Batgirl #9 Preview/Discussion SPOILERS

[Shimarenda]

And the WWII Japanese balloon bombs seemed liked unnecessary backstory for a backstory IMO.

At the very least, it's tied together by the idea of panic, as Gail mentions in the course of the story. The Owls aren't just killing Gotham's pooahs; they are sowing panic.

[Shimarenda]

That Gordon sub plot was weird, and little much to be honest, but even if Gordon switches it off quickly people still saw it, and he himself still saw it.

I think that while Jim Gordon would have lit the signal anyway, the Owls were attempting to break his spirit by making it seem like they manipulated him into lighting an Owl-signal. Why just kill him when he can die a broken man?

[DarkKnghtJared]

Yeah, this was a really disappointing issue. The weirdest thing was the big convoluted plan to get Gordon to light the signal, so the Owl would be put in the sky. Like, okay "We knew you would light it, so we thought the best way to get you to would be to tell you not to, thanks"

The thing is, he would have lit the signal regardless of being threatened not to or not.

what?

These are guys who instead of simply offing folk were prone to putting them in large, elaborate mazes deep underground just to make them go crazy. They live for elaborate traps to mess with their enemies' minds.

[BlueLily]

I get all that. The thing is that the Court staying secret and having the nursery rhyme to instill fear was fine. Launching an open attack on Gotham (for no apparent reason btw) to take it back? It doesnt make sense. If they were controlling it, how are they not doing so now? What will killing Arkham, or Gordon or the others accomplish? If you're a secret organisation, kill, blackmail and bribe your way back into power.

"We control Gotham! ....But now we have to take it back... because it was taken away from us... by Batman? No he's just a blip on the radar... by Gordon? Well, he's been there for a while and we never bothered with him..." Can anyone please explain the Court's' position of power just prior to the Night of the Owls? Do they "control" Gotham or what? Snyder can't have it both ways. If Bruce Wayne's new buildings really made them so upset, why didn't they just immediately kill him like Alan Wayne, or any other of the insignificant individuals they've been responsible for assassinating? And what is with their useless little clues and "mind games?"

Firstly, they devise an incredibly convoluted plan to "announce" their plan to kill Bruce Wayne to the police by impaling one of their trainers (the "John Doe") with owl-shaped knives, writing "Bruce Wayne will die tomorrow" in oil, and then timing its discovery so that tomorrow actually means one week from then? Wtf? And of course, the John Doe just conveniently got Dick Grayson to put his DNA on him?

Secondly, they try to trick Gordon into lighting the Bat-Signal by telling him not to... Just so that they can say "Aha! We tricked you into doing something you would have done anyways!! We've broken your spirit now!!! Aren't we so evil and manipulative!!!" This isn't the Court of Riddlers, they don't have an excuse for these strange little diversions? Are they a sinister organization of evil geniuses, or just ineffectual psychotics with an army of cannon-fodder zombie ninjas? Snyder (and the other writers) really, really want us to think the former... but they're just not. This whole Owl nonsense is garbage.

I think that while Jim Gordon would have lit the signal anyway, the Owls were attempting to break his spirit by making it seem like they manipulated him into lighting an Owl-signal. Why just kill him when he can die a broken man?

These are guys who instead of simply offing folk were prone to putting them in large, elaborate mazes deep underground just to make them go crazy. They live for elaborate traps to mess with their enemies' minds.

Give me a break...

[ArnoldoAAD]

I finally had the chance to read the issue

This issue was HILARIOUS
im not really trying to be nasty but, i have have never laughed so hard at a comic book before and i will explain why later

so im gonna give this the same treatment i did to the Mr Terrific series and give a long detail review

Now, i have been enjoying the Night of Owls so far, its pretty simple set of one shots for the crossover, the plot is simple, the stakes are high and credible and every piece is easy to follow
but this issue i dont know it took such a different route from the others

now the issue starts in Japan in 1944, which strike me as something really odd cause the Talon in the cover is black not Japanese
but ok, the flashback is about a school girl who is working to make paper balloons to carry bombs to help the Japanese army, the tone of the flashback is pretty weird cause it made in such a way that the girl just follows the orders she was just slave but is still joyful for doing so, and even comments on how genius this idea is and even proud of helping to, she also signs up her paper balloon and puts the date(this is important)
im not sure how accurate is this but is completely off the tone of the rest of the book

