BATGIRL RETURNS & OTHER TALES OF THE BATGIRL

Batgirl Returns

Barbara Gordon snuck into her apartment late one evening after another night of patrolling the mean streets of Gotham as her crime-fighting alter ego Batgirl. She made sure no one had followed her, especially the police who had chased her after she had foiled a robbery attempt at the Gotham Bank. What irked her was how the cops seemed more interested in arresting her than they were the three would-be robbers she had tied up for them to take into custody. This was the direct result of the Anti-Vigilante Act voters in Gotham had passed the year before after Batman had been accused of a murder he did not commit. The criminal who had done the actual killing Batman's longtime nemesis The Joker had accused the Dark Knight of killing the man-who was a well-known gangster named Jack Napier-and soon public sentiment turned on the once-beloved caped crusader. 

Both Barbara and her father retired police commissioner James Gordon tried to defend Batman and say it was The Joker deflecting blame for his heinous crimes the way he always did but no one cared to listen. What hurt Batman's case was that damn movie that came out just a few months prior that was wildly popular that blatantly painted Joker in a positive light and made him out to be some sort of victim. It falsely claimed his real father was Bruce Wayne's father Thomas Wayne after he had an affair  with his mother and that the Waynes had coldly and cruelly rejected him and then later he was further victimized by Batman whom the movie painted as this out-of-control vigilante who had an unjust vendetta against the clownish criminal.

Barbara and her father protested the film when it came out. However, when she tried to remind everyone of all the horrible crimes The Joker had actually committed, including the time when he had shot and raped her in front of her father which left her briefly paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair, she herself got attacked by loyal Joker supporters many of whom said the cruelest things about her on social media and that she had even "deserved" what The Joker had done to her. Again, what irked her the most about this was that these were the same people who claimed to "believe women" when it came to sexual assault. And, like he had done so many times in the past, The Joker got off scot-free while Bruce Wayne ended up leaving Gotham in disgrace and taking Gotham's longtime protector and onetime hero with him.

Sometimes she really hated this city.

In spite of the passing of the Anti-Vigilante Act, Barbara decided to fill Bruce's and Batman's legendary shoes by returning once again to the streets of Gotham as Batgirl. She had taken a respite from crime-fighting to pursue other interests. She even left the country for a time to study abroad. She even traveled to Japan to hone her martial arts skills the way Bruce once did before he donned the cape and cowl. She returned to Gotham only to hear her father talk about retiring, which was something she thought he would never do, right before all the craziness with The Joker got started.

After James Gordon's retirement, Harvey Bullock became the new police commissioner much to Barbara's dismay. Barbara didn't much care for Harvey. She felt he was a prime example of the corruption her father vowed to root out of the Gotham PD. But here he was running the show.

Before her father's retirement, Dick Grayson became Gotham's new mayor. Along with Harvey, who was never a huge fan of Batman, Dick publicly supported the Anti-Vigilante Act. Which, of course, was highly ironic given that he was the original Robin. Barbara felt Dick betrayed Bruce for doing this. She felt this was one of the reasons why Bruce ultimately left Gotham and left Lucius Fox in charge of Wayne Enterprises at least until he came back to Gotham if he ever came back, that is.

Barbara was so lost in her thoughts she almost didn't detect the other presence in the room with her. Almost.

She threw a batarang in the direction of where the other person was standing where it hit into the wall just barely an inch from the intruder's face. The intruder, as she expected, didn't budge.