Well Barbara is back and no longer paralized. She is ready to kick all kinds of behinds in this solid and enjoyable run by Gail Simone. This series has been a really enjoyable experience through and through but let us take a look and see just what makes this series stand out and be so fun and likable.
The Story:
One thing I completely loved about the story in this series is that it does not follow a straight pattern of 6 or so issue storylines. You see many of today's comics follow that pattern and that is not neccery a bad thing. Look at Batman by Scott Snyder: we have Court of Owls, Death of the Family, Zero Year and Endgame. It is rather easy to just divide it into parts but it is not the case with Batgirl. While there are of course more clear storylines like Wanted and Undefeated, the majority of the run feels more like watching Barbara's life unfold in real life which gives the series a really good tone and makes it so it is never a chore to read the next issue. This is the strenght of this run. The ability to perfectly blend Bargirl's superhero and personal lifes together for something very special. You can always hope for something cool or interesting to happen next. Now I will go into a more spoilery territory:
Spoilers Below!
Mirror:
The series starts with Barbara already regained her ability to walk and is already jumping all over the place in the Batgirl costume. I see why it turned off some people. While the explanation is given later, we are still kept in dark longer than we should. My gripe with this way to start is a bit different. In my humble opinion Barbara just putting on the suit as the first thing after regaining her leg use and fighting off her fears and psychological traumas in such a fast and unrealistic way is a downer. I really hoped to see her being a bit broken at the beggining and then regaining her self-confidence and both physical and mental powers. Now do not get me wrong we do get her fighting off some of her fears in the first arc but it is done in a rather rushed and to be frank a bit unsatisfying way.
One thing that you will notice right from the start is that Barbara narrates the comic book...a lot. Especially at the start of the series most of the text you will be reading is Barbara narrating the story. It could have turned out pretty badly but thankfully Gail Simone does a great job giving Batgirl a distinct voice and the narrations actually serve a purpose and make you connect with Batgirl more.
We also get our first villain, Mirror. I have to say this guy is perfect as a first villain of the series to get us into the book. He also helps Barbara fight off some demons...in a bit of a rushed way. You could see that Gail Simone did not really want this demons to be with Barbara and did her best to get rid of them as fast as she could.
Exept for the Bargirl fighting Mirror we get a good chunk of Barbara's interactions with other characters as she easies herself into the role of Batgirl again and these interactions are really good.
New Enemiese:
This is pretty much a stamp of this series. Exept for The Joker Barbara almost never fights any of famous or pre-existing villains. Here we have new faces ranging from previously mention Mirror who help up okay to a few new incomers like: Gretel - a girl who was shot by a guy in the head, survived and now basicly can mind controll men or something like that (comic book logic) and she is...okay I guess. Not horrible but enough for 2 issue arc. We also have Grotesque - a guy with sort of electric powers. He is also okay but in this storyline we have some pretty cool interactions and character development because Batgirl meets one of the crooks that was with The Joker when Barbara was shot. It is rather cool seeing him being alive and Batgirl actually meeting him. This whole arc with him is really nice and we get an inside of his character. Then of course we have our main bad guy...well girl of the series Knightfall - a crazy rich girl who is bent on killing all criminals in Gotham and making it clean and stuff. She actually is a good fit for a villain and is quite interesting but I won't say she is the next big villain or something. The new villains of these series are all above average and some are pretty good and that is already a feat to create good new characters in this world filled with the likes of awesome villians as The Joker or Lex Luthor.
Death of the family:
Wait what!? A GOOD Death of the family tie in that is actually interesting and perfectly fuses with the overarcing story of the book!? No way!
This warms my heart that they did not mess up Batgirl's first meeting with The Joker after the shooting incident. The event was fun and The Joker was as crazy as ever. We also get apperance of James Gordon JR. Yeah this guy is back and in this series he is also just a joy to read and a really cool character. His faceoff with the Joker was really great too. No major complaints about this tie in.
Barbara vs James Gordon JR:
Now this is what I am talking about. This arc was the one I was waiting the most while reading this series and let me tell you it totally delivered. James Gordon JR is cunning and charismatic, his faceoff with his sister and mother is tense. Overall this story was one of the best and most memorable parts of the run for me mostly due to how awesome James Jr is. The arc ends with Batgirl accidently killing him (not really but she does not know that and from now on it is a huge part of her narrations and character)
Now let us take a second to talk about Barbara's mom who reappears and her reasong for leaving has to be one of the most stupid ones I have heard. She was scared of her own 8 or so years old son who showed some sociopathic tendencies. So James JR while he was freaking 8 to 12 years old told his mom that if she would not abandon her family than he would do something awful to Barbara. So what does she do? Of course leaves her family one on one with a sociopathic kid! She just leaves and that is all. That is stupid and she is stupid and this whole plotline is stupid. I did not care for her mother when reading this book and that is where this book dropped the ball.
A New ventriloquist and a new boyfriend:
Next we have a story with a new ventriloquist and it is one creepy story. This story is dark, disturbing and a good read. Not much else to say.
