This is the face I use for love. And you put your dirty shoe in it! 
- — Ragdoll
Batgirl (Volume 4) #31 is an issue of the series Batgirl (Volume 4) with a cover date of July, 2014. It was published on May 14, 2014.
Synopsis for "Wrath of the Ragdoll"
While attempting to vandalize the Carter Reznik Foundation building, Alysia Yeoh and her friends have found themselves under attack by a disturbing individual. It has already taken their friend Terry, and when it corners them again, their friend Ramon is taken as well. Much as her friend Jo wants to just escape, Alysia can't simply let Ramon be killed by this attacker.
After all that's happened to her there, Barbara Gordon is back at Gotham Mercy General Hospital. This was where she woke up after she was shot. It's where she first encountered The Mirror. It's where she took her mother after the Joker mutilated her hand. Now, it's where her erstwhile boyfriend Ricky is, after having survived being shot by her own father. As she heads toward the entrance, she has a strange sense that she's being watched, but shrugs it off.
Inside, she encounters Ricky's mother Helen, who hugs her happily, thanking her for coming. All the while, Barbara worries that Ricky called her there just to dump her for not visiting him often enough. Helen unloads a pot full of tomales on Barbara, warning that the girl is getting too skinny as she ushers her into her son's room. Ricky is ecstatic to see her, and after worrying so much, seeing him like this makes her cry. He admits that he has something difficult to tell her, and goes on to say that a lawyer came to see him. He intends to sue Barbara's father, Commissioner Jim Gordon, for shooting him without cause. Barbara is so aghast at this news that she has to excuse herself.
Meanwhile, Ragdoll strangles Ramon to death, leaving only Alysia and Jo left to kill off. His employer had demanded that there be no witnesses, and the girls could not be left alive.
As she steps into her car, Barbara receives a call from Alysia, desperately begging for help. She explains that she and her friends were recruited to vandalize the offices of the Carter Reznik Foundation Building because of the terrible things they do there. Someone tipped the company off, though, and a killer started coming after them. Barbara warns her to call the police instead - being arrested is better than being dead, after all. Alysia tearfully responds that the police didn't believe her when she called them. She begs Barbara to tell her family she loves them if she doesn't survive this night. Intensifying her focus, Barbara demands to know what floor her friend is on, and makes way there.
Despite how furious she is that Alysia allowed herself to be talked into something as radical as this, Batgirl scales and breaks into the building. The Foundation is a dummy corporation controlled by Ezekiel Rain, who has caused many journalists and protesters to disappear. Alysia would not be one of those tonight.
Two nights ago, Alysia and her friends had been accosted by Bleak Michael who encouraged them to take greater action against Carter Reznik by detonating a powerful stink bomb in their offices, to make them uninhabitable for a week. Though she was reluctant, Alysia agreed.
As Barbara manages to pick up Alysia's location on her tracker, Ragdoll catches up to Alysia and Jo in the stairwell. As Jo is practically in hysterics, Alysia warns her to get out of the building any way she can while she distracts Ragdoll. Before she runs down the stairs, Jo grabs Alysia for a kiss. Ragdoll approaches her, and Alysia calls out that the people he is working for are evil, forcing people into slavery for access to water, covering up toxic waste spills, and doing obscene testing on monkeys. This last seems to catch Ragdoll's attention, but he shrugs it off, leaping at her, and wrapping his entire body around her.
Angrily, Batgirl warns him to get away from her friend, landing feet first on his chest, and then smashing his masked face violently into the stair railing. Realizing that she's over-doing it, Barbara backs off, but this only gives Ragdoll the opportunity to entangle his body with hers, causing them both to tumble down the stairs. Unable to get him off, Batgirl switches to tactical strikes, causing him such pain that he loosens his grip and calls for her to stop. Indignantly he comments that he should never have even tried to do good. Incredulously, Barbara responds that killing two people isn't exactly good. He comments that he only choked them into unconsciousness - full on murder costs extra. Besides, they were terrorists.
Weakly, Alysia interjects that all she and her friends had intended to do was drop a stink bomb. He responds that the device she holds is actually a deadly nerve toxin that would have killed everyone in the building - including Alysia and her friends. Balefully he decides that he will give them the opportunity to leave without further molestation - or they can stay and get murdered for free. Shouldering Alysia's weight, Batgirl helps her down the stairs, cursing whoever it was that set her friend up.
Meanwhile, at the Three Towers, Bleak Michael reports to Charise Carnes that the toxin release didn't work out - someone had tipped Mr. Rain off to their plan. Fortunately, the threat was enough to keep him out of Gotham, for the time being. However, the traitor in their midst would require punishment.
That night, Ragdoll pays a visit to the man who hired him, a Mr. Travers, commenting that he would have preferred to know that Carter Reznik was abusing monkeys. The dishonesty, though, has inspired him to tender his resignation - by strangling Mr. Travers to death.
Appearing in "Wrath of the Ragdoll"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Alysia Yeoh
- Jo Muñoz (First appearance)
- Ricky
Antagonists:
- Ragdoll
- The Mirror (Flashback only)
- Bleak Michael (Flashback and main story)
- Charise Carnes
- Mr. Travers (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Ramon (Dies)
- Batgirl (Cover only) (Batman '66 Variant)
Locations:
- Gotham City
- Cherry Hill
- Mercy General Hospital
- Three Towers
- Carter Reznik Foundation
- Cherry Hill
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- Ricky is a patient at Mercy General Hospital; however, in Batgirl #24 Ricky was a patient at Gotham General Hospital.