl arrive in one of Gotham’s many abandoned wherehouses where bad guys hang out where she proceeds to beat the crap out of seven men while Batman talks to the main guy! That’s my girl!

I love how Batman uses her to scare the shit out of the bad guys now! They made awesome partners! A true dynamic duo if you will.

Things don’t go well for long…

 

Batgirl comes face-to-face with her first super strong metahuman. Realizing that she isn’t trained for this, Batman gives her the little girl that they were saving and tells her to go. She does as ordered as the little girl cries for her daddy…Batgirl has a flashback to her biological father.

What a screwed up childhood…but despite what they were doing, the flashback shows she does this just to maker her father proud, naive to the fact that this isn’t a normal father-daughter activity. Damion Scott is a great artist as he manages to convey all this without a single line of text.

As we return to the present time, we see a young woman who still wants to make her father proud – even if this time it is Batman and not her biological father. She wants to show him she can beat the metahuman and that she understands that as he said, in their line of work they can not fail. And she shows him just that!

The relationship between Batman and this Batgirl was so awesome…I want to see that Bruce and Cassandra reunite in present continuity ASAP.

The issue ends with a cliffhanger as Batman recieves a mysterious video tape of Batgirl when she was a little girl.

I wonder how he will react….?? We will have to see next time.

That’s really it for April 200o except for in a brief cameo in Young Justice #20 by Peter David and Todd Nauck. This marks her first appearance outside of the bat-books.

Stats and Facts

Issue Firsts:

First Fight With A Metahuman

First Time Bruce Discovers She Killed As A  Child

Sneak Attack Count:

1

Total Sneak Attack Count:

13

Significant Creator Count:

Writers:

Denny O’Neil (4)
Janet Harvey (1)

Kelley Puckett (6)

Greg Rucka (1)

Devin Grayson (2)

Chuck Dixon (1)

Scott Peterson (4)

Artists:

Roger Robinson (4)

Sergio Cariello (1)

Deodato (1)

Damion Scott (5)

Dale Eaglesham (2)

Steven Harris (1)

Paul Ryan (1)

Knock-Out Count:

2

Total Knock-Out Count:

29