then we cut to Another flashback on Gotham at 1946, this one more relevant which is about the Talon in Question, The Talon is named Mary, she and her family lived in Oregon and were the ONLY casualty of this ridiculous paper balloon attack, because of that she lost her face, she also lost her tongue, so she cant speak and she never learn how to read or write, and is not interested in learning, and somehow she ended up with the Haly Circus and she is the best acrobat, now i will honestly question how the hell did a mute, illiterate, black disfigured girl learn how to do acrobatics between 1944-1946, or how the hell did she ended up on the Haly Circus
this origin is overly complicated but, there is a point

and there is also a kind of weird moment on this(I will admit is a nitpick), but Haly meets with the Court of Owls guy and tells mary's story, with a lot of detail on how she lost her face, then the CoO guy takes mary's bandages off and after seeing her face attacks Haly and ask him "did you do this to her Haly?"

ehh..., no, he didnt, it was a bomb, wasnt he paying attention?

now maybe there is something else on her face but we dont see her face on this part

then we cut to the preview of this issue
Batgirl fights Talon, loses
Talon lets her live for some reason
Gordon gets threat
and Batgirls goes to her home

on her home, she opens her fridge
and finds this


and then this happen on the next page
and this is what made me laugh


...
WHAT!
How in the name of GOD did one, ANY human being, makes that connection?

she finds an old paper that says a date of Nov 44' in Japanese IN Her fridge(im sure there is a certain symbolism here) and immediately thinks this random trivia
I mean come on
what is she like the guy from Deadzone?
did she saw the past of the freaking paper

thsi baffles me, i know that i have complained about the Googling thing of batgirl but at least it makes sense

just for fun i actually google the words "japanese paper november 1944"
and the first hit is the wikipedia article on the fire balloons, now is Completely irrelevant to anything, but the fact that she pulled that from out of thin air is just hilarious

in the meantime Jim Gordon is in his office on fetal position due the threat on his beloved daughter and just nods the head as the officers start telling him that Gotham is getting screwed
so yes, Jim Gordon lost his balls
thats the scene

next thing that happens is that Talon Mary attacks the GCPD headquarters with...

i want you to guess this, really, if you havent read the issue and you are just reading this review just please guest what is being use to attack the headquarters


...paper balloons of course, with bombs attached to them

and then finally FINALLY, Batgirl gets the message from Alfred that the Talons are attacking the city
then because of the attack to the department Gordon finally finds his balls and decides to turn on the batsignal

...
...
wait what?

i mean, why?

oh he actually bothers to give some epic movie dialog of "the people out there needs to know that there is someone out there looking for yadda yadda"
but, this is not the time to do that, his own home is being attacked by some mysterious organization, he even sends a police to help her daughter but, this is just an emotional reaction with very bad planning, obviously he had to have thought that there was a knife under the through of his daughter and the moment he hesitated the knife would go down, and he is aware of what is happening to his city, he should know that a cop wouldnt cut it
he should had worried to actually fight back before the **** hit the fan, to find a solution and help his own citizens on a tangible way before thinking this

it just doesnt make any sense

now where is the hero of the comicbook?
she just in her bike, she sees the fire on the GCPD and drives to there

now the list of ppl that are being attacked is never mentioned on this comic, I think is very obvious for everyone who is following the Night of Owls that Jim is an obvious target, but he isnt targeted on this comic, the GCPD is and Batgirl is more worried about her own dad than the general attack so even the act of hearing the message of alfred ends up being meaningless to this other than alerting batgirl that the Talon's can regenerate

so we get a fight sequence, Batgirl Fights Talon for 3 pages when suddenly she is... thrown? Talon jumps of the ledge? im not sure how it happens but Talon falls from the ledge right into a paper balloon and explodes

Batgirl takes off her mask to reveal another mask underneath and then Talon writes with her own blood "I hav mask 2 I understand"

...
...
I dont get it

but well the issue isnt over, Gordon finally reaches the top of the building and turns on the batsignal only to hear(a tape, a recording, a telephone, WHERE IS IT COMING FROM!!) the guy from the Court of Owls mocking Gordon telling him that he did as he planned
and in the sky instead of the Bat Signal is the OWL Signal, which Gordon cannot turn off cause the plot says he cant

and the issue with Batgirl saying that she thinks that they just lost Gotham
The END

...
I think everyone knows that i dislike this series with the fury of a thousand suns, but not really for any the reasons why i think this issue sucks