What I can say is that YAY! Barbara gets a new boyfriend who is an ex-criminal but not anymore (lost his leg because of Knightfall). Their realtionships will play a HUGE role onward in this series. The guy's name is Ricky. He is not the best love interest in the comic book industry but believe me there are far far worse. I say he is actually a pretty good character and a nice guy. I am not against him and Barbara having this relationships for this short perioud of time.
Batgirl Wanted:
Well now Batgirl is wanted by GCPD for a murder of James Gordon JR (not really. Shows up alive in the Suicide Squad series). Batgirl Wanted is totally not what I expected to see. Barbara never really fights any cops in her Bargirl outfit and never actually encounters one exept for her father at the end. It is mostly her trying to save her boyfriend who just can't get out of crime because his ties just go too deep and stuff. Still she wears a simple sort of ninja outfit throught the majority of the story and the cops do not even know that she is in fact Batgirl.
The arc ends with Batgirl and Comissioner Gordon fighting off Kingtfall servants in his house and then they sort of make peace.
I went into this story expecting...well Batgirl Wanted and the story did not really deliver on this premise. Nevertheless this is a good story and a great way to deal with the fallout of James Jr's death.
Side-stories:
That's right time to get some one-shot stories to have are rest from all that has been happening. One of them is an awesome halloween issue where collage students summon monster made of dark goo or something and Batgirl has to fight him off. Totally unlike the most of the stuff we saw earlier and that is what makes it so fun and enjoyable. Also it is a single issue not really connected to the main story so it can be reccomended as a fun issue to anyone.
We also get a story about a delusional vampire Silver and it is honetly rather silly and does not make a whole bunch of sense even with the cameo from I,Vamipire.
Batgirl Undefeated:
This is the finale of Gail Simone's run on Batgirl and it delivers on almost every aspect. We get an awesome team-up of Batgirl, Black Canary and The Huntress. That's right the original Birds of Prey are back and yet again in the talented hands of Gail Simone. The chemistry between them is as good as ever and it is just a joy and a treat to see them working together in The New 52 universe. Kinghfall's plan is not really explained in full detail but it is not a huge problem.
I have one major problem with this story and it is the ending. At the beggining it is cool with Batgirl calling a whole bunch of other female superheroes and just dominating Knightfall but then out of the blue she talks Knightfall into surrendering by showing her a picture of her dead parents and saying that they would not approve. What the actually flying duthman is this piece of manure!? Knightfall is freaking brutal she mutilates people without any remorse as just a warning! She has been NOTHING but brutal throughout the whole series. There was not a SINGLE clue to point into the direction that she is good in her heart. For God's sake her plan was to just kill ALL THE CRIMINALS IN THE CITY in cold blood and then Batgirl just shows her a photo of her dead parents and she burst in TEARS!!! That is stupid. You know what is even more infuriating? The fact that this whole thing was done for ONE REASON. Knightfall told Barbara out of thankfulness that her brother is alive and well. It was all done so that there would be no pshycological luggage for Barbara because next month she is getting a new creative team with a whole new colorful and fun approach. Gail Simone needed Barbara to find out this fact and it was done in such a rushed, unbelivebly dumb way that it just sucked all the enjoyment out of the ending.
Then we have like a few pages of Barbara saying that she wants to leave and BAM! the run is over. The last issue was rushed, stupid and badly written. What a sad way to go for such a series.
End of Spoilers:
Characters:
Now this is a strong part of this series. The character are all belivable for the most part. The narrations help us really get attached to Barbara. The new villains are all above average and play their roles really good for the majority of the time. Almost never the interactions between characters feel forced or unneeded. The dialoge flows smoothly and there is never too much of it. A few character are not as developed or interesting like Barbara's mom or her roommate. But overall the book does a really fine job in the character departament.
The Art:
Right from the start the art is really good and there are only a few artist changes through the book. The art is energetic and nice to watch. After about halfway through the run we get a new artist in the face of Fernando Pasarin and boy oh boy this guy is REALLY good with facial expressions and emotions. Bonus points to the series for having great covers throught the whole run.
Verdict:
Batgirl is a really good series. It is enjoyable and interesting. I had a really good time reading it and would easily reccoment it to people. It does a great job of returning Barbara to the mantle of Batgirl. It has consistently good art, solid writing and a good feel to it. It also can be both fun and dramatic. If you have not read it I say go give it a try now that the whole run is out. You won't regret it. It has some flaws and of course is not on the level of Batman or The Flash but it is one good read.
7.5/10 (Between Solid and Great)
How my scoring system works just so you know
1 - Abomination on every level, Insulting to every writer or artist or human
2 - Plain awful comic with no fun whatsoever to be found
3 - Bad. Just plain bad comic book with major problems
4 - Below Average not really good book
5 - an average MEH comic book
6 - Decent, somewhat good comic
7 - a solid good comic book
8 - a great comic book
9 - a magnificant and wonderful piece of work
10 - Legendary, classic, masterpiece.
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