Batgirl Special #1

Batgirl: One-shots

by Barbara Randall Kesel, Barry Kitson (Illustrator), Bruce Patterson (Illustrator)

The last adventure of Batgirl Barbara Gordon before the horrific events of THE KILLING JOKE! Batgirl's final case as she goes after Cormorant, the man who "killed" her once. But is it a case of justice, or an obsessive desire for revenge?

Genres: Dc Comics, Comics, Batman, Superheroes, Comic Book

48 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Barbara Randall Kesel is an American writer and editor of comic books; her bibliography includes work for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, CrossGen, Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics. Kesel is a very outspoken opponent of sexism in the comic book industry. She is known for her strong female characters, influencing her then husband Karl's work on Lois Lane in the Superman titles and creating Grace, the ruler of the Golden City location in Comics' Greatest World.

Kesel initially came into the comics world after writing a 10-page letter to editor Dick Giordano regarding the portrayal of female comic book characters. At Dark Horse, Kesel was part of Team CGW, responsible for most of the design and creation of the setting and characters in the Golden City location. She is currently part of book packaging company The Pack, alongside Lee Nordling, Brian Augustyn, Gordon Kent and Dave Olbrich.

Kesel has been nominated for the 1991 "Best Editor" Eisner Award for Badlands, Aliens: Genocide and Star Wars. In 1995, she was nominated for "Best Anthology" and "Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Material" Harvey Awards for, respectively, Instant Piano and Hellboy: Seed of Destruction. She won the 1996 "Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work" Harvey Award, for Hellboy: The Wolves of St. August.

Reviews

[Alex Rankine · Rating 3 out of 5]

personally i think the girl going round stabbing all the rapists was a hero not a villain but anyway

[legna · Rating 1 out of 5]

This made me more of a slash fan, than a batgirl fan…..
I understand where she’s coming from to a certain degree, being a woman in a man’s world but she greatly annoyed me. 2 stars because I liked the beginning but most of it just made me mad.

[Cybernex007 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am so confused by this special and by Babs behavior. From the character motivations to the resolution having 0 revelations, what was this? was this a continuation of something, does this go somewhere else? The premise states it’s the last mission of batgirl before killing joke but it introduces a ton of characters it seems like it expects me to know already? And batgirl’s feelings around this issue are so confusing to me. The issue opens with her taking on a hitman named Cormorant, who kidnapped a girl to lure in batgirl, who was his real target. He ended up shooting at her and partially wounding her, and she tumbled off the roof and saved herself. But apparently because this big scary dude hurt her she was left traumatized by him? I get wanted to have a plot point where batgirl finally stands up for herself at the end…but the problem is that she is BATGIRL! Beat this dudes face in! You jump across rooftops at night and have faced 10x worse than this, what is up?! You are skilled enough for sure to take this guy down. I legit don’t get it.

We then jump to the present day where in Barbara’s local library a student winds up with a knife in his back and a very similar hat to the one Cormorant wears. Barbara sees it as a calling card and all of her emotions get dug back up. She later found out that the dead student was the son of the man who hired Cormorant to original kill her, and he had a ton of sexual assault charges under his belt. She figures that his boss hired him to kill his son because he became too much of a liability. But then another body shows up outside a police precinct, with a note claiming they killed this man because of their crimes against women. Now to me this doesn’t sound a whole lot like the Cormorant batgirl ran into. And my first theory involved the idea that Cormorant somehow turned to the other side or had something happen to him and decided to start killing sexual assaulters. And I theorized that by the end of this issue he will realize how he made batgirl feel and kill himself. I probably would have liked that more than the ending we got, lol.

In other news Barbara’s old friend Marcy happens to be in town, and fully knows that she is batgirl because they came up with the idea of batgirl when they were kids. Thar chronologically doesn’t seem to make much sense, especially considering Batman would have only been active the last few years, I think we even saw Jason with Nightwing at one point in this issue…but whatever. As Barbara continues to get along and argue with her friend and tell her about her plans to track down Cormorant, she fails to pay attention to the news and the third dead rapist from the killer they are now calling “slash.” Eye witnesses also described the killer as being female. So if Barbara would have pulled in some of her hacking skills to watch the news, she may have been having a much better time.

Either way she decided to take the train down to Cormorant’s house and scope it out. To no one’s surprise he beats his wife, and he got a call from his boss to take out slash. Probably because she killed his son. Honestly this Cormorant dude has to be the laziest assassin ever, he failed at killing batgirl originally, and guess didn’t try again, and we never see him leave the house. As batgirl is storing outside his house waiting for him to do anything, Marcy pulls up in her car to get her and take her away as she is acting pretty foolish right now and has 0 evidence. Marcy is even the one to tell her that slash is a woman. Oddly enough later that night we see Slash, in their purple jumpsuit, go home and find someone waiting for them. Seems they are working for someone else who gives them information, and even though they are in shadows they are obviously Marcy even down to the curly hair on the right side of their head, and they have now put slash onto the trail of Cormorant to kill him before he kills her.