This issue is weird, there is just no other word that fits more perfectly
I guess Gail just wanted to do something completely different from what the other bat writers were doing but i think she completely missed the mark on what story she wanted to tell that she forgot what story fit with the crossover

one of the differences that this issue has with all the other tie-ins is that this time the Talon disobeys an order and lets an enemy of the Court live, also, the Court directly contact the
why?
cause this way, Talon is nothing but another victim, and the real villain of the story, is the guy who threaten Gordon
just like all the other issues of Batgirl, you need to feel sorry for one of the villains for the story to work, does the story accomplished that? i dont think so

now one of the reasons why i thought Secret Six was so great is cause it had an easy formula but extremely well executed, you had a group of villains that are just monsters psychopaths and murders, and then you put them against enemies that are actually worst, at the end you really and genuinely start to feel apathy for all the cast of S6 despite doing some of the worst people in the world, you really feel sorry for them despite being villains, and thats why their story works so well, its a tragedy in which all of them are inevitably condemned to oblivion since the start

I have no idea of why is Gail trying to use the same formula here?
why the constant use of villains that very forcefully try to be sympathetic
it just not fitting here

the use of this story of the Japanese fire balloon seems like belongs to another book, it just serves to justify the way that the Talon attacked the GCPD but it doesnt really makes sense
why would she use the same method that disfigured her, why leave Babs a note, and why INSIDE HER FRIDGE


there is also a huge continuity error in this comic, while Gordon is sitting down on his own hands doing nothing a police tells him that the military is being attack by a mysterious figure, this is tieing into the events of Batman and Robin #9 but that attack happen after Robin got the call of Alfred while Gordon got it before it
also why is he getting this message, im not sure a commissioner would get inform immediately if there is an incident in a military ground so this probably is here just to sell more B&R, but is very oddly placed

finally the Bat/owl signal

I understand the symbolism of it, it is very basic and it is actually very interesting but the execution just SUCKS
why did they needed Gordon to turn it on?
and if they wanted him to turn it on, why tell him not to turn it on, why the reverse psychology, and why wasnt Gordon directly targeted
you would imagine that he would be in the top of the list
and that the Talon(s) would just change the Batsignal themselves and turn it on as an statement

is the same statement that the book tries to pull, but it just Fails at it

and finally something that really bothers me here is Jim Gordon
he is a coward and an idiot on this issue, there is just no excuse to his behavior

bad issue

[paulski]

-Talons obey the Court. And the Court called ALL Owls to reunite in his court(?) for the main attack. The Court didn't know that one of them Talons is about to kill Batgirl, and the Talon can obey the orders because in this moment, Batgirl isn't a objective/threat.

I haven't read the issue yet, but, if that is indeed what happened, then I can certainly buy it as a reason for not killing Batgirl (I'm assuming she was in deep doo doo at the time). I'd expect Talons are conditioned to obey the Court's orders unconditionally at all times.

[Jared]

Yeah, this was a really disappointing issue. The weirdest thing was the big convoluted plan to get Gordon to light the signal, so the Owl would be put in the sky. Like, okay "We knew you would light it, so we thought the best way to get you to would be to tell you not to, thanks"

The thing is, he would have lit the signal regardless of being threatened not to or not.

what?

Yeah, that was my thought. Maybe this is the somebody in the court just trolling Gordon. But if the Owls really want to make a statement with their signal, putting Gordon in a position where he could and should turn it off immediately kind of cuts against that. If it's up there a few seconds, most of Gotham won't even see it, much less be chilled to the core by it. I liked the rest of the story just fine, but man, this ending just doesn't work at all.

This story should have found something else for Gordon to do while Talons hijacked the bat-signal.


BTW, the only person I know who says "holy cats" is my 80 year old grandfather.

[Ed Sizzers]

why would she use the same method that disfigured her, why leave Babs a note, and why INSIDE HER FRIDGE

You might want to reread the issue (of the book you're allegedly not reading). Babs doesn't find the note in her fridge. She took it from the Talon's hand in the fight and has it in her hand when she gets the ice from her fridge to tend to her wounds. Yes, it's very convenient that for the second time since this book started, a villain just happens to be holding a clue in their hand whilst fighting Babs. And it seemed a little unneccesary for Babs to make the link with Japan anyway, given that we had already seen that backstory as a flashback - Babs knowledge of it ultimately doesn't help her in any way, and doesn't really add to the story other than giving her something to do in between her two confrontations with the Talon.

As for the rest of the story, as others have said, this was a particularly weak issue. In fairness to Gail, she's been given one issue to essentially stop writing her current story and crowbar this Owl's gimmick into the book for one month. She's obviously tried to do something more with it than just have Babs fight a Talon, but there's a feeling that she might have overcooked it a bit. For one thing, the focus on the girl in Japan over the actual Talon's backstory means we're already dealing with the relationships between three characters, rather than two; Ayumi, Mary and Babs (as well as the Gordon subplot).

