Warning: Spoilers for Batgirls #11 ahead!Robin. Gotham Academy's Maps Mizoguchi has pitched in to help with the Batgirls' latest caper, immediately hitting it off with the team. Furthermore, given Maps' own relationship with the Bat-Family, this may be the first of many team-ups to come - and possibly DC paving the way for Maps to have an official tenure as Robin.
Introduced in Becky Cloonan, Brendan Fletcher, and Karl Kerschel's Gotham Academy (2014), Mia 'Maps' Mizoguchi is an outspoken and energetic 14-year-old student who became a self-proclaimed Robin during DC's We Are Robin event. In the anthology series Batman Black and White #4, she made a non-canon appearance as Batman's latest Robin in Karl Kerschel and Steve Wand's story "Davenport House," where her sharply analytic mind is on full display. Canonically, she has since teamed up with Batman in her unofficial Robin attire in Batman #119 through Batman #121, helping Batman handle a den of murderous kappas in Karl Kerschel and John Rauch's side story, "They Make Great Pets."
Maps' entanglement with the Batgirls begins in Batgirls #11 by Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Neil Googe, Scott Godlewski, Wayne Faucher, and Rico Renzi. In this issue, Batgirl Stephanie Brown's date with Mia's older brother Kyle leads to Stephanie, Cassandra, Mia, and Kyle all meeting at the Gotham Zoo. While Kyle and Stephanie go on their date, Cassandra and Maps sneak into the bat enclosure, only to find the incompetent "anti-Batman," Killer Moth, trussed up to a stalactite. After setting Killer Moth free (with a tracker attached), Cassandra swears Maps to secrecy about her involvement with "Batman stuff."
Big Batgirl, Little Robin
The energy between Maps and Cassandra is immediately delightful, with Map's penchant for breaking the rules helping to tease out Cassandra's more mischievous side. The two present an immediate "little sister/big sister" energy, only compounded by Map's insistence that they have become best friends after their adventure and Cassandra relenting with "maybe one day we can get boba together." Even when Cassandra s Stephanie on patrol later, when they talk about the day's events Cassandra mentions that "it was fun. Maps is a lot of fun."
DC has been teasing a future career for Maps as Robin, and Batgirls would be a perfect fit for her. While her relationship as Robin alongside Batman is thorny - he does not endorse her vigilantism - the Batgirls would be excellent mentors for her. Maps has a wide-eyed enthusiasm for everything she does that makes her unlike any other Robin, and her energy would nicely round out the current roster of Batgirls as well as mark a hallmark in their own superhero careers: training the next generation. If the Batgirls are to have their own Robin, there is no finer candidate than Maps Mizoguchi.
Batgirls #11 is now available from DC Comics.