Batgirl then attempts to try and figure out who the next target is by lining up police records or something and finds out about a high profile one being released the same day. Sure enough he ended up being targeted by slash and neither that guy or batgirl made it out of the fight. Well batgirl made it out a bit better as she is still alive, but she was left severely injured and basically had to crawl her way home. Even started having visions of Cormorant and Slash chasing after her, because apparently these are the only 2 people to have ever beaten her, really? Interestingly enough in her color swapped vision, Cormorant looked a lot like joker in his killing joke appearance. That has to be intentional, right? After this night of failing she decides to flop home and have Marcy help her patch up and just call off being batgirl forever. But, that doesn’t last long and she decides she needs to finish this case. For some odd reason she also decides to go on a normal patrol only to find that there are a lot more heroes in the city beating her to the punch at super speed at every corner.

Eventually she makes her way to Cormorant’s house to walk in and confront him directly, and of course he pulled a shotgun on her and led her outside to die. Luckily slash wasn’t too far behind and Cormorant’s wife decided to lock him out of the house, lol. Unfortunately the fight quickly turned into batgirl vs slash as batgirl could have her killing anyone, even scum like Cormorant, on her watch. That gave enough time for Cormorant to get to his shed and get a lot of weapons to fight them with, which led to batgirl filling the backyard with smoke bombs to avoid being shot. Amongst the chaos the fight eventually boils down to batgirl having to throw a knife to stop slash from killing Cormorant. This didn’t stop him from wanting to kill her, but batgirl finally mustered up her courage and fought him back with her legit fighting skills. This didn’t put Cormorant down for good though, and after his wife handed Slash one of his own guns…she blew his brains out before he could shoot batgirl. Soon after slash collapsed herself from the strain and all that was left was the cops to come by and clean up and take slash into custody. As the issue comes to an end we see as Babs hands her suit over to Marcy, who for some reason is reading watchmen, and claims that she is done with it all. But we never actually found out who slash is, or who she is working for?! Come on, really?! Like there has to be more behind this special, right?!

[cauldronofevil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found a new slot for reading. When I get back from exercise in the morning (and make a cup of coffee) rather than just jump on the computer and go through my email and start writing, it’s a good time to relax with a comic book.

And since I’ve gone digital I can start up the computer and start with a comic book. And coffee. As good a way to start a day as I can think of.

I’m not sure where Batgirl was in her career when this book was written (1988). I’m barely sure where I was.

Apparently this is the last adventure before she was crippled by the Joker.

Here’s she’s a librarian and a dead body shows up in the isles. I stopped going to libraries a while ago so maybe they’ve changed. First according to this book they are certainly more crowded than they ever were!

Babs thinks she knows who the killer is. Four years ago she was almost killed. She has recurring nightmares of Cormorant killer her! But now she has to prove it.

Researching the victim, he’s apparently the son of the General who hired Cormorant to kill her! The son was apparently committing enough crimes against females to be a liability.

There’s a neat scene showing Babs getting ready to go out as Batgirl where she checks that all her equipment is working and inventories her utility belt and makes sure her batteries are charged. It’s NOT putting on makeup!

I was going to make a comparison joke about Yvonne Craig’s preparation in Batman ‘66. She had a wall that rotated in her apartment with her costume on it, but this led me down a rabbit hole. Did you know there is a pilot for a Batgirl ‘66 TV show?!

So she checks her inventory but then goes to bed. In the morning she’s greeted by Marcy — apparently an old friend. Marcy has figured out that Babs is Batgirl and is worried about her.

Here they mention Jason Bard, a character that comes up in the recent Batgirls comic and mentions that Batgirl went to Congress, which I thought they had retconned out of her story.

We cut to a scene in which Slash (as the news calls her) is killing another rapist. She does this in broad daylight while wearing a trenchcoat. She goes into an alley and removes it to reveal that it is a woman and that she has a costume. Apparently she’s a female ‘Punisher’ type.

Marcy watches Babs work her computer magic to track down Cormorant. In one panel o page 14 they screw up whose word balloon is whose! She tries to explain to Marcy that even though she found out where he lives, she can’t just call the police. She has to do this herself.

She watches Cormorant outside his house. He gets a call from someone sending him on a mission - apparently to kill Slash.

So this was a really good tale and apparently the tale of how Babs was already going to retire as Batgirl.

