Batgirl 62 review/discussion *SPOILERS*

[Forsaken_One]

Soo... let's see now. I haven't got too much to say on this issue. I liked it. I'll start spoiling now.

So Batgirl comes upon Spoiler, who shares a little "life flashback" scene. We still don't know who her mother is but she's certainly as ruthless as Cain; shrugging off her child and an old woman being killed with just a "Do it. A Deal's a deal." I'm almost convinced she's Shiva, except I just can't see a pregnent Shiva. And it'd be kinda predictable.

In any event we get a bit more of a flashback sequence, retelling her backstory for anyone who started with this new team and/or the Robin crossover. Spoiler's ghost takes off her hood and looks really ugly, which makes sense after being tortured to death and decomposing and blames herself for her death. Batgirl decides to live (duh) and swims to the surface. She then goes into the diner looking all beat up and the coffee shop lady realizes she can't read. Some really good art in this part, especially the facial expressions, like the look of delight Cassandra has when confronted with her breakfast.

Batgirl then studies video of the Brotherhood of Evil fighting to figure out how to take them out, lets the cops know about the arms deal going down, and promptly takes out the Brotherhood without too much trouble. Penguin gets away thanks to a corrupt cop in BPD; the cops are mad their housecleaning didn't work all the way. Batgirl also questions the issue of genetics influencing her behavior briefly.

Then comes the last page, which is kinda weird to me. The kid who's been watching Batgirl's house is sleeping, Batgirl kisses him on the forehead and he wakes up to realize she's home (light's on), which makes him happy. I readily admit I don't really get this, since she hasn't really interacted with him before or even shown she's aware of him, and suddenly she kisses him on the forehead? I trust Gabrych will elaborate but it still seems weird to me.

Overall I liked this issue. Not a whole lot of action but a good starting point for new readers, a bit of backstory, introduction/elaboration on her supporting cast, and some great art. This is definintly up there with Legion and Birds of Prey on my "must buy" list.

[Forsaken_One]

No love for the Batgirl. I guess she got pushed out by Red Hood and Countdown discussion.

Well, I liked it.

[Lord Darkwolf]

I liked it too (well except for a couple of tiny perks that erkked me but easily forgiven ) Just not very talkative due to other events in the DC verse .

[Mon-el]

Put me in the boat as liking it too, But I have been liking Batgirl for a great amount of time.

I read the Issue last week, so Im going off a week old memory mixed in with countless new stuff. I don't have the Issue in front of me to rely on(it has been put up due to visiting nephews). The main odd thing that I can remember is that I found that Stephanie was disfigured, kinda gruesome. I didn't expect Stephanie too appear that way, or having seen from Cassandra's viewpoint on how Stephanie would appear in Post death. It thought it worked though, It was a nice surprise.

And I completely forgot all about the boy watching Cassandra's apt until I read Forsaken_One's nice review of it.

[muimi]

I just got my comics yesterday. LOTS of love for Batgirl here. I had to trim down my pull list -- bah, priorities -- but I made sure to keep Batgirl. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Gabrych/Garza team are wonderful on this book.

[DrHelix]

Batgirl has been a fav of mine scince it's debut. This Gaybrach's story is starting to unfold, with Cassie begining to interact with her new environment and dong things independently. This is pretty much the first time she's been on her own scince taking up the mantle. It will be interesting to see how she might pursue the answers to her past. And what is up with little watcher boy? The kiss was a bit strange. I hope we get a bit more about this soon.

[Gaz]

I liked it. And I just started picking it up this ish, after getting the trades to try it.
Anyway, the kiss seemed pretty straight forward to me. The cops would miss Batgirl's work if she'd died. But the kid would've been the only person in the 'Haven to miss Cass herself. She appreciated that, especially after having her best friend on her mind.

[cactusmaac]

I would think having Shiva be the mother would be too predictable but then Jason being the Red Hood and having Zod return in For Tomorrow were also quite predictable so I'm banking on it being her.

So does this mean Cain is her real father and not someone who adopted her?

[fuaak]

Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva...

(fingers crossed)

Cain was revealed to be BG's real father a lot earlier - it was the last big plot point of Puckett's run, I recall.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, they didn't take a DNA test or anything - it was based on that Cain knew stuff he wouldn't know otherwise. But if he was present at her birth, he'd know it all anyway... Could Gabrych try to turn the tables by first making Shiva her mother (since that's what fans expect), and then revealing her dad somebody else entirely, possibly asian?

Nah... Far-fetched.

[fuaak]

A'ight, my turn. Andy & Ale have completed their first stand-alone arc, and it's starting to show where their strengths lie... as well as their weaknesses. I'll compensate for my lack of timeliness by looking more closely and making more noise.


This issue

The recap started on a high note with the clever use of new information as a break-in, but stumbled at the finishing line - the "then you went to gotham, and then you got the suit, and then you beat Shiva, and then you didn't do anything special at all and oh why the hell am I even explaining this to you" bit definitely crossed the line between acceptable/called for and awkward/contrived exposition. The transition to decomposed Steph wasn't smooth either. Different phrasing could have helped in both cases.

+: Baby Cass having to "fight" for her food was heartbreakingly cute.

