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"Batgirl vs. Burnside": The neighbourhood of Burnside has turned on Batgirl since her antics caused a significant amount of property damage and destroyed a local landmark. After an uncomfortable run-in with several locals, she asks her friend [[Qadir Ali (Pri

Quote1 No, you are not. And I am going to take back what's mine. Quote2
Oracle

Batgirl (Volume 4) #39 is an issue of the series Batgirl (Volume 4) with a cover date of April, 2015. It was published on February 18, 2015.

Synopsis for "Batgirl vs. Burnside"

The neighbourhood of Burnside has turned on Batgirl since her antics caused a significant amount of property damage and destroyed a local landmark. After an uncomfortable run-in with several locals, she asks her friend Qadir to meet her in secret to help restock her equipment. He admits that he wasn't sure he wanted to meet her, with the whole city calling for her head. After this, he would rather she kept him out of her business. Before letting him go, Batgirl wonders if he is sure that all of the photos posted by Dagger Type were actually by him; that there wasn't another fake Batgirl out there. What worries her most is that maybe there was no other Batgirl. Maybe she might have been in some of those pictures after all, without knowing it.

On her way homee, Barbara receives a call from her would-be boyfriend Liam, but sends it to voice-mail, given the tension between them. She enters her apartment to find her room mate Frankie pulling an all-nighter, working with some friends at resolving software issues with Hooq. One of them, Phil, does forensic data recovery for the GCPD, and has been working on the technology recovered from Riot Black. He has also heard that she's dating Liam, admitting that anyone on the force dating Jim Gordon's daughter is a big deal. Barbara explains that it's complicated and asks to see Frankie alone. Barbara asks whether Frankie has noticed her behaving strangely at all, but Frankie feels that Babs is always acting strange. They are interrupted before Barbara can get anything more specific out of her, by Phil, who warns that he has spotted something worrisome: the Hooq app has been hacked to display an ad offering a twenty million dollar bounty on Batgirl's head. On top of this bad news, Barbara receives an email just then, warning her that her thesis supervisor wants to meet with her tomorrow, and she can make no more excuses about having lost it.

At that meeting, Professor Krupke expresses disappointment that Barbara appears to have changed her thesis from something compelling to something that is merely adequate. He reminds that the original thesis was the only reason she got into the program in the first place, and warns her against selling the original to a web developer when her academic career is at stake. Babs promises that she would do no such thing, and insists that she will find a way to straighten things out. After the meeting, Nadimah is sympathetic, but can't do much to help besides share her chips and listen to Barbara vent about her personal life. She mentions her falling out with Dinah Drake, who is now the lead singer in a band called Ashes on Sunday. Jeremy is a fan, and notes that the band will be playing the Hooq launch party. Nadimah suggests that Barbara go and try to catch their rehearsal.

She manages to get a VIP pass thanks to her acquaintance Sevin, and interrupts the rehearsal to beg Dinah to talk. Reluctantly, Dinah agrees to listen for a minute. Babs offers a heartfelt apology, admitting that her friend was right about her bad attitude, and she needs her friend's support right now, because what's going on is making her scared. Before Dinah can respond, she is called away by her band members, and she reluctantly tells Barbara that she has to go - not quite ready to forgive. She promises that whatever is bothering Barbara, she'll beat it, somehow.

That night, Barbara tearfully deletes Dinah from her phone contacts. Frustrating her further, she receives another call from Liam, and ignores it. Laughter in the alley below her draws her attention to a pair of vandals who are spraypainting anti-Batgirl imagery on the walls. Sadly, she takes off her cowl and looks at it, wondering whether it's even worth being Batgirl anymore - until she hears a cry for help, and realizes she's needed.

Hurrying down to ground level, she spots a woman being mugged at knife-point by a gang, and warns them away from her. Unfortunately, that woman grabs her in a headlock and reveals that it was just a ploy to capture her for the bounty on her head. To her surprise, she is rescued by Dinah. After getting free, Dinah admits that she may be ready to work as a team again - but they will talk about it seriously tomorrow.

The next morning, Babs and Dinah meet early on the rooftop to spar. Dinah warns that Babs' concern for Batgirl's image had caused her technique to suffer. Batgirl shouldn't care about celebrity - and she shouldn't be glued to her phone. Defending herself, Barbara explains that the Hooq app sent the whole city after her. Whoever is controlling it knows Barbara intimately - and she's worried she might be doing it to herself. She'd first had doubts when she picked up Liam's phone and heard her own voice on the other end. What if she'd been hallucinating? What if she really had told Liam all of the things about her family that she couldn't remember telling him? Dinah responds that there's no way Barbara would send villains after herself - she'd remember that. Her mind, after all, is like a computer. This gives Barbara a realization - what if Hooq is using the stolen algorithm she'd based on her own mind - her thesis against her? What if that was what Frankie and her coders had been fighting all this time?

Worriedly, the pair hurry down to the apartment to find Sevin warning that Frankie's not there. She had invited him, but she hadn't been there when he arrived, and he'd let himself in. They discover that Frankie uncharacteristically left her phone in her room - and her crutches. Checking the phone, they find a message from someone who knows Barbara's name warning her to rescue Frankie.

That night, after suiting up, the pair meet outside the Hooq building and Batgirl scans it for heat signatures. She spots two people up on the upper floors where the servers must be kept, and notes that they won't be able to get up there without being completely exposed. To spare Dinah the trouble, she warns her to stay behind and endeavours to go it alone. Using her motorcycle, Barbara engages its boosters and rides up the side of the building before launching into the air and rappelling up to the roof - evading being caught in the elevators and exposing her presence. After sneaking into the server rooms, she discovers that Frankie is alright - but by accessing the computers infected with Barbara's algorithm, she has learned that she and Batgirl are one and the same. Barbara admits it, but a voice from the computer warns announces that she is not. The real Batgirl is waiting to take back what's hers.

Appearing in "Batgirl vs. Burnside"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

  • Hooq

Vehicles:

Notes



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