Gail Simone is awesome. She has done a lot of stories across many DC books and animations that I just love. By far, my favorite thing she worked on was the Birds of Prey comic book. Starting her run on it back in August of 2003 (at least that is the comic release month) and going until September 2007, then getting back on the book in July 2010 and writing 13 out of the 15 issues. But to me, there is one character she created that just doesn’t get the love I feel that character should.
That character is Charlotte Gage-Radcliff, otherwise known as Misfit.
Now Gail Simone is a very active twitter person. And I do mean VERY active. That said, she never replied to my question of why Misfit was created. Aw well, maybe someday I’ll find out.
The character Misfit does not have much in the lines of a back story. The first time the reader hears about her is issue 96, where there is tell of a new Batgirl in town. Oracle, aka Barbara Gordon, aka the first Batgirl, takes this very seriously. It is not until issue 98 that we get the first real shot of this new Batgirl.
Very much a bargain bin costume but the opening line just helps sell it. It is found out in this fight that Misfit has the power to teleport, plus a healing factor while she is teleporting. The DC wiki said that she might have super strength to some degree, but I think her skills come from studio karate. Which when you add in her very powerful ability of self teleportation, makes her a very tricky person to fight. After a battle with both Black Canary and Huntress, Misfit takes a bullet for Huntress and then “bounces”, as she calls it, away. Only a second later does Misfit come in on Barbara. Misfit is also back to full power, the bullet wound healed. After another fight, this time with Barbara, Misfit says that she will drop the mantle of Batgirl, but won’t stop being a hero.
It is here that I would like to also mention that, in the years where Cassandra Cain, Batgirl II, left the Bat family and before it was decided that Stephanie Brown took the mantel, that there was a mini contest of sorts going on at DC. I say contest, but it was really just writers looking for the new Batgirl. One of the names that were dropped for a new Batgirl was Misfit. Gail Simone was against this. Gail said that Misfit was created to be a fan girl and Misfit herself could never truly be a great successor to Cain. Plus, Misfit had a super power. Gail felt that the Bat family needed to be ‘powerless’, as it were, showing what can be done without a gift and only with training. Of course, the billions Bruce has help as well.
It is not until issue 101 that we see Misfit again, this time in her real costume. Please see the first picture for that one. Misfit comes to the aid, of course without Barbara’s okay, of the team. Misfit does change the flow of the battle and was the distraction they needed to win, but at the same time, Barbara is getting a real problem and did not need Misfit to “help”. After this mission, a character known as Spy Smasher takes over Barbara’s team. The first, and only, mission Spy Smasher uses the team on is a battle for Tora Olafsdotter, AKA the hero Ice, and has the team fighting the other book Gail Simone was writing, Secret Six. In this huge fight between both of Gail’s teams, Misfit ends up fighting Harley Quinn.
Believe it or not, this image is about as serious as their battle got.
After a long battle, the Birds win and the team flies back home. Barbara calls out Spy Smasher. When Spy Smasher goes over, Smasher has information about Misfit that she things that Barbara might like to have. Of course, before any of this info can be found out, there is a fight between Barbara and Spy Smasher. Barbara wins and Smasher leaves, but Smasher does leave behind the information. The only thing of any value from this information is an address, Misfit’s home address. Barbara gets there and finds Misfit just sitting in front of her old, now burned down building. Misfit, at long last, tells Barbara her story.
It was on this scene that the Gail Simone run of Birds of Prey ended. After which, the book was handed over to Tony Bedard. While the book was still ok, Tony was just not Gail, not by a long shot at least. Tony did give Misfit more screen time, which was nice, but he kinda made Misfit into an angry kid, having her hate going to school and making it so Misfit seems that she wanted to just drop out and be a full time superhero. The reason why I am not going into these stories as much is, well, I don’t have them. Again, it is not from lack of trying to find them, just from a lack of finding them. But I have read a few of the issues as well as the trade paperback of the book “Platinum Falls”. He also gave Misfit and another of Gail Simone’s characters, Black Alice, a relationship. That one, yeah, I don’t know how to feel about that.
After the run of Birds of Prey ended, Misfit was tossed to the side. Very rarely, if at all ever, was she talked about or even thought about. Misfit had a very small part in Teen Titans, but even then it was a more of a background character and for only two issues. It was not until the Birds of Prey title during the Brightest Day time was she brought back. It was issue 7 of the 15 total issues where her name was finally seen again.
Of course, at the time, readers did not know there were going to be only 15 books total of this run and people like me were very happy to see Misfit’s name on a list of people Barbara wanted in her crime fighting life. It was issue 10 where we finally got to see Misfit again.
But after these images, there was nothing. Her name was not talked about, her character was not seen, and no one in DCU noticed.
So where is Misfit now? Well, right now, Misfit is still nowhere. With Gail Simone writing the new Batgirl title, I can dream that we’ll see Misfit again but at the same time Misfit could have been just deleted from the DCU as a whole. If that is the case, and I really hope not, then I guess I’ll just have to live with my good memories of my favorite character Gail Simone created.
Well next week is the last week of this series for now and I hope you know a bit more about a character I like.
All images (c) DC
All images (c) DC
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