Batgirl's best runs: Year One, Gail Simone, Burnside

A constant runs through this entire corpus, whatever the era: this character is defined by what he knows. Not by his strength, not by equipment, not by a founding trauma — by his ability to understand faster than others.

Each series is therefore judged by what it does with this intelligence. Some exploit it, others forget it in favor of interchangeable action scenes.

A warning before we begin

This must be said from the outset, because it avoids unpleasant surprises:several heroines have donned this costume, and the titles devoted to them are all titled the same.

Concretely, a reader who randomly buys a volume titled by this name may find himself with a character he was not looking for - another carrier, with his own story, his own loved ones and his own issues.

These series are no less good for all that. Some are even among the most popular in the corpus. But they answer another question, and it is better to know that before opening the volume.

The practical rule:check launch year before purchasing. It is she who will tell you who it is, much better than the title.

Batgirl Year One: Intelligence as Method

Published from December 18, 2002 , written by Scott Beatty and drawn by Marcos Martin, this story returns to the beginnings of the original character.

It is, in my opinion, the best entry point into the corpus, and for a specific reason: it takes seriously the question that the 1966 issue left aside. How does someone decide to do this? With what skills, and against what resistance?

The response given is consistent with the character: she trains, she observes, she documents. Its advantage is never physical — it is always informational.

Marcos Martín's drawing is worth noting for its own sake. Clear, airy, with a sense of cutting that recalls the best pages of the Silver Age without ever seeming nostalgic. It is one of the most beautiful graphic objects in this corpus.

A practical advantage: the story is short, self-contained, and requires no prior knowledge.

The other carriers

Two series are worth noting, even if they don't concern the original character.

The one launched on February 2, 2000 , written by Scott Peterson and drawn by Damion Scott, features a very different carrier: silent, trained since childhood, whose relationship with language constitutes the very subject of the series. Scott's drawing, very stylized and close to graffiti, contrasts radically with the codes of the title.

The one started on August 19, 2009 , written by Bryan Q. Miller with Phil Noto on the first covers, adopts a significantly lighter tone. It is based on the humor and energy of a character who was not predestined for this role, and it maintains an excellent reputation among those who have read it.

Both of these series are worth watching for their own sake. They bring nothing, however, to those seeking to understand the original character.

Gail Simone: intelligence after the ordeal

The series launched on September 7, 2011 , written by Gail Simone with Adam Hughes on the covers, marks the return of the original character in this costume after a very long absence.

This absence was not an editorial oversight: the character had occupied another function for years, imposed by a traumatic event. The return does not erase it — it makes it the subject.

This is what gives this series its strength. It does not tell of a triumphant return but of a difficult recovery, with relapses, doubts and confidence to rebuild. The character's intelligence is intact; it is his certainty that has been undermined.

Simone had written this character for years in another context, and this familiarity is felt: nothing seems stuck.

For a reader who already knows the character, it is the richest series in the corpus. For a newcomer, it presupposes a context that will have to be sought elsewhere.

The 2015 series: contemporary intelligence

Launched on June 10, 2015 under the direction of Cameron Stewart, this series did more than renew a character: it renewed its audience.

The principle is a move. The character leaves his usual neighborhood for a young and trendy area, goes back to school, surrounds himself with roommates, and faces threats that relate as much to the social network as to organized crime.

Intelligence is used in a way that is unprecedented in the corpus: applied to a digital environment, to data, to online identities. This is the first run that truly treats the character as a woman of her time rather than as an heir to a hero from 1939.

The design, colorful and graphic, contrasts with the usual dark aesthetic. This choice divided longtime readers and appealed to an entirely new audience — which is precisely the desired effect.

This is the series I recommend to anyone who has never read superhero comics and wants to start with something accessible.

The following series

Three publications complete the picture, without imposing themselves.

That of July 27, 2016 , written by Hope Larson with Rafael Albuquerque in the drawing, extends the previous direction by softening it slightly.

Batgirl & the Birds of Prey , launched on August 17, 2016 by Julie Benson and Claire Roe, places the character in a team context. It's a good way to see him function as coordinator, a role he naturally occupies.

Finally, the series started on November 6, 2024 by Tate Brombal and David Talaski is too recent to be judged with hindsight.

What is rare about this corpus

An observation that goes beyond the scope of this character: few figures have seen their identity carried by so many different people, with so much success each time.

The ordinary case, when an editor gives a costume to someone else, results in readership rejection and a quick return to the original wearer. Here, each of the series concerned found its audience and left a lasting mark.

The explanation undoubtedly lies in the costume itself, which is not associated with any imperative origin. It assumes no particular power, no founding accident, no lineage: anyone competent can wear it, and no story needs to justify the transmission.

For the reader, this flexibility has an advantage: each series can be read independently, without needing to know the previous ones. For the collector, it has a disadvantage: the corpus does not form a whole, but a series of parallel sets.

A practical consequence of this flexibility is worth noting: the collections devoted to each carrier can be read in any order. You can discover the 2000 series after that of 2015 without losing anything, which is rarely the case on a corpus spread over so many years.

Mistakes

Three faults come up among new readers.

Buy a volume without checking the year. This is the most common, and it leads to the discovery of a carrier that we were not looking for. Check the launch date, systematically.

Start with the 2011 series. It is excellent but relies entirely on what precedes it. Without this context, we read a story of reconstruction without knowing what the character is reconstructing himself from.

Search for the character only under this name. For years, he carried another identity, in series indexed elsewhere. Ignoring this period means skipping a central portion of its trajectory — and it's also the cheapest to acquire.

A fourth, rarer pitfall:judge the 1966 issue in terms of modern series. The tone is light, the plot fast, the stakes thin. It is a document about an era and a mode of production, not a reading that rivals what was written forty years later. To approach it otherwise leads to unfair disappointment.

A fifth point, for readers who come from the adaptations: the versions on screen borrow freely from the different carriers, mixing traits and journeys. Searching the comics for the exact version you know will lead to disappointment — not because it doesn't exist, but because it's split between several distinct characters.

Two routes

The choice depends on your familiarity with the universe.

If you find out. The 2015 series first, for its accessibility, then Batgirl Year One for the origin. Two short reads, no prerequisites, and a good idea of ​​what's special about the character.

If you already know the universe. Batgirl Year One, then the period where the character wears another identity, then the 2011 series which draws the consequences. This journey follows a progression that the corpus rarely makes readable, and it is the most satisfying.

A remark common to both: all this is found in very widespread and inexpensive collections. The 1966 issue is based on another logic – that of collecting, not that of reading.

For prices, see ourrating analysis; on the original booklet, ourdedicated article.

A final word on availability: all of these series exist in volumes, including the oldest. Nothing therefore stands in the way of a complete discovery of the corpus, provided we accept that it is not a single story but several parallel propositions.

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