They screw up the last panel where Barbara says she may ‘Talk’ someone else out of being Batgirl but they have ‘Take her out of it.’ A very different meaning!

And we never find out who Slash is! I figure they’d tell us if it was Marcy!

I’m giving this as 4 because of editing mistakes.

062226

I just saw a Casually Comics video about this story. I wish I had read it first.

Great cover though.

"The Last Batgirl Story" starts with Batgirl in a face-off with Cormorant (a villain I’m currently reading about her tangling with in Batgirl Old Enemies ). He is holding a little girl hostage with a gun to her head.

He shoots Batgirl instead. She remembers this as the time she lost her innocence.

"I’d never been hurt before. Not likethat. "
"?"

So this could have had the same results as The Killing Joke. Batgirl gives up being Batgirl and becomes Oracle, not because of a disability, but because of fear. It would actually be pretty interesting….

And Alan Moore has been known to steal…

That was four years ago and she’d had nightmares ever since. Today in her own library there is a murder. A man stabbed in the back between the books with Cormorants hat left at the scene.

Barbara holds the crowd back and has someone call the police.

She finds a note near the body and pockets it. She feels responsible for not pursuing Cormorant all these years. After everyone leaves and the library closes Barbara uses the computer to look up the victim. She finds out it’s General Scarr’s son David. Scarr was the one that hired Cormorant to kill Batgirl years ago.

David has a history of violent crimes against women but no convictions. Scarr must be using his influence to get him off, but finally decided his son was a liability and hired Cormorant to finish him off.

When Barbara gets home she checks all of her Batgirl gear to make sure its working correctly. Then she goes to bed but has trouble sleeping.

In 'The Last Batgirl Story' is the note found on the body completely forgotten? Yes, the note found on the body in the 1988 Batgirl Special #1 (also known as "The Last Batgirl Story") is effectively forgotten.

At the Gotham City Police 13th precinct the police have found another body stabbed in the back with a note left behind.

"I don’t care for killing, but it must be done. This man and others like him have committed foul crimes against women and gone free. If no one else will come forward to stop the abuse, the fear, then I must. I am Justice. I am the hand that delivers womankind from fear with a single slash. "

Just like a woman! Talk, talk, talk! Can’t keep it brief!

The news dubs the killer ‘Slash’.

The next day Barbara is awoken by a knock on her door. It’s her old friend Marcy.

She has not installed a peep-hole on her door. Only a chain. When will you learn?

Marcy asks about her father but Barbara says he’s at work. Suddenly Marcy screams at Barbara. She knows she’s Batgirl and is upset that she is risking her life. Marcy feels party responsible because Batgirl was ours.

Barbara explains that she wants to do good and that she’s good at it. She shows Marcy an old Batgirl doll. Marcy understands.

Then it’s just girl talk. Breakfast, jobs, etc. Barbara mentions Jason Bard. Marcy tells her that her Scott got killed in an automobile accident and her child Chip is two years old.

Elsewhere a masked person stabs a Mr. Iverson in the stomach while he is walking on the sidewalk for his crimes against women. She tells him why.

I was just kidding but she really does give him a long speech!

A passer-by (who will later figure prominently in The Dark Knight Returns ) asks if he is okay and the killer drops Mr. Iverson in the street.

She then ducks into an alley and takes off her overcoat to reveal a weapon laden costume.

Marcy watches Barbara work as Batgirl. Barbara tells her she has connected the library computers to several world-wide databases. She found out Cormorants identity is Edward Wells. Barbara finds his address. Marcy says that Cormant’s ‘mine’. Barbara insists on doing this herself. She takes a train out to Edward’s house.

Why doesn’t Barbara ask Marcy what she mean by not wanting to call the police?

Batgirl hides in a tree and watches Cormorant watching TV and being served beer by his wife.

Someone calls for Eddie and while he answers the phone she sees the reports on TV about ‘Slash’. We can see she has some bruises on her face. Eddie tells his wife he has work to do. He grabs his weapons. She asks if he is going to kill Slash?

Batgirl is waiting to catch Eddie red-handed when Marcy pulls up and tells her to get in the car. She does. Marcy tells her to call the police or Batman because she has no real proof. Marcy tells her she looked like a prowler peeking in windows.

On the way to wherever they are going they hear a scream in an alley and Batgirl jumps out of the car to investigate. She sees that Nightwing and Robin already have a mugging under control. She jumps back in Marcy’s car.

Marcy tries to convince her that Slash is the real killer, not Eddie.

Elsewhere Slash is met by an shadowed person who tells her to add another to her Evil Men list. Slash asks if he is the one who did this to you? The married woman tells her that Cormorant is going to try to kill Slash so she will have to kill him first.

