Barbara Gordon recently reprised her role as the Oracle in DC’s Infinite Frontier, which could be setting the stage for a Birds of Prey reunion is on the horizon. As exciting as it would be to see Huntress, Black Canary and Lady Blackhawk back together in Gotham again, this could also be an opportunity to bring back a lesser-known member of the team whose status has remained ar less certain. Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe eventually became known as Misfit, but when Barbara and the others first met her, she called herself Batgirl.
The teenage heroine was raised by her single mother in Metropolis. She developed the ability to teleport at an early age and grew up idolizing Barbara Gordon as Batgirl. When she was still very young, her mother and baby brother died in a fire that destroyed the apartment building they were living in. It was later revealed that their landlord had cut corners and avoided keeping up with safety protocols to save money. This tragic injustice would fuel Charlotte’s passion for doing the right thing.
In Gail Simone, Paulo Siqueira and Robin Riggs’s Birds of Prey #96, Charlotte decided to put her powers to good use in 2006. Taking up the mantle of her childhood hero, she dresses as Batgirl and heads into the Gotham night. She even stops a post-opera alley-way mugging that could have gone the way of the Wayne family murder if it weren’t for her intervention. Naturally, Barbara takes the news that someone is galavanting around the city using her former name personally. She and the Birds of Prey devise a plan to meet and confront this new Batgirl by faking a mugging.
Charlotte takes the bait in Birds of Prey #98 by Gail Simone, James Raiz and Robin Riggs. Huntress and Black Canary try to detain her, but her teleportation makes that more difficult than they had anticipated. She seems delighted to get to spar with the heroes and quickly gains the upper hand by taking advantage of their surprise. The fight attracts the attention of the assassin Yasemin who takes aim and shoots at Huntress. The new Batgirl sees the gun and teleports in front of the bullet. Saving Huntress, but severely hurting herself. Before Huntress or Black Canary can fully comprehend what’s happened, Charlotte teleports away and ends up in the Oracle’s office. Teleporting seems to accelerate her super-human healing abilities, so she recovers from the bullet would quite quickly and appears surprisingly chipper when she surprises Barbara.
Barbara does her best to dissuade Charlotte from pursuing a life as a superhero. She has seen the pain it causes up close and personal far too many times, but Charlotte is incorrigible. She agrees to stop being Batgirl but insists on continuing her career as a caped crusader. The next time the Birds of Prey run into her, she has made some minor alterations to her costume and changed her name to Misfit. Later, Barbara and the Birds learn about Charlotte’s tragic origins and discover that she is currently homeless, so they decide to take her in. She begins living and training with them and views the whole team as a collection of surrogate mothers. Misfit’s impulsive nature gets her into trouble from time to time, but she finally has a home with the Birds of Prey and she works hard to make her new family proud.
Her hard work earns her a tremendous amount of trust. In Gail Simone, Inaki Miranda and Nei Ruffino’s 2011 Birds of Prey #10, Charlotte is one of the only five heroes that Barbara shares her plan to defeat the Calculator with. The rest of the DC Universe is under the impression that Barbara is dead, but she has enough faith and compassion for Misfit to let her know that she’s still alive. Charlotte hasn’t appeared in the comics since this clandestine meeting, but it is difficult to imagine her retiring from the life of a superhero. Surely, she is still a thorn in the side of villains everywhere.