Awesome / Batgirl (2009)

• Stephanie is hurt, suffering the affects of Scarecrows fear-gas and about to give up when Barbara Gordon yells "Batgirl, get up!" though the comms. Seizing on this sudden change of heart, Steph gets back up and proceeds to wipe the floor with Scarecrow and pull off an awesome Smoke Out as a encore. "I'm Batgirl."

  Barbara: She might just be.

• Red Robin #10. Prudence from the League of Assassins has a gun pointed at Steph's head. Tim is thinking about how she's going to die and it's all his fault, how he should have stopped her from being a vigilante, blah blah blah. What does Steph do?
  Steph:GUN! HUP! (Beats the crap out of Prudence and send the gun flying)
  Tim: Holy Crap.
• Barbara Gordon, former Batgirl who was paralysed by Joker and spent the time since as Oracle, is on a train, narrating to herself. Some goons get on the train, and move up behind her. Cue two inbetween panels, a block of solid black with sound effects. Second panel, Barbara is leaving the train with the three goons barely conscious.
• Steph's flashback to when Cass left, showing the two fighting some mooks by themselves and chatting, Steph in her Spoiler identity, Cass as Batgirl. They both, while kicking in heads, tell the other that someone is behind them. Two panels, almost mirrors of each other, as the two deliver a Offhand Backhand each to a thug.
• Steph beating Livewire. A villain who fights Superman, and Steph beats her, offpanel.
• Steph double-teaming Roxy Rocket and Doctor Phosphorous before taking on Riot, saving the current Batman's life and earning his respect.
• Oracle's Battle At The Centre Of The Mind with Calculator, from hiding all her knowledge from him with some self taught mental blocks to forcing them into his mind to just beating him up while going through his worst memories. Finally, with help from Steph and Wendy Harris, Calculator's daughter, former Teen Titan who was paralysed and has been receiving counselling from Babs, leaving Calculator stuck in a loop of all his worst memories.
• Catching Detective Gage and saving his life, inverting the classic and sexist cliché of Damsel in Distress.
• When Bruce shows up and is revealed to have been faking his death, Steph slaps him in the face.
• Batgirl. Supergirl. Fighting Draculas. It's crazy. It's awesome. It's complete, unadulterated, Crazy Is Cool.
• Steph's Stealth Hi/Bye to a helicopter. Without it turning away. She out-Batman'd the man himself there.
• Steph's Batman Gambit on Slipstream. As well as not getting killed like one would logically do when dealing with such an enemy, she notes that his reaction time isn't as fast as he is, as he's only going in straight lines and had to memorize Gotham's maps. So, how does one beat an enemy with Super Speed? By, of course, electromagnetic gooperangs.
• Her teamup with Klarion ...dum dum dum... The Witch-Boy. When challenged by another witch to a duel, she just hits them in the face. Then, later, she manages to save Jordana's life by pulling Klarion into a kiss, then takes him out to enjoy Valentine's Day...until Klarion turns Jordana into a toad.
• Steph confronts the mysterious backer of the Reapers, discovering it's her dad, Cluemaster. He explains what he was doing, then uses a Black Mercy on her to stop her catching him. He taunts her to come find him as she tosses a batarang at him, which misses and ends up in the wall next to him.
  "You missed."
  (Cue Batarang exploding into goop and trapping his arm to the prison wall so he can be stopped)
• In the final arc, Stephanie leads a charge into Blackgate to subdue a riot. Supergirl, Stargirl, Miss Martian and Bombshell are powerful and experienced heroines. And they all follow Steph's lead!
• The fact that Stephanie (and subsequently Bryan Q. Miller) was able to win the crowd over so much that even those who weren't fans of her are calling foul on DC's treatment of her in the New 52 is amazing. She is the Goddamn Batgirl!
• Steph had the willpower to overcome a faceful of Black Mercy. For the uninformed, that plant brought Superman to his knees.

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