Some Heroes Have To Learn As They Go

Something I noticed recently about the current Batgirl series is how Bryan Q. Miller's slowly but surely had Stephanie become better at crimefighting. When the series started and she was still wearing Cassandra's costume she tended to leap into situations with no plan. Or her plan was expecting the symbol on her costume to do most of the work. She did beat Scarecrow, but that was one of those "force of will" victories, which are inspiring, but usually a sign the hero had a bad go of it up to then, and guts are all they have left.

She let her guard down against Livewire and would have wound up fried except Oracle insulated her suit, which Stephanie didn't realize until that moment. She might have overdone it with the Freezarangs against Diesel, but she did put out the fire and I don't mind that she froze Damien in the process. Still, freezing potential allies in an overzealous attempt to douse flames is not a great result.

Things got smoother. Even though they don't much like each other, she and Damien were able to work together pretty effectively when Grayson needed saving (if only because Steph refused to be ditched and Damien didn't have time to kill her). She managed to survive fighting a mind-controlled Huntress, Catwoman, and Man-Bat (even used him as transportation), and saved Oracle from the Calculator. But Wendy was the one who kept Calculator's final failsafe from doing major damage.

It's been a process, but now she's at the point where she fights some criminal in a super-suit she's never met before (Harmony), and manages to assess the suit's abilities and counter them, on her own, on the fly. Admittedly, these Reapers aren't villains on par with Batman or the Flash's arch-foes, but she's developing the skills she'd need to deal with those types.

Miller's shown Stephanie growing into the role beyond just her level of competence and strategy. She still fights crime because she enjoys it, but also because she can help people, which wasn't quite as big a deal for her back in the day. I don't have a problem with her enjoying it, it was one of her character traits I liked most. I can't deny that if one is going to fight crime, protecting people from the harmful effects of crime probably ought to be a bigger component than it was for her.