Misfit (DC Comics)

Misfit
Misfit tries to take over for Oracle in Birds of Prey #101. Art by Nicola Scott
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Birds of Prey #96
Created by	Gail Simone
In-story information
Alter ego	Charlotte "Charlie" Gage-Radcliffe
Team affiliations	Birds of Prey
Notable aliases	Batgirl
Abilities	superhuman strength teleportation healing factor

Misfit (Charlotte "Charlie" Gage-Radcliffe) is a fictional character in the DC Comics Universe. She first appeared in Birds of Prey #96 as the latest Batgirl, before taking on her own identity as Misfit.

Character history

The new Batgirl

Misfit as the new Batgirl. Art by James Raiz.

Misfit debuts as a shadowy figure, wearing an homemade variation of the Barbara Gordon's classic Batgirl costume, enough elaborated to seem the original article in the night. She seems to have some proficiency with martial arts and Batarangs, that uses to save a couple from muggers. The male of the rescued couple says "Batgirl is back!"

That's enough for Barbara to send Black Canary and Huntress to find the new Batgirl. With Gypsy as a lure, acting as a damsel in distress. The girl then reveals herself, and after displaying her metahuman powers of teleportation, superstrengh and enhanced healing, saves Huntress from being killed, and displaying her extensive knowledge of the Bird of Prey activities, she teleports right behind Barbara to speak with her. Oracle, impressed by the young girl abilities, but deterred by her young age, puts a fight with her, and show her photos of Stephanie Brown abilities in hopes to make her retire. The still unknown mystery girl agrees to retire her Batgirl identity, but not to abandon her heroic activities.

Misfit

In fact, she simply applies some minor cosmetic changes to her costume, like a seagull wing instead of the batwings, and a denim miniskirt, and renames her Misfit . Her proficiency with her powers in this period seems enhanced, as she's now able to teleport between Metropolis and Southern California and from Oracle's headquarters in Metropolis to an unspecified location in Russia, to aid the Birds of Prey against the Secret Six, with a visible lack of fighting skills if compared to the more trained Birds

Her identity ceases to be a myster when the new Spy Smasher discloses her real name and last known address to Oracle. Misfit reveals to be the only daughter of a single mother, once living in a slum in Metropolis, until a fire broke out. Misfit is apparently able to teleport herself and anything non-organic, but not to bring other organic matter with herself, so she teleported away to safety, but left unintentionally her mother to die. Alone and scared, Misfit used her powers to spy on the Birds of Prey, secretly admiring the group of female crimefighters. The Birds agree to act as a surrogate, even if disfuctional, family for the girl.

Charlotte's recklessness and impulsiveness acts a strain between her and her surrogate "mothers", the last straw happening when a fight against a magical empowered teen gangster, Tabby, levels an entire slum, killing Tabby, who Misfit is unable to teleport away, and many other people. Oracle, cracking over the pressure, and wrecked by have seemingly lost Superman's trust in her abilities, starts to train Misfit harshly, in fact blaming herself for having sent her without giving her the necessary knowledge to act in field. Misfit manages to prove her worth again, dispatching an enraged Black Alice and saving Manhunter from a cadre of magical using villains.

The Teen Titans storyline "Titans of Tomorrow... Today!" reveals that as an adult in an alternate future timeline, Charlotte operates as the Huntress in the Titans Army, and has dyed her hair blonde and wears fishnet stockings, like Black Canary. "Dark Vengeance!" remains her characteristic battle cry. Ironically enough, in the current timeline, Misfit expresses the desire to to grow "like [the Huntress], but with blonde hair, maybe".

Powers and abilities

Misfit has the ability to teleport (or, as she calls it, "bounce") vast distances without error or knowing the layout of her destination, so that Oracle refers to her as "the most powerful teleporter I've ever encountered." Apparently, this ability also allows her to bypass security systems, as she is able to enter Oracle's home without triggering any of the many alarms, a feat not even Batman or the Martian Manhunter have been able to achieve; she also knows the real names of the Birds of Prey, information she could have only gotten by hiding in Oracle's operations center and listening to her discussions with the team.

Misfit's power is limited to herself and non-living objects in her possession, as she tells Oracle that, while she was able to save herself from the fire, she wasn't able to save her mother because, "I knew from experimenting that nothing living survived bouncing with me."

Misfit also has some degree of accelerated healing ; when she is shot in the belly with a bullet intended for Huntress, she heals completely mere minutes later , and later she mentions "the way I don't stay wounded if I get hurt" to Oracle . She also appears to have some degree of enhanced strength, though this has not been confirmed. Her powers are apparently natural metahuman abilities that she was born with, as opposed to being the result of some outside influence after birth, confirmed by catfight with Black Alice as magical powers in their nature.