I picked up Showcase Presents: Batgirl a few weeks ago but didn’t have the chance to read much of it until last night when I finished the first two stories. And if it weren’t for my sagging eyelids I would had read the next one too.

To be honest, I’m pretty prejudiced against older comics, regardless of them coming from the “Golden” and “Silver” ages of comic publishing. For me the hey-day of comics is the late Seventies through the Eighties. What can I say, I’m a Bronze Age guy. But these stories from the late Sixies really impressed me. They aren’t mind-blowing by any means but they are decently intriguing and the character of Batgirl really does steal the show from Batman and Robin. It also helps that the only goofy elements of these stories are Robin’s puns.

What I like about Batgirl in these stories in that instead of being yet another cartoony peripheral character (i.e. Ace the Bat-Hound, Batmite, the original Batwoman and Batgirl), Barbara is competent and motivated by a sense of duty, not a lust for adventure or a lust for Batman. I have a soft spot for rookie heroes and seeing an inexperienced Batgirl using her own modest resources to becomes near equals with Batman and Robin (who feel like supporting characters in these stories due to their general lack of personality or charm) is pretty damn refreshing.

When it comes to gender roles, these stories seem rather ahead of there time. There are moments when Batgirl must be rescued from a common thug and the narration isn’t exactly empowering to women (what the hell is a “dominoed dare-doll” anyway?) but it’s clear that Babs is more than capable in her role as Batgirl, saving Batman and Robin just as many times as they save her. And the has a Phd for crying out loud! I don’t know what it’s in, but she obviously more than a cape and a pair high heels.

Of course, these stories aren’t without the ridiculous sexism of the time (contemporary sexism is much more refined). In the case of these first story, Batgirl is able to find Killer Moth’s hiding place because she could smell her perfume on her. Because she is a woman and thus slathered in perfume. In the very next panel Batman reveals that he didn’t need her help all along, that he was perfectly capable of escaping the trap without her help. Is this essentially saying that Batgirl didn’t even need to be there for the case to be solved? That’s not terribly compelling storytelling. But I like to think that Batman couldn’t handle being rescued by a girl and thus made up some bullshit solution to the trap to put her in her place.

I don’t expect the quality to stay this high as I read through the book, but hopefully there will be enough there to keep me happy and maybe even convince me that old comics crappy as a rule.