Tea-time and countdown to infinite ass-kicking worked quite nicely (even though this was the second time the speech balloons were reversed in a cafe scene - sloppy editing - and the last two panels in the video training sequence could have been used to show something more interesting), but when the wrap-up finally started, it was over in an eyeblink. Andy was probably shooting for humiliation with the way Batgirl dispatches her previous victors with exactly one move each in about five seconds total, but the impression I actually got was him just running out of pages.

The twist is that after additional examination, I have to lay the blame on Garza, instead: the last big panel with manbat!Gemini failed to signal that the fight was over. It needed a stronger visual, perhaps with Gemini dissolving into her fluid form with the defeated Mallah and Brain visible in the background - something extra to cement in the victory.

+: Mallah ripping his suit sleeves into shreds by flexing was a cool visual.

Overall, a bag of fun but not without its share of flaws.


Gabrych

First, the obvious: The character scenes are solid gold, every one of them. I also like the way Gabrych keeps up a busy pace with multiple ongoing subplots (cafe girl, corrupt cop, mystery kid). The main plot was almost coincidental, basically just "BOE try to sell guns", but compared to that B.S. in the Robin crossover (which I'll blame on Bill Willingham until proven otherwise) it was Shakespeare.

Hopefully that'll keep me from being crucified when I try to humbly suggest that not everything Andy touches turns to diamonds.

The mid-fight dialogue, here and in the previous two installments, is rubbish. I haven't read enough of Gabrych's other work to determine whether he can't write combat taunts, or whether it's a side effect of both Cassandra being slow with words and the villains being retards from the silver age given to screaming their names and team title at every turn. Suffice to say that lines like "Hi, miss me? Cause I sure as hell am not gonna miss you", and Cass's awkward attempt to play Batman made me feel embarassment for the characters more than anything else. If the lady can't do threats and taunts properly, she should keep her mouth shut - and better still, tell everybody else to keep theirs shut.

Two: the tone. The Cassandra I love is, in theory, half somebody who's one step away from tearing the skin off your body in one swift motion, and half somebody who you just want to hug and tell it's going to be alright. Andy plays the latter masterfully, but I rarely get a sense of the former anymore. I have this sneaking suspicion that he's consciously taking steps to "kiddy up" Cassandra, and I don't see a way for that to end well. The combination of sunny colours and uniformly wacky cartoon villains doesn't exactly help.


Garza

Garza has sharpened his tools for the past few issues and basically earns almost full marks now. His overall penwork ranges from competent to orgastically marvellous, and at this point I can't even imagine a better out-of-costume Cassandra than what he draws anymore. The expressions are gold. The only real issue I have is the (here it comes again) god-awful "biker's helmet" facial profile he gives the in-costume Cass. It was already distracting when I first saw it half a year ago, and by now is really starting to get on my nerves.

Alejandro, please. Look at the video training sequence you drew, page fifteen or so, and at the ninja-style undercowl you gave her. Why, why in the name of all that does not suck do you not draw her actual cowl chin like that? Why does the side of her head have to look like an upturned salad bowl instead? Everything would be just sunshine and rainbows if you made that one adjustment. Why, why, why?


Finally

...I have to retract some of the praise I gave Pop Mhan for his fill-in work last month - the guy seems to have a real problem with perspectives.

[noodleboy]

Count me in as one who liked it. I am really liking what is going on in Batgirl right now more than any of the previous work. This arc has teased at a ton of different things and really gives you a sort of outline to what is/should be developed later in the series.

Batgirl's #1 Fan: All the creative team had to do was just show us a few panels and the mystery of who the boy was grew. Now it is one of the subplots that I am looking forward to the most. It's good to see Cass getting here own "friends" which leads me to...

The Coffee House Lady (I forget her name if it was even mentioned): It looks like Cass will have someone to visit every now and then to look for that comforting/motherly figure in her life that she never had...save for Babs who was way too busy for Cass anyway.

The Snitch (I really need to re-read just get the right names): Little is really known about him and it looks a hell of a lot more cofortable in issue #62 than he did in #60. Another subplot that could be played out nicely.

The 2 Bludhaven Cops: Well Bludhaven doesn't have the same "Shoot on Site" for Costumes like Gotham has. Well it looks like these 2 are the good cops that will work with Cass, maybe her version of Montoya and Bullock/Allen. Also the fact that they think that it was a cop that tipped the Penguin sets up a "Mole" storyline in the future.

I have to hand it to Gabrych for taking Batgirl and trying to make her an individual, sure everything isn't gold, but the majority of the good stuff far outweighs the goofs and weaknesses. Like Forsaken One said at the top, this is right up there with LoSH as the books I look forward to each month.

[Gaz]

Well, Bludhaven's gotten much less corrupt since Nightwing moved in. And I like the fact that Cass was aware of how it looked when Alfred met her at the coffee house and that she felt a need to make the owner understand that he's just a friend, not a "client".
Also liked the idea that she picked up on Cassandra's literacy problem quickly, even when she bluffed her way through the first time. Maybe that could be a subplot, she teaches Cass to read?

Is it obvious I just got the last 2 issues (60 & 61) today? :)