And with so much focus given to Ayumi, we don't actually find out very much about Mary, to such an extent that she just does come across as a pretty generic Talon. And her reasons for sparing Barbara then come across as clunky at best. In her message, is she simply referring to Bab's actual mask, and Mary feels some kind of link between them? Or does it, as some seem to have assumed here, refer to Babs 'psychological' mask? The problem with the latter theory is it means we're expected to believe that in the space of one short confrontation, Mary understands what Babs is going through. And, to be honest, I've not seen much evidence of Babs wearing an emotional mask over the last few issues anyway. For the most part, she's been pretty upfront with her feelings, whether talking to her Mother, Dinah or Alysia.

The art was a disappointment too, with neither confrontation with Mary coming across as exciting or thrilling as they should have done, especially in regard to the talon's fate. After outfighting Babs at every turn, Babs then defeats her by simply kicking this natural acrobat and fighter off the edge of a building. What should have been a dramatic confrontation, particularly given Babs concious decision to 'kill' the Talon (as far as she knew), ended up being very underwhelming.

Add to all that, the aforementioned Owl Signal scene, which just made Jim look like a complete numpty. Hey, instead of dropping to one knee and crying out an angst ridden "No. Damn you, No!", why not just turn the bloody thing off. How hard would that have been?

[Godlike13]

After outfighting Babs at every turn, Babs then defeats her by simply kicking this natural acrobat and fighter off the edge of a building. What should have been a dramatic confrontation, particularly given Babs concious decision to 'kill' the Talon (as far as she knew), ended up being very underwhelming.

Ya, they really dropped the ball there with that awkward leg sweep finale to their fight. It just didn't really fit, and was a quite unsatisfying way to end the battle.

[Dr. Hurt]

Hey, here's an idea... Why doesnt Gordon turn off the Owl signal?
Or what if the Owls just made a signal of their own that they could light themselves so they wouldnt need this elaborate plan to get Gordon to light it?

Also, my reaction to "i have mask 2, i understand":



That made no sense at all.

The balloon attack was great though. Just beautiful! Best thing in this book so far.

[Dr. Hurt]

You might want to reread the issue (of the book you're allegedly not reading). Babs doesn't find the note in her fridge. She took it from the Talon's hand in the fight and has it in her hand when she gets the ice from her fridge to tend to her wounds. Yes, it's very convenient that for the second time since this book started, a villain just happens to be holding a clue in their hand whilst fighting Babs. And it seemed a little unneccesary for Babs to make the link with Japan anyway, given that we had already seen that backstory as a flashback - Babs knowledge of it ultimately doesn't help her in any way, and doesn't really add to the story other than giving her something to do in between her two confrontations with the Talon.

That's true. Her knowing the japanese connection changed nothing. She just knew. And Simone got to show off how Babs knows Japanese.

But it didnt change anything.

As for the rest of the story, as others have said, this was a particularly weak issue. In fairness to Gail, she's been given one issue to essentially stop writing her current story and crowbar this Owl's gimmick into the book for one month. She's obviously tried to do something more with it than just have Babs fight a Talon, but there's a feeling that she might have overcooked it a bit. For one thing, the focus on the girl in Japan over the actual Talon's backstory means we're already dealing with the relationships between three characters, rather than two; Ayumi, Mary and Babs (as well as the Gordon subplot).

And with so much focus given to Ayumi, we don't actually find out very much about Mary, to such an extent that she just does come across as a pretty generic Talon. And her reasons for sparing Barbara then come across as clunky at best. In her message, is she simply referring to Bab's actual mask, and Mary feels some kind of link between them? Or does it, as some seem to have assumed here, refer to Babs 'psychological' mask? The problem with the latter theory is it means we're expected to believe that in the space of one short confrontation, Mary understands what Babs is going through. And, to be honest, I've not seen much evidence of Babs wearing an emotional mask over the last few issues anyway. For the most part, she's been pretty upfront with her feelings, whether talking to her Mother, Dinah or Alysia.

How would Mary know about Babs' emotional mask? This is why this didnt make sense. So what, Babs wears a mask like the Talon, big whoop. This was a bad attempt to humanize it, but at least it's better than what happened in B&R.


Btw, was she wearing a mask underneath the Owl mask? Her face looked japanese.

