Batgirl #13

is this the worst issue of the series?

no, issue 8 still has that honor

but there are just some things that are just amazing to see

this single issue is the synthesis of all that is the entire book, its just the model for it, bad plotting terrible dialog and a psychotic villain ith a paperthin motivation

Clarisse's backstory

I read it very carefully and 3 times just to be sure that i understood it

and you know what?

the Mirror no longer has the crappiest backstory in this book.

so Clarisse had pretty much Barb's childhood, she loved her father a lot and train to be good at being good and then she dated this guy who is a serial killer and then he does this

so he forces her AT KNIFE POINT to call her parents, and to bring his little brother

and then he forces her AT KNIFE POINT to duct tape them

and then he kills them and forces her to watch

this kind of reminds me of the plothole of how was Prometheus released in C4J, either the JL released him but he no longer had any reason to give the codes, or gives the codes and the JL had no reason to release him, so the entire scene just takes place off-panel and assume you are an idiot

if this was a gun i might understand but no she says it was with a knife.

and why? just why? why did he do that?

also we already established that was 16 when her parents died so she was dating this guy at 16, and this guy who, im just speculating this, is also 16 wanted to date her to kill her entire family

ladies and gentlemen, please, this is lazy writing

this the exact mirror of Barbara's childhood but with a serial killer coming completely out of nowhere and makes Babs go insane

and thats what happen, Knightfall goes insane

because for some reason(lazy plotting) the killer lets her live

but she comes out with this brilliant and fantastic plan, oh no, this is a great plan, where she doesnt say anything about this killer and acts like an idiot to be purposely hospitalized on Arkham.

why?

cause she wants to learn on how to kill and torture and etc,etc from all the crazy inmates in Arkham to take revenge on the killer

and the killers and lunatics obviously help her teaching her all of this stuff

I dont know about anyone else but I saw Quills the other night, its a movie about the Marquis de Sade with Geoffrey Rush, a lot of fiction in that story but I always imagined that Arkham was something similar to that mental institution with crazy men just like the ones from there, or if not like that then something like what Morrison did in Arkham Assylum A serious House for Serious People

but even then in both cases they had a clear division of what is the mental patients who are crazy and those who are violent

I dont think this 16 year old girl can just come to someone who violently killed or tortured another person and say, "hey can you teach me how to kill and torture?"

and does she needed to do that?

at the end of the story she brags of how powerful she is of how much control she has in Gotham, couldnt she just tell on the killer then he goes to arkham, then he could just move her influences to either release him or get him in the inside

no, she needed to spend 2 years on the worst place on earth to learn how to take revenge

even the story of issue 11 makes more sense, she went to arkham she gets attacked by the inmates and thats what pushes her from the edge and then she manages to clear her name and seeks revenge

but now she seeks revenge from the moment her family died cause since that moment she WENT COMPLETELY INSANE

it is not possible to sympathize with Knightfall, but i think we had to on certain degree, to feel sorry for her cause she lost her family and then went cucko for cucko pops

the scenes where she talks about her father, its practically a mirror image from the same scenes in Batgirl 0

we are suppose to connect one with the other but it fails, it just Fails

the villains in Batgirl have always been a mayor problem but this is by far the worst one

I honestly didnt thought she could be worst than Mirror and Grethel, I really didnt thought it was possible

and the sole story alone is just overly dark and disturbing besides having no sense of logic and its much creepy if you consider that Gail said this in a recentinterview

Originally Posted by Gail Simone

"When I was a kid watching the (1960s) Batman TV show in syndication, Batgirl was an absolute revelation: a smart, red-haired girl who could outfight and outthink her enemies," the writer says. "I'm always trying to recapture that joy, hopefully to pass it on to young girls today just discovering the character."

Is this a book you would give to a Young Girl?

About Ricky

the 16yo mexican tortured car thief

does anyone care about him

even a little, just a little bit

him saving Batgirl

I feel like this was suppose to be some kind of message from Gail, but i have no idea about what

like you are not alone, you can push through adversity, I dont know

why is he even here?

I really dont know

Batwoman

She did NOTHING, in fact she is a completely wasted cameo, she did nothing important in issue 12, she did nothing important here

Knightfall's Fall

then Knightfall saying that she owns cameras everywhere, that she has servers and databases and she could destroy gotham

how? why is that important?

she didnt use any of that here

which is pretty much the biggest problem with knightfall, we are suppose to believe she is a serious threat, but she does nothing to be a serious threat except for torturing a young kid

this dialog was simply a set up to have Barb say that she will have to learn about Servers and databases, but it just establishes what we already knew that she had no idea how to use a computer beyond using Google and she was never Oracle

it feels like Gail is literally trolling ppl

The Ending

the end is just something really special

first we have a reenactment of The Killing Joke

AGAIN!!

cause you know, the last one was only last issue

and then we have the final pages

the Disgrace come to visit Gretel, Mirror and Grotesque to offer them go after Batgirl

first of all, why the hell are they free?

Mckeena and Batwoman just forgot about arresting them when she arrested Knightfall?

how could they possibly just enter into a place like Arkham to visit this other guys

visit them to offer them be released and to kill Batgirl

and why?

werent they suppose to only hunt bad guys? and why would they go to Grotesque, he is an ordinary serial killer, mirror too, he killed inocent ppl, he is a terrorist, and shouldnt gretel have a wound on her head from the bullet that gaves her super powers, and why would she help them? she turn herself in to batgirl

this is just LAZY

this is basically no longer a Batgirl book, this is Spider-man, without the fun, and this is the attempt to make the Sinister Six

Conclusions

As always the dialog is virtually unreadable but the art took a huge step up

despite Ed Benes multiple emphasis in the backsides of the female characters it presents a very solid style

However if you just use you brain when reading this book it becomes the worst comic DC is producing right now