Batgirl #13 – Review

By: Bryan Q. Miller (writer), Pere Perez (artist), Guy Major (colorist), Harvey Richards (assistant editor), Michael Siglain and Sean Ryan (editors)

The Story: Trust: Batgirl swings into action on her day off to tangle with Clayface. Detective McHandsome plays the lad in distress.

What’s Good: Miller delivers classic Steph in the first few pages when he shows us how she lives at college. And where Detective Nick has been a romantic plot tease for a year, Miller finally scratches beneath his surface. It’s subtle, but the view of what’s underneath jacks up the tension by laying the groundwork for some inner conflict and some romantic obstacles that Steph will have to face later if she gets to pursue Detective McHandsome. And, as always, I love the Artgerm cover. Has this guy done interior artwork anywhere?

Batgirl #12 – Review

By: Bryan Q. Miller (writer), Lee Garbett and Pere Perez (artists), Walden Wong and Pere Perez (inkers), Guy Major (colors)

The Story: Batgirl Rising: The Flood, Part Four of Four: Oracle is trapped in the mind of the Calculator. Stephanie is saving her, by plunging through a rainstorm from thirty-five thousand feet. Sounds like Stephanie….

What’s Good: First of all, what’s great is that this is the one-year anniversary of Stephanie Brown as Batgirl and it is worth celebrating that Michael Siglain and Harvey Richards have been able to hold together the core creative team (Miller, Garbett and Major – the inkers seem to be a revolving door on this book, though) for pretty much that whole run. This gives a definite feel to a Batgirl book. Miller stamps each issue with Stephanie’s personality and it starts from page one. Her running, self-deprecating monologues are always fun, but, in this last issue of this arc, we see more growth in her. Steph, a rebellious, clutsy, teenager-equivalent, has always had a pretty adversarial relationship with Oracle. This book turns a corner for Steph and for Oracle and it’s heart-warming. You see it in lines by Stephanie like: “This isn’t about trying to prove anything to anyone…this is about me saving the one person who’s ever given a real crap about me.” She doesn’t lose that Stephanie essence though, especially when talking on the radio to her backup: ZAP! “I’m good! I’m good!” The corner turns for others in the book as well. Everyone experiences growth, even the bad guy. Oracle’s turn is summed up nicely when she says (with relief): “I knew I could count on you not to listen to me, Batgirl.” On the art side, Garbett, Perez, Wong and Major deliver humorous action and adventure. The camera angles work and the layout does the job.

Batgirl #11 – Review

By: Bryan Q. Miller (writer), Lee Garbett and Pere Perez (artists), Walden Wong and Pere Perez (inkers), Guy Major (colorist), Harvey Richards (assistant editor), Michael Siglain (editor)

The Story: Calculator has Oracle and is plugging directly into her mind. Oracle’s hidden lair has Wendy. Technozombies Catwoman, Manbat and Huntress (not to mention 40% of Gotham) have Batgirl. Then things get grim.

What’s Good: As always, Miller excels at the snappy banter and monologue that accident-prone Stephanie Brown excels at: Spiderman-esque in style, but a lot less self-confident. Only Steph is able to deliver lines like “Sorry I called your dad a jackass” and, in response to the growls of Technozombie Man-Bat, “You’re right, I can’t afford a DVR.” Stephanie is always manic fun. On Oracle’s side, I loved the mental world she was stuff in, facing off against Calculator, and his growing frustrations with her. Visually, the art was dynamic, the settings grim and rainy, and some of the layouts interesting. Artgerm’s cover art is absolutely fantastic (just like last issue). Stan Lau should be doing the insides too.

What’s Not So Good: The art, while doing the job, didn’t look very compelling this issue. Gotham looks grittiest and scariest (despite Stephanie being a light-hearted Gothamite, she is being chased by thousands of zombies) when the fine lines of detail leap out of the panels and drown the reader’s eyes in an overload of bricks and mortar, dirty, blowing garbage, hair-line cracks in windows and scuffed armor. Faces carry more emotion when the lips and eyes and hair move fluidly. The art here just lacked the kind of detail that would have held my attention. This was just standard.

Story-wise, there were a few flaws. I’m not trying to nerd out, but first, I was shocked that Wendy was able to turn on, much less use, Oracle’s computer. I’m not a longtime Barbara Gordon follower, but over this series, she’s been the super-careful, ultra-cautious mastermind with a plan. She has put telepathic blocks in her head! But she didn’t password protect her computer?

Batgirl #10 – Review

By: Bryan Q. Miller (writer), Lee Garbett & Pere Perez (artists), Jonathan Glapion, Rodney Ramos & Pere Perez (inkers), Guy Major (colorist), Michael Siglain (editor)

The Story: Batgirl Rising, The Flood, Part Two of Four: Calculator is one creepy dude. He knows more about computers than Oracle, and he’s got a serious hate for Stephanie Brown. Maybe that’s why she’s unplugging all her systems. Oh, and he’s got a Justifier Helmet. As Babs and Steph would say: “Crap.”

What’s Good: Miller’s writing. Miller’s got the voices of his characters down cold. Calculator is creepy– seriously creepy. Babs is confident, brave, sarcastic and in over her head, and it shows in her dialogue. Gotham PD Detective Gage talks like a nervous guy seriously crushing on Assistant Professor Barbara Gordon. And Batgirl? She’s classic Stephanie, telling hookers to stay in school, having monologue issues (“OHGODOHGODISAIDTHATOUTLOUD!”), and delivering such internal monologue gems as, “Way to sell it, Dork Knight.”

The art was dynamic (layout, poses, panel composition) and it gave us views from all sorts of angles that breathed movement into the pictures, and the faces were expressive (ex.: page 2 shot of Calculator, page 6 shot of Babs, pages 12-13 shots of Detective Gage). The works of Garbett and Perez really enabled Miller’s writing, bringing various character moments to life, especially scenes with Stephanie’s crush on Gage (a nice love triangle that’s eventually going to bite someone). Major, as always, delivered fine color work. The glowing green of Oracle’s computer image and the activation of the pulse are great examples of where color takes a driver’s seat in the telling of the story.