Add to all that, the aforementioned Owl Signal scene, which just made Jim look like a complete numpty. Hey, instead of dropping to one knee and crying out an angst ridden "No. Damn you, No!", why not just turn the bloody thing off. How hard would that have been?

The batbooks have lost all sense of logic ever since the reboot. Similar nonsensical things happen in Batman, and B&R.

we don't actually find out very much about Mary, to such an extent that she just does come across as a pretty generic Talon.

But she got her face scarred! Why wont you empathize with her? It's so dramatic!

[GamiSB]

This issue was horrible and everyone involved with it should feel bad. Batgirl was already and iffy book but some how Gail managed to make it worse with a tie in story. All you had to do was fluff around an already established direction and some how this book manages to completely botch that. I mean how many readers did you stand to gain with a tie in to the best selling DC book and what did you do with it?

I'm dropping this book. I was going to wait and see what was going to happen with James but it's simply not worth it.

[spark627]

I finally had the chance to read the issue

This issue was HILARIOUS
im not really trying to be nasty but, i have have never laughed so hard at a comic book before and i will explain why later

bad issue

You're so busy hating a book you claim not to read that you miss things. The note was not found in the freezer, Batgirl grabbed it off of Mary. You don't understand how she knows about the Japanese Balloons? She tells you, she remembers everything. She could have read about it briefly but remembers the details due to her photographic memory.

Also, Mary did not jump off the building. Batgirl says the wind is picking up and is bringing some balloons up. Batgirl realizes she can't beat Mary in a fight so she has to do something drastic and kicks her off the building into the flying balloons.

Why are the Owls using reverse physcology? Bc they are crazy and have been doing things to make people feel crazy and weak. Jim's actions may be stupid to you but he was threatened with Barbara getting hurt or worse (remember, just bc you hate Barbara doesn't mean her father does), he acted like a father with conflicted feelings would.

The only thing I will agree with is I don't understand why the signal wasn't turned off. I don't think it was a great issue but it wasn't bad either.

[Xenith]

Also, my reaction to "i hav mask 2, i understand":

Also didn't Haly specifically say she could not read or write? What gives? Was Simone trying to establish that Haly was a racist while the court cared enough to tutor the girl? Okay....then.

Not to mention how long was Babs standing around while the Talon took the time to write that long ass message with her blood...all the while the police station with her father inside it continued to burn? Considering the state of her body and the size of those letters that had to have taken a good 10-15 minutes to write in her own blood unless she was hiding a blood pen or something

I think that while Jim Gordon would have lit the signal anyway, the Owls were attempting to break his spirit by making it seem like they manipulated him into lighting an Owl-signal. Why just kill him when he can die a broken man?

Wouldn't actually killing Barbara be a much easier and less convoluted and effective way to break him? If anything I'd think the reverse psychology bullcrap would just piss him off and make him more determined of a foe? The Jim Gordon I'd swear I'd read about for years would not have dropped to his knees and weeped over a little manipulation over turning on a light bulb. (Now if turning on the light bulb also triggered some bombs around town...that would of made a heck of a lot more sense as possibly breaking Gordon.)

Hey, here's an idea... Why doesn't Gordon turn off the Owl signal?

And even if for some convoluted reason Jim couldn't just immediately flip the switch to turn the signal off...what stops him from just immediately smashing it? I'm pretty sure I've read Batman comics and seen media where Jim gets pissed at Batman for some reason and smashes the signal.

[spark627]

Also didn't Haly specifically say she could not read or write? What gives? Was Simone trying to establish that Haly was a racist while the court cared enough to tutor the girl? Okay....then.

Not to mention how long was Babs standing around while the Talon took the time to write that long ass message with her blood...all the while the police station with her father inside it continued to burn? Considering the state of her body and the size of those letters that had to have taken a good 10-15 minutes to write in her own blood unless she was hiding a blood pen or something

Wouldn't actually killing Barbara be a much easier and less convoluted and effective way to break him? If anything I'd think the reverse psychology bullcrap would just piss him off and make him more determined of a foe? The Jim Gordon I'd swear I'd read about for years would not have dropped to his knees and weeped over a little manipulation over turning on a light bulb. (Now if turning on the light bulb also triggered some bombs around town...that would of made a heck of a lot more sense as possibly breaking Gordon.)


And even if for some convoluted reason Jim couldn't just immediately flip the switch to turn the signal off...what stops him from just immediately smashing it? I'm pretty sure I've read Batman comics and seen media where Jim gets pissed at Batman for some reason and smashes the signal.

I imagine that she learned how to read and write (not great) in the 70 year span. You learn things in 70 years or so.