Mia Mizoguchi (Prime Earth)

I don't even really know what we did, but I feel like we saved Gotham. We must be vigilant. Batman can't be everywhere, even if he is, like, seven feet tall.

— Maps Mizoguchi ^src

Mia "Maps" Mizoguchi is an excitable and curious Gotham Academy student. She is the founder of the academy's secret "Detective Club", which investigates the unusual and occasionally supernatural occurrences at the school. She idolizes Batman for his ingenuity and detective skills, and hopes to become his protégé as Robin. Maps also has a deep love of fantasy, exploration, and cartography -- the latter being source of her nickname.

History

Origins

Maps is the youngest child of a wealthy family who shares an acquaintance with Bruce Wayne, and her father is a short story writer.^[1] Like many wealthy Gothamites, her family enrolled her and her older brother Kyle in Gotham Academy. She became a first-year student when Kyle was in his final year, reuniting with her best friend Olive Silverlock, Kyle's girlfriend. Her assigned roommate was the awkward Katherine Karlo, whom she befriended quickly.^[2]

The Ghost of Gotham Academy

Gotham Academy Vol 1 9 Textless — The club confronting the school's "supernatural" occurrences.

Maps and Olive investigated reports of ghost on campus, joining forces with Pomeline Fritch, a haughty bully of Olive's with an interest in the occult, and Colton Rivera, a delinquent with lock-picking skills. The group eventually discovered that the "ghostly" presence was Killer Croc, a friend of Olive's mother who had escaped Arkham Asylum and taken refuge in an abandoned area of the academy.^[3]^[2] The group tracked Croc through centuries-old underground tunnels, which he explained as connecting the asylum to the academy; though he meant the students no harm, he was forced to flee when Batman was on his trail.

Maps decided to form a secret Detective Club with the group and her older brother in order to formally investigate the connection between the asylum and the school. Not long afterwards, one of their leads was covertly stolen by Robin, who then enrolled in the Academy in his civilian identity, Damian Wayne.^[4] After a magical mishap bound them together, the two befriended each other during their mission to free themselves. Once freed, Professor Scarlet attempted to convince them it was in their imagination, though they later found evidence that the spell was undone. After Damian took the fall for the ordeal and was expelled, he gifted Maps a Batarang before leaving.^[5]

The Rules of Superhero Club

Maps later attended the funeral for Olive's mother, who had passed away while incarcerated. While investigating the possibility that her death was faked, Maps came face-to-face with Red Robin, who believed her to be part of the "We Are Robin" movement.^[6] Through him, Maps learned that Olive's mother was latest in a long line of blood-related, white-haired supervillains called "Calamity", who once terrorized Gotham with her pyrokinetic abilities until she was apprehended by Batman and the first Robin. Dr. Hugo Strange had hoped to coax Calamity out of Olive for his own gain, but was thwarted by the Detective Club.^[7]

Gotham Academy Vol 1 13 Textless — The Robin movement sweeps the Academy.

As the "We Are Robin" movement continued, it was outlawed in Gotham City and academy students found participating were expelled. When prominent movement member Riko Sheridan was transferred to the academy, she earned the admiration of Maps; however, Olive reported Sheridan to the authorities to protect Maps from being put in danger by association. Maps was stopped from intercepting the police by Robin, who assured her that Olive's decision was for the best. He had hidden gear around the campus for Maps' perusal, promised her that he would keep in touch when her help is needed, and asked that she avoid adventures until then.^[8] Sometime later, he gifted her a first edition copy of the Serpents and Spells handbook.^[9]

During a night spent mapping the secret corridors of the school with Olive, an ecstatic Maps encountered the first Batgirl, who was searching the Academy's library for sought-after blueprints of the "Negahedron" weapon. When it was stolen by the commander of the evil group Gladius, Maps helped subdue her using her Batarang and assisted in deciphering the blueprint. Batgirl remarked that Maps reminds her of a good friend and joked about the "rules of superhero club".^[10] The commander later returned, intent on getting revenge by attacking the entire school. However, Batgirl was able to stop her for good by utilizing Maps' blueprints of the academy.^[11]

Amity Arkham's Revenge

Gotham Academy Second Semester Vol 1 9 Textless — A friendship under threat.

When Maps returned to the academy after Christmas break, she was disappointed to find that Olive had become increasingly cold and aloof. The group eventually uncovered too late that this behavior was due to the presence of the burned witch Amity Arkham's soul within her. Amity was the original Calamity and Olive's ancestor, whose possessions plagued her descendants (including Olive's mother) and coerced them into becoming Calamity against their will.^[12]^[13]

Olive's turmoil accidentally caused her to become Calamity on a rampage against the descendants of those who burned Amity at the stake. The club's attempt to exhume her remains for an exorcism spell were thwarted by the "Terrible Trio", the school's hostile, centuries-old secret society. Maps managed to deduce the leader's identity as Amanda Lydecker, descendant of the architect behind Arkham Asylum and the Academy. Lydecker revealed that the group protected Amity because her ancestor believed her destruction of the city will cleanse it; to this end, he designed both facilities in such a manner as to protect her existence.^[14]

Maps renounced her friendship with Olive after Kyle was severely injured by Calamity's hand, furious that Olive allowed it to happen. Damian, as Robin, implored her not to give up on her friend and gave her a Robin mask as she set out to end things once and for all.^[15] As Colton and Pomeline completed the spell, Maps confronted Calamity and convinced Olive that she was a good person and distinct from Calamity. Emboldened by Maps' faith, Olive fought back long enough for Amity to be sealed back into the Book. With Olive finally freed from Amity's torment, the group happily reunited and with time, their lives went back to relative normalcy.^[16]

Gotham River Murders

The academy once again became host to strange occurrences when a student vanished before the holidays, followed by reports of body parts washing up from the Gotham River. Maps took it upon herself to investigate by suiting up in a homemade Robin costume and sneaking into the missing girl's home, but was confronted by Batman.^[1] Against his insistence, she aided him in locating the girl and a horde of kappa. The girl explained that she lured them underground to keep the public safe, but they began hunting humans when she ran out of food. With her rescued and animal control on their way, Batman escorted "Robin" home.