Suddenly there is a picture of Barbara back in the library telling herself that Slash comes before Cormorant. I almost feel like the pages are printed out of order!

Back at home Barbara figures the murder victims must be in the police records even without convictions. Slash must have access. Barbara thinks Slash’s next victim will be a man just released. Caterino. Marcy warns her not to get too obsessed and ease off.

"Not until Cormorant’s caught! "

Huh? I thought she was going after Slash?!

Caterino is staying at a halfway house rather than be in protective custody. Batgirl sneaks into his room and warns him that he is a target. He knows.

Batgirl watches from the rooftop but soon sees Slash about to stab Caterino. She busts in the window. Caterino - quite rightly - says it’s about time!

Slash tells Batgirl that she should be helping her instead of trying to stop her. Caterino has had enough of this jibber-jabber and tries to break free. Slash cuts him. Caterino bleeds while they discuss whether they should kill or jail criminals. They fight.

Slash stabs Caterino again and then stabs Batgirl.

"For every attacker I remove, another innocent woman is safe. "

Slash escapes. Caterino doesn’t. Batgirl tries to chase but passes out and has her nightmare again. When she comes too, she quits.

Batgirl’s through

Batgirl stumbles home and Marcy patches her up, lecturing her about calling the police. Barbara assures he that Batgirl is retired. Marcy leaves to call her mom and her son.

Batgirl is swinging across town. On patrol I guess. She watches three crimes get stopped by other (unidentified) heroes and decides that the world is protected enough and that they can catch Slash. She’ll retire Batgirl right after she catches Cormorant.

So she goes to Cormorant’s house. She. Tells Eddie she is her to take him in for the murder of David Scarano! General Scarr’s son. He tells her he is innocent. He goes to get a drink (and a shotgun).

He tells her - quite rightly - that this is self defense and she is trespassing. Eddie’s wife comes in and he tells her to leave. Eddie leads Batgirl outside and is about to shoot her when he gets a thrown knife in the back from Slash! He tries to go back inside but his wife has locked the door.

Batgirl attacks Eddie. Then she tries and fails to rope Slash. Eddie runs. Then he comes back with more guns and shoots at them both.

This story is an absolute mess. The core ideas and outline are very good - and this would make a great retirement for Batgirl that would even allow her to be Oracle.

In a way, it would be a better outcome than the Killing Joke, which has legitimate problems others are better equipped (and interested) in arguing than I am.

But the execution is just plain wacky. We don’t have enough background on Marcy to understand who she is. Maybe just because we haven’t read about her. But Marcy also changes her ideals back and forth over the story in ways that don’t make sense.

Barbara as well seems to go back and forth between different ideals and thought processes. Busting in on Cormorant just seemed amateurish and forced by the plot rather than logic.

The huge battle at the end has more believability problems than a lot of superhero fights.

So this should really be a 1, but it at least aims high. It’s fitting it should be in this collection, but I think it needed much stronger plotting and editing.

The art is fine, but the story could use better.

2 stars

Of course I just discovered that I already reviewed this and gave it 4 stars. Oh well.

[Sophia · Rating 2 out of 5]

For someone who doesn’t like loose ends, there sure were a lot of them in Batgirl’s last case!

This branches from a story that was definitely Pre-Crisis. While I don’t mind that so much, I wish it gave us a more emotional payoff.

Also could they have not brought in an existing friend for Barbara to confide in? This is Marcy’s one and only appearance.
Would’ve been nice to see any of Babs regular inner circle (for more than 1 panel).

There are actually so many little things that don’t make this story work for me. It’s a little disappointing. I wish we could’ve seen Barbara use all of her skills.

[Blake Billings · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm curious what people thought of this story at the time. Did the writers come up with this specifically to tie into the Killing Joke? I always thought Barbara Gordon became Oracle because she was paralyzed, but this story makes it seem like she was headed down that path anyway. And I'm not sure how I feel about that.

[Rizzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a prequel to/advertisement for the Killing Joke, this is obviously a failure. But just as a little Batgirl tale? Completely serviceable.

[Anna Frohling · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wait so Marcy wasn't Slash? You never find out who it is?

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat all over the place. I’m glad this isn’t actually Batgirl’s last mission.

[gemma · Rating 2 out of 5]

2⭐️ didn’t love this one. was rooting for slash!

[Eva · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will never think a woman going around killing rapists needs to be stopped

[PMoslice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read too many Batgirl stand alones, but this one was decent. I get what the author was trying to do and the internal struggle Barbara Gordon is having, and the need to face off against the person who put her in this place of fear. There were some points where I thought things could have played out differently, but all in all a decent read.