posted
I dug the last issue with Damian... though I like him as more of a badass, similar to his appearance in Superman/Batman #77 it's kind of cool to see him act like a tool around a cute girl...
-------------------- Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...
From: The waters off eastern Long Island | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Issue #18 was another fun team-up... I didn't know anything about Klarion the Witch-Boy before this story, but he was hilARious with Stephanie... love the art too... the painted pages were gorgeous... I think I'm going to give this book a look-see for a while longer... nice to see someone wearing the bat having some fun once in a while...
-------------------- Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...
From: The waters off eastern Long Island | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Bit of a letdown from last issue, both art and story-wise... I guess the writer's feel Stephanie needs her own Oracle, but Proxy is kind of a bore...
-------------------- Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...
From: The waters off eastern Long Island | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I just want to take a moment to lament the upcoming loss of what's been a really great and overlooked book in DC's line. Bryan Q. Miller has done a tremendous job with Stephanie Brown in the lead role and delivering a fun, witty and light read every month. Between this book and Sterling Gates' run on Supergirl, I can't think of any solo book with a female lead that I've enjoyed more consistently. Batgirl has an edge on the Supergirl run I mentioned because it was mostly unimpeded by crossovers while Supergirl constantly was overshadowed by the crappy "New Krypton" story. Heck, Batgirl has been so good it transcends the "girl comic" label.
Batgirl was about Stephanie, but it was also about Wendy Harris and Barbara Gordon. IMO, Barbara's moments here overshadow her usage in the recent BoP relaunch with Gail. Her interactions with Steph and Wendy showed her dealing with two people who were following Babs into each of her roles in the superhero community: Steph as Batgirl and Wendy as Proxy, an Oracle-in-training.
Wendy's struggles in the wake of her tragedy have been very poignant without bringing the book down. The latest issue, 21, had her hallucinating conversations with her dead brother Marvin and finally taking some figurative steps toward healing herself literally and metaphorically. Her conversation with Babs this issue just brought all the themes of this run home for me.
Issue 21 ends with Steph facing her upcoming fight alone as Wendy and Babs are moving in different directions. The great thing about that is that Steph relishes this instead of feeling angst. She's come a long way, and she's developed the confidence in herself to know she can handle it. At long last.
I hope we haven't seen the last of Stephanie when the series ends in August and that if nothing else, Gail Simone uses her in the new book if no one else does. Meanwhile, I'll have three more issues to savor. Gail and Babs will have a tough act to follow, though. For sure.
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Note: We have this thread for Babs. Unfortunately, I've noticed that the "search" function tends to show the original thread names if the title was edited later.
The thread was VERY popular when the Babs returning announcement was made but has fallen to page 5 and hasn't been posted on since June or July.
Reboot: For the record, I removed the Barbara Gordon BG #1 review, and the subsequent confusion, to avoid further similar "whoops"es! Lash reposted his review here in the Barbara thread if anyone missed it!
posted
Well, I finally read Batgirl #24 today, Stephanie Brown's final issue. I really loved this book almost from the beginning and can't help but feel bitter that it's ending in favor of a relaunch with Babs out of the wheel chair. I must say, though, that writer Bryan Q. Miller takes her out with charm, love and grace.
Steph has a confrontation with her dad, the Cluemaster. They catch up on old times and slug it out but not before dad gives her a dose of the mercy flower. Said flower has popped up in Green Lantern among other places and causes hallucinations of your fondest desires. Miller and artist Pere Perez use the hallucinagenic effects to show us some of the stories Miller had planned to take Steph had the series not been cut-off through a series of splash pages. It's a gift to the fans of this book that is very much appreciated but is also bittersweet as we'll never get to see them played out. We even get two glimpses into her more distant future, though those would likely have never come to fruition anyway. But it's nice...kind of giving us Steph's life story in a few pages.
The ending with Steph and Babs is really touching. More than a little metatextual, sure, but it also works as an uplifting way to close the book on this volume of Batgirl.
This was a terrific book and one that will be missed greatly by myself and the book's other fans. It was above all else a fun book to read. It's entries into "grim and gritty" territory were few and far between. Steph made a GREAT Batgirl, and she had a gifted writer in Miller telling her story. Let's hope that we haven't seen the last of either.....
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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