Batgirl #23 – Review

By: Bryan Q. Miller (writer), Pere Perez (artist), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: Honestly, Steph, this wasn’t the girls’ night out I was expecting, so…

The Review: Last we left Batgirl, she was in a hotel room about to tear into what I presumed to be some Milk Tray under the disapproving cowl of Batman, on the eve of her big British mission.  So it was surprising to find this week’s issue opens with her back in business in Gotham.  Then I remembered that in two months, Steph Brown as Batgirl would be no more, so Miller likely had to work some time-jump magic to let the title finish its course in her hometown.

It can’t be said the skip in time does much for the Reapers plotline.  You keep getting the sense that Miller had to nip and tuck away at certain details he might have otherwise fleshed out, just so he can truncate the conclusion into two issues.  Certainly this explains why we still know almost nothing about the Reapers beyond their underage henchmen in nifty suits.  It also explains why we learn of a fairly important featured character’s death after the fact.

Besides the disappointment of not getting to see Steph’s first major team-up with Bruce since they both returned from the dead and the rushed pace of Batgirl’s showdown with the Reapers, there’s a certain dissatisfaction in the villains themselves.  Since all we’ve seen has been well-equipped college kids committing semi-sophisticated heists, the Reapers’ motives have always seemed small-scale and vague.  There were hints of a much bigger picture at work, but now it looks as though that story will have to be left to our imaginations.