Showcase Presents: Batgirl by John Broome

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I always loved when the 1960s Batman TV show added Yvonne Craig as Batgirl when I was a kid, so this big book of 1960s and 70s Batgirl stories was a real treat. The Book traces Batgirl's history from her first appearance in Detective Comics #359 in 1967 through a 1975 appearance in Superman Family magazine.

Batgirl never had her own pre-Crisis comic book which makes a book like this so fun as we get to see Batgirl's appearances in several comic books written by several different writers with a variety of styles. Batgirl does guest spots in comics for the Justice League, World's Finest, Brave and the Bold, Adventure Comics, and of course, Batman.

The book sees Batgirl develop. Unlike other members of the Bat family, her taking on a superhero persona is tied to no personal tragedy. Simply put, she was going to a costume party in the costume, ran into trouble, fought some crime, and liked it. Thus, a legend was born.

Through these adventures, Batgirl is established as a (mostly) tough incredibly brilliant young woman who is a legitimate and serious crimefighter. The book really falls into three sections. Up to page 281, the book is dominated by Batgirl's guest appearances in other magazines, with a lot of appearances with Batman and Robin (August 1969). My favorite in this lot is a mind-twisting story in World's Finest #176 called the Supergirl-Batgirl Plot. The weirdest story in this section is Justice League #60 where the Justice Leaguers are shrunken and given wings by "the Immortal Queen." Batgirl didn't feature very much in the conclusion. Indeed, while most of the stories in this section are pretty good, my one complaint is that many of them have very little Batgirl-practically cameo appearances.

This section does include Batgirl's first solo stories as a back up feature in Detective Comics 384. The same issue features artist Gil Kane giving Barbara Gordon a gorgeous makeover from the original hair up and librarian glasses from the first issue as Batgirl jumps into action to find a missing attractive library patron.

The second section of the book is made up entirely of these back up features from page 281-491. These features ran from 7-10 pages in length and ran in Detective comics as an add-on to the Batman feature. Batgirl had six of these back up stories appear from October 1969-July 1970 before getting a regular monthly gig from October 1970-June 1972. The stories in this section were traditional detective and crime fighting stories with no costumed supervillains showing up.

The stories usually worked out okay, but sometimes due to length and recap requirements, the ending could seem rushed. An attempt at a Batgirl-Robin team up in these back up features didn't work out well for that reason. A two part back-up story is barely enough for one hero, let alone two.

Batgirl dealt with some more "female related" stories such as industrial espionage against the "best dressed woman in the world" who would decide what skirt length women would be wearing and a blackmailer/murderer who made wigs that attached themselves to the wears head and induces a headache. The blackmailer then makes his demand and if the client doesn't pay off, he crushes her skull. However, all of them are quite enjoyable.


Her back up series ends with her running for Congress, which may be the most ignominious fate a superhero has faced.

The final three stories are guest spots in Superman and Superman Family Magazine which are some of the better ones in the book. Batman's Super partners get to show their stuff but so does Batgirl. Even while only making appearances as a part time superhero, she's treated as a serious crimefighter.

That's the case throughout the book. One big exception to this was Detective Comics #371 which had Batgirl's crimefighting constantly frustrated by her vanity and primping over her costume and make up. She proved her feminine advantage by "accidentally" tearing her tights and showing her legs, allowing Batman to knock out the bad guys.

Now, I'm the last person to complain about sexism, particularly in older material. But come on! That's just ridiculous, even for 1968. Perhaps the most unfortunate decision made by DC Editors in this book was to use an image from that issue for the cover of the book. It doesn't do Batgirl justice. The only other story that may offend some feminist is Brave and the Bold #78 which had Batgirl and Wonder Woman making fools of themselves to win the heart of Batman. At first, it was an act to lure Copperhead into a false sense of security, but then it became serious. However, I thought the story was just a comedy story.

Of course, there are inexplicable things that happen in the book such as Batgirl giving oxygen to a nearly drowned Supergirl by dragging her to a car, letting out the air and putting Supergirl's mouth on the tire stem. Also, they offer their parody of the Godfather called, "The Stepfather." However, for fans of classic comics, these sort of incidents are features not bugs.

Despite a few hiccups, this is a fun collection of Silver and Bronze Age comics.





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