Batgirl #24

Nobody truly enjoys family reunions. You come back with many stories, but none of them are

of fun and enjoyment but of certain family members annoying the others, and long distant relatives that you didn’t even know existed pestering you on subjects that you really don’t want to talk about. The only good that comes out of them is that you can finally confirm how annoying your family truly are. Now if your Stephanie Brown the concept of a family reunion is defiantly not a happy thought, especially when her father Arthur Brown, a.k.a the Cluemaster, turns out to be the mastermind behind the recent Reaper crimes that have plagued his daughter recently (and, you know the whole “not being dead” thing). So dose this little family reunion conclude with happy, happy hug time or a greater depth of hate between the two characters? Let’s dive into Batgirl #24 to find out.

The issue starts off where 23 left us with Stephanie, fresh from her take down of the reapers with help from her super-girl-friends, rushing to the cell in Blackgate prison that the Reapers were targeting only to find her dear old dad Arthur Brown, the Cluemaster, to be its occupant as well as the puppet master of Stephanie’s recent problems. So as you can probably guess there is no

love-loss between the two as Stephanie demands answers as to how her father can be here when he’s supposed to be dead. Arthur replies, giving us a very brief history of his life of the past few years working in the Suicide Squad, getting a second identity, returning to Gotham and getting incarcerated in Blackgate to avoid being shipped to the Salvation planet. He even tells Stephanie how he had time to do a little bit of gardening, producing a bowl of Black Mercy, an alien plant that when inhaled causes hallucinations, and then proceeds to blow it into Staphs’ face causing her to hallucinate, but not before she can……….. Pick up batgirl #24 to find out.

This is what Bryan Q Miller has been leading this series down to. Stephanie standing in that cell with her father as Batgirl, the man who’s actions caused to her

to take on the whole caped crusade act as Spoiler back in 1992 (real time), and really emphasized the circular story of the character, starting out to try and stop her father and now, at the end of her series, spoiling thins once more. Yet it’s all the scenes after that confrontation (that I shall not divulge) that truly shows Milers writing ability as we get something that dose not feel like an ending, but a beginning. Pere Perez artwork on this issue is fantastic, with 7 beautiful one page spreads that truly capture the essence of Stephanie Brown, and also shows us the growth of the character since her first appearance when she goes up against her father just showing us how much she’s grown and changed. Credit must also be given to Dustin Nguyen whose work on the cover is utterly fantastic, and really sums up the past 24 issues in a beautiful way. Guy Majors’ paint brush has also touched this canvas as he once again colours the issue in a way that keeps the “bat” atmosphere, but also shows the light hearted, bubbly nature of Stephanie brown.

For all you Stephanie Brown fans this is an issue that you cannot miss as our bubbly crusader leaps of her last roof top before September 2011 changes things up for us. New readers should know by know by all the content of the site, that everything in the DC range of Books change when September comes around, so wait till then to start picking up Batgirl, or if you want Steph Brown you can pick up the trade copies chronicling out bubbly crusaders first outings as Batgirl, as there’s no point starting at the end right. So in conclusion I award Batgirl #24 a

4/5.

Thank you all the members of the Stephanie Brown run of Batgirl. But now we must wait till September where Barbra Gordon returns to her first mantle of Batgirl to take on crime in Gotham, fist to face once more. How will this turn out? Let’s wait till September 2011 and find out in the pages of Batgirl #1.