Batman Eternal #3 – Review

By: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, John Layman, Tim Seely (story), Jason Fabok (art), Brad Anderson (colors)

The Story: When your dad spoils your fun, it’s only proper to spoil his back.

The Review: And now the moment of Batman Eternal I’ve been waiting for: the return of Stephanie Brown, a.k.a. the last pre-relaunch Batgirl. Of course, part of the charm that made her so popular (and thus her exclusion from the DCnU so reviled) was Bryan Q. Miller’s specific take on her, which was taking Buffy Summers, removing the angst, and tweaking up the playfulness. In a comic book world of increasing grimness, Stephanie was unbeatably upbeat—which made her special, damn it.

Excited as I am, I’m also a little apprehensive as to how she will fare under another writer’s pen. Right now, it’s difficult to say. What we see in this issue is not the confident, put-together Stephanie who wore the Batgirl mantle, but a Stephanie predating her more annoying Spoiler days. As such, much of her sparkling wit is replaced by your commonplace teenage sarcasm, both withering and not a little mean-spirited. Blowing off her mom’s concern about dropping in unexpectedly on her dad: “Oh, no! I’m going to spoil his puzzle night with his loser friends!”

Batgirl #24 – Review

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

The Story: Presenting: the unsinkable Stephanie Brown!

The Review: Most of the Batman titles have painted Gotham City as perpetually grim, God-forsaken, almost inconceivable to believe it can be saved.  In Scott Snyder’s Detective Comics run, Gotham becomes a force unto itself, a living entity out to consume its inhabitants.  In the end, we have to realize this is a fictional pretension; a city’s just a city, with all kinds of people living in it, most of whom deserve salvation.

Good thing Gotham has Stephanie Brown, who may have had an auspicious start as a vigilante, but certainly now deserves credit as the staunchest defender of people just trying to live normal lives, as she does even when schooling some villainous goon in a power-suit.  The rest of the Bat-family fights crime for justice, vengeance, because it’s the right thing to do; Batgirl does it from the heart.  You won’t see schoolchildren hugging Batman, that’s all I’m saying.