Unsolved Cases: Whatever Happened to Misfit (Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe)?
After briefly crossing her path while reading Batman: Battle for the Cowl and Final Crisis, I was reminded of Misfit (aka Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe). I checked when she last appeared in the pages of a comic. It turns out she did make a cameo in Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #4 by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott (who created the Misfit costume originally), published last November (2025, for reference). That was the first appearance in over a decade! And I barely consider that relevant.
In the late 2000s, Oracle’s inner circle was expanding, and no new recruit had more breakout potential than Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe. Dressed in a homemade, stitched-together Batgirl costume and shouting her trademark battle cry (“Dark Vengeance!“), Misfit brought a chaotic, endearing energy to Metropolis and Gotham.
She had the powers, the tragic backstory, and Gail Simone writing her. So, what happened to Misfit?
The Evidence: Who was Misfit?
According to Gail Simone, Misfit was created after DC editorial prevented her from using Stephanie Brown, who was considered permanently dead following “War Games.” And when I say “according to” Simone, it seems that she has discussed this in convention appearances and online Q&As, although I have not found a single published interview that contains the complete account (if you have, let me know, I’d update the article!).
What I found out, though, was that Misfit was thought of as Oracle’s Bat-Mite, which makes sense once you know it (here is the source).
When I first thought of the character, she wasn’t really much of a character in her own right..she was designed to be a pest, a less-goofy-but-still-annoying Bat-mite style character specifically for Oracle. I love Oracle, I loved writing her. But her life was so ordered and so removed from other people in some ways that a little chaos now and then really made for fun stories. So I created Misfit, who originally took over the Batgirl mantle without anyone’s permission.
I gave her teleportation powers (the ‘bounce’), partly in tribute to Bat-mite, and partly because it was the EXACT power that would make her the biggest pest to Oracle. She could bounce past even the best security, and would show up at the worst possible times.
Introduced in Birds of Prey #96 (2006) by Simone and Paulo Siqueira, Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe lost her family in a fire that could have been avoided if the landlord had maintained his apartment building up to code, but he had chosen instead to bribe the safety inspectors. She only survived because she possessed a unique form of teleportation she called “bouncing.”
Alone in the streets of Gotham, this Batgirl’s fan started her crime-fighting career by donning the name of her idol and wearing a homemade costume, which attracted the attention of Barbara “Oracle” Gordon, who sent after her the Birds of Prey. Ultimately, she asked Babs to become the new Batgirl, but was convinced to stop wearing that costume.
Charlie didn’t promise she wouldn’t continue her crime-fighting activities, though, and she came back not long after under the identity of “Misfit.” And when Oracle learnt about what happened to her family, she took her in. Their relationship was not without complications, as Misfit didn’t always do what she was told, and it had deadly consequences.
Having failed to join the Teen Titans and with the end of Birds of Prey, Misfit appeared less often, but still kept fighting crime and even joined Wonder Woman’s team (in Wonder Woman #600).
The Editorial Erasure: Why the Case Went Cold
Misfit didn’t suffer a tragic, in-continuity death. She was a victim of the aléas of the publishing world, it seems.
When DC Comics launched the New 52 reboot, decades of history were compressed or deleted. The Birds of Prey were radically restructured, Barbara Gordon was out of her wheelchair and back in the batsuit as Batgirl, and Charlotte was mostly left out, except for an appearance in Batgirl (vol. 4) #34, by Gail Simone and Fernando Pasarin, where she briefly dispensed some “Dark Vengeance!” while assisting Barbara Gordon. It was Simone’s last written issue for this Batgirl volume, so Misfit didn’t come back after.
Scott Lobdell wanted to have her in his Teen Titans book, but DC editorial was apparently confused about her costume and, by the time things got cleared up, it was too late.
…apparently, Scott Lobdell likes the character of Misfit and wanted to use her in the New Teen Titans, which would have delighted me. But, because an editor thought the ”M” on her shirt was a bat-symbol, they thought that Misfit was still tied too closely to the bat-family and she was dropped from the roster. I tried to explain that it’s an ‘M,’ not a bat, but by the time the mistake was realized, it was too late for her to be on the team. Weird! But it was nice of Scott to try, he was actually great about it. It’s no harm done, it’s an understandable mistake, but it’s a shame, Titans is a hit book and she would be great in the new 52 (source).
As a result, we never get to learn about her real origins, but here is what Gail Simone had planned for that:
Finally, a little reveal. I don’t know if they ever would have let me do this, but the parents we saw in her origin were not her real family. They were her adopted family.
My story was that Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe wasn’t born here at all. She was born on Gemworld. That’s right, like Princess Amethyst, Misfit was Gemworld Royalty, princess of the Ruby House. When her family was killed, she was sent to Earth to hide, and her memory (except for her power to bounce and her phenomenal fighting skills), were erased (source).
The Modern Status: Where is She Now?
While the DC Rebirth and Infinite Frontier eras have restored much of the pre-Flashpoint history, Misfit remains entirely sidelined. That cameo in Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #4 was Nicola Scott seizing the moment to play once more with an old favorite, I guess.
I see no reason Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe could not be brought back. Why not in the next Birds of Prey series? If that happens, I’ll gladly update this article!
