Warning: Spoilers for Batgirls #2!
The Bat-Family often utilizes wildly specialized tech and weapons in their fight against the scum of Gotham City, and now they’ve just been given a sweet new piece of gear that just so happens to act as a definitive fashion statement too! Batman might have a lot of different gadgets at his disposal, but Oracle and her team of Batgirls make using them look good.
Revealed in the second issue of the newly launched Batgirls series, by Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, and Jorge Corona, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, and Barbara Gordon getting a high-tech upgrade that looks good to boot is a welcome change for a team that has been put through the wringer as of late. Up against the evil hacker version of Oracle named Seer as they attempt to find her and take her down for good, the Batgirls team have been forced to go low-tech in their recent crime-fighting ways so that their newest foe can’t compromise their mission.
Soon met by a new breed of villain in the form of the Magistrate offshoot group calling themselves The Saints, the Batgirls continue their search for Seer while contending with these armored baddies; their lack of meaningful and effective tech clearly making their job harder than it needs to be. And as Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain regroup at their new HQ, Oracle is ready with some much-needed — and highly fashionable — new gear to use on the job.
Calling her teammates over to reveal their new toys, Oracle admits that she knows “comms have been an issue” as of late (using walkie-talkies isn’t exactly the most covert way of communicating), but she’s now figured a solution to that nagging problem: earrings. Showing off a small jewelry box loaded with all kinds of stylish earrings to choose from (including a pair of bat-shaped ones), Oracle says that they’re fitted with “microspeakers” and “transponders,” something she’s super proud of as they're Seer-proof and work on a unique frequency that Oracle can even track her girls with!
Forced to use gear that’s more function over form lately, these Bat-Family members getting tech that’s not only compact and easy to use but something that can be worn when not in the field as well is a fun new fashion statement that Gotham’s vigilantes rarely allow themselves. Using far less tech than Oracle is used to (at least until she can make her system safe from Seer’s advances), the Batgirls can now expand their operation, go undercover, and even swap out comms to match their mission (and clothing style) as needed, giving Steph and Cass a huge leg-up on the criminals of Gotham City in the process.
So while it’ll take more than some fancy incognito tech to take down Seer, getting back on track in terms of the gadgets the Batgirls use is a step in the right direction. Batman may never be caught dead wearing anything but an earpiece for comms, but the Batgirls of the Bat-Family making fashion history with their cool new earrings fit their characters well!