Hi Detective Nick!

I can't remember if anyone's said that to Nick Gage yet in Batgirl. I guess he'd need to say 'Hi everybody!' first, and that's a little too exuberant for St. Nick.

I've been trying to piece Gage's history together a little. Last month he told Steph he used to be a Reaper. We know he transferred to Gotham from Coast City (opting for more psychotic murders, but less chance of being crashed into headfirst by Hal Jordan). If his insight into Clayface's actions in issue 13 was any indication, he had a wife at some point (or at least a significant romantic interest) who isn't with him any longer.

There's a new issue coming out today, and it may render all speculation moot, but what the hey.

Most of the Reapers Stephanie's dealt with appear to be college kids, which could suggest that's when Gage was recruited. Get him when they're young and stupid, and if they have any skill, they'll stick around. It make me wonder if he became a cop because of whatever lead to his no longer being a Reaper, or if it was at their behest. Shadowy organizations always like to have some piece of law enforcement in their pocket. But the relationship went sour, and Gage started taking the job seriously

There's whoever he lost, and I wonder whether he met her before he joined the Reapers, or while he was with them. Maybe being a Reaper provided him with opportunities that enabled him to meet that person. Did the Reapers decide she was a distraction, or did she find out what he was involved with? The most likely end result is she was killed, and certainly the Reapers haven't been shy about killing people in their way. Still, I think it'd be more interesting if she's alive. Nick knows something about the Reapers and how the operate, or he at least knows some of the people in the same chapter (if we figure it's a wide-reaching group that doesn't work in just one location). He could use the threat of revealing that to perhaps make them leave her alone, while he works on trying to gather more concrete evidence to bring the whole thing down.

As it is, she's still disappointed he was a willing member of the Reapers in the first place, so they're no longer together. Maybe she still cares for him (and he does seem to miss her, flirting with Steph and Babara aside), but doesn't think they're right at the moment. He's focused on trying to get the Reapers, wherever they might pop up, she has her own life, and so they part until the point when it works for them to get back together. She encourages him to go off and continue this quest of his and he does so because he knows he needs to, but he still misses her.