Storyline: Elseworld
Date: 1998
Price: $5.95 US (Huge collectors value now)
Writer: Barbara Kesel and Tom Simmons
Artist: Matt Haley

Synopsis: Elseworld’s Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl is based in a world in which Bruce Wayne was never Batman, and the infant Kal-El did not survive long enough to become Superman. The orphaned Barbara Gordon becomes Gotham’s near-dictatorial protector, and Kara Zor-El as the Girl of Steel teams with Lex Luthor and the Justice Society.

Opinion: Okay, I’m going really old-school on this review, but I love this story. It’s one of the Elseworlds DC released in the 90s, and is one of the few good ones. I mean really good, mostly because it works well. The character designs are great and you can actually understand how the characters you’ve grown to know and love coculd end up the way they are in the story. It has a full, self contained story and actually works as a one-shot and has an open ended-ending. I’m really surprised they didn’t revisit this one like Gotham by Gaslight.

Basically, on the night when Bruce Wayne’s parents were to be killed, Commissioner Gordon (with his wife and Barbara along for the ride from the theater where the Waynes came from) tries to stop Joe Chill. He gets himself and his wife killed. Barbara gets adopted by the Waynes (Liberal guilt!) So…Barbara goes the Batman route, but past the ‘I’m going to make Brother Eye to spy on the meta-humans’ level. She actually blocks off the rest of the world from coming into Gotham.

Then you have Supergirl. Kara gets to Earth and is found by…The Justice Society. With her cousin no where to be found, she’s raised by the JSA and a non-villainous Lex Luthor. She comes off very similiar to the way they’re currently playing Power Girl.

Anyway, the story’s interesting, a good world’s finest for the price. (The Joker eve has a weird crush on Batgirl, which…actually makes sense, given how obsessive the Joker is about Bats.) Fun character designs and a fast paced story make me wonder why every comic can’t be written like this one. Reading it, it’s easy to understand why it’s going for $50+ on the eBay.

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