Maps Mizoguchi Prime Earth 0002 — A difficult first outing.

Although Batman discussed the mission's remainder with a pleased Maps in the Batmobile, he refused her offer to assist him as his Robin. He chastised her for heading into danger and sternly insisted she limit her detective work to school grounds. Undeterred, Maps continued her investigation through the night. Noticing that the kappa were young and frequented the victim's vacant home, she deduced that their parent must be within and had Katherine call Batman for backup as she headed there alone. There, a giant kappa lunged to eat her, leaving her paralyzed with fear until Batman arrived and subdued the kappa, comforting "Robin" as she fell to tears.

After the incident, a pensive Maps sat by the river and discussed her near-death experience with Katherine, who was scared to have nearly lost her friend. She asked if Maps still wanted to be Robin in light of experiencing its dangers; although Maps didn't respond, she thought for a moment and smiled.^[17] Unbeknownst to her, Batman had placed an earpiece in her bag to contact her in the future.^[18]

Sophomore Year

Batgirls Vol 1 11 Textless — A mystery at the zoo

At some point before the next school year, Olive was abruptly pulled from the Academy. As she was not allowed to take anything with her, a dejected Maps made it her mission to collect and protect her belongings. She was unable to locate Olive's prized journal despite a days-long mission as Colton, who was also unenrolled from the school, had stolen it for an unknown reason.^[19]

After Kyle developed a connection with Stephanie Brown, Maps was invited with them and Stephanie's best friend Cassandra Cain to the Gotham Zoo. She created elaborate plans to maximize their visit, and deftly navigated the employee tunnels with Cass in order to get into the bat enclosure. There, they discovered Killer Moth trapped by his employer as part of a riddle for the Batgirls. After freeing and tracking him, Cass trusted an elated Maps enough to reveal herself as a Batgirl and left to investigate further.^[20]

Batman enlisted Maps to locate her man-bat friend and classmate Tristan Grey after discovering a case of vampirism, noting that Tristan had been missing appointments to mitigate the increasingly negative effects of his condition.^[18] They located him and other man-bats in an abandoned church and learned that they were under the hypnotism of a vampiric snake woman. Batman entered alone to prevent an untrained Maps from being harmed and ended up under the snake-woman's sway. Maps tracked him down alone to his paramour Professor MacPherson's home and injected him with an antidote provided by Dr. Langstrom.

Maps Mizoguchi Prime Earth 0003 — Learning the identity of Batman.

As a result of her quick-thinking and heroism, Bruce decided to take the leap and reveal his identity as Batman to Maps. After taking her to the Batcave to regroup, Maps stormed the creature's hold with antidote bombs and guided Tristan to safety while Batman faced the snake-woman head on. The creature revealed herself to be the vengeful remnant of an ancient Greek vampire-sorceress. She had hoped to use her hypnosis to use Batman as her henchman, but he had been able to defend himself against her tricks and together with Maps dragged her out into the sun to her death.^[21]

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

Artistry^[3]
Cartography: Maps keeps numerous cartographic tools and even has decent knowledge of building construction.^[22]
Investigation: Maps is an amateur detective with promising skill, able to uncover hidden identities^[14] and solve complex puzzles with no assistance. Her wealth of fantasy knowledge has also aided her against unusual and supernatural foes.^[23]
Lock Picking: Colton has been teaching Maps how to pick locks, though she's as of yet a novice.
Multilingualism: Maps speaks English and Japanese.^[23]
Throwing: Maps has gotten adept at utilizing her gifted Batarang.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Clay hairclip: Maps' friend Katharine, an aspect of Clayface, has formed part of herself into Maps' trademark flower hair accessory to protect her. She can control it to assist Maps,^[24] hear and see her surroundings, and track her location.^[13]
Robin suit^[1]
- Utility Belt

Notes

Maps appears in the limited series Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy, an intercompany crossover with BOOM! Studios' Lumberjanes; these appearances are non-canonical.
Maps appears as Robin in a non-canonical one-shot for Batman: Black and White. This appearance became the basis for her self-designed costume in the Prime Earth continuity, first appearing in Batman (Volume 3) #119.

Trivia

As of Batgirl #52, Maps was 14 years old.
Despite her intelligence, Maps' grades in school are quite poor.^[12]
Maps dislikes reliance on technology, preferring physical references and analogue methods of research whenever possible.^[23] She does not own a cellphone.^[18]
In addition to Batman, Maps knows the identities of the Batgirl Cassandra Cain^[20] and potential future Batman Terry McGinnis.^[25]
- It has not been indicated if she has deduced Damian's identity as Robin, as he chose not to reveal it to her and she has not met him since prior to his father divulging his own.
Before formally meeting Batman, Maps once snuck into the GCPD precinct to activate the bat signal and prove herself to him, but fell asleep before he arrived. He returned her to her dorm and signed her fanart.^[26]
Maps' Robin costume appears within the Batcave in the potential future of Future State, suggesting that she accomplished her dream in this timeline.^[27]^[1]