Batgirl 7, by Marc Alan Fishman – Snarky Synopsis – @MDWorld

March 18, 2012 Marc Fishman 5 Comments

Written by Gail Simone
Art by Ardian Syaf and Alitha Martinez

For the record, in case you didn’t know… she is Batgirl. Not Batwoman. Batgirl. Isn’t it funny how the DCnU reset itself, and most of Gotham is confused at how many Batfamily members are around? It’s a fleeting moment in Batgirl #7, but one that caught my attention. After saving a room of hoity-toity Gothamites from a band of Oni-mask wearing ne’er-do-wells, ole’ Babs Gordon has to correct her audience in their fleeting gratitude. It’s part of the wit and charm Gail Simone is bringing monthly to this title. Issue #7 is the beginning of a new arc for the recently relaunched series. As many know, I have an incredible love of Simone’s work. So it’s with a bit of a heavy heart that I have to say the issue doesn’t feel like it’s trying to hard to earn my love. I’m a finicky man, if I do say so myself.

The issue is structured predictably; An immediate threat to start us out, and then a quick flashback to get us back to the issue at present. I’m not in love with the trope, but Gail hides it well with her characterization. As it stands, a group dubbed the “Grotesque” are demon-masked criminals of the well-coifed sect. Their leader, a meta-human with Dr. Doom’s powers (from the not-so-great movie, not the always-great comics mind you) pins our titular hero to start the book off. And by the way… titular? Pun intended. Our flashback joins Babs still in mental disrepair after her miraculous’ deparalysis’, and a handful of skirmishes with Simone’s bargain-basement Rogues gallery. Looking to find her center again, Bat-lass heads to her crime-fighting-BFF, Black Canary for a little tough love. A snarky cat fight / sparring match leads Canary to assign the Grotesque gig. A heist interrupted… and we’re back to where we started.

Like I said, I don’t mind the structure, even if it’s a cliché by now. What I mind is that we’re seven issues into the series, and Barbara Gordon’s inner psyche is just plain maudlin. And I can appreciate that Simone goes full-bore-meta on this, as she has Black Canary call Babs out on it mid-issue. Seven issues of “I don’t deserve this gift! But I’ll use it! To fight injustice! And be the best darned Batgirl I can be! But what if I fail?!” is too much. Combined this with a continuing amassment of sub-par villains, and you get a series that is pushing itself to the outskirts of the DCnU when it could be front and center. Gail Simone is clearly one of the best writers at DC today. When she create villains like “Mirror.” (Good Soldier gone Cobra Commander), “Gretel” (Good Girl gone bald), and now “Barefoot Japanese Masked Super Guy” when I know she has the capability to make masterful miscreants—it really takes the wind out of the sails of the book. As threats, these noobs are merely nuisances… not threats we fear for a second.

The subplot Gail has added to the book though, with the return of Babs’ mother, has been written beautifully. It adds a realistic, and deep flavor to the bland super-heroics we’ve been privy too thus far. Akin to Peter Parker’s “real world problems” over at Marvel, Simone gives Barbara Gordon a hefty and earned dose of angst. If she could find a balance of that secret identity drama with super hero arcs, I’d be less critical of where we are at this point. But I digress. The brief scene we get of Babs Senior meeting with her former husband is played pitch-perfect. And the tie-in to Scott Snyder’s last arc on Detective Comics made me more than a little happy. Amidst all the bluster and predictable action sequences, the Barbara side of Batgirl keeps issue 7 away from my “warning light of dropped subscriptions.”

If I may harp on one real pet peeve I do have for the book , it’s squarely on the continual stream-of-conscience captions during Batgirl’s fights. Look, I grew up in the 90’s. I love me a good inner-thought-by-way-of-caption-box as much as the next guy. But seven issues in, I get it. Batgirl isn’t as good a fighter as she used to be. By the time we’ve read our 716th caption declaring how she can’t out-power her opponent, you can audibly hear my eyes roll. I sincerely hope with Bab’s dojo butt-whupping this time around, we’ll get more of her intellect mid-fight, instead of the schmaltz delivered thus far. Sometimes I truly feel like Gail lets a little less restraint into her dialogue and captions in this book, and I question if it’s because of the age of our hero… or her sex. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a fan here… but there’s a considerable amount of moments Batgirl gets a bit to wink-and-a-nudge-cute for my personal taste.

In the art department, Syaf and Martinez give us solid, if not perfect work. Barbara emotes all over the pages, but there’s a slickness (which may very well be credited to inker Vicente Cifuentes) to it all that rubs my rhubarb at times. Take for example the panel where the Grotesque leader is unmasked. It’s hard to tell if Babs can’t properly see his face because she is dazed… or he’s Vic Sage. When it’s time for action, the art is always kinetic. Blows feel like they have a real weight to them. I will wag my finger of shame though to the colorist Ulises Arreola… who had James Gordon’s computer screen full of “Police Blotter Police Blotter Police Blotter” scrawled on it. It’s tiny. It’s insignificant. But I’ll be damned if I didn’t spot it, and mutter “c’mon…”. Laziness aside, the art isn’t anything to write home about, but it always gets us from point A to B acceptably.

So, what we have here is a tale of pros and cons. Batgirl #7 is a solid effort that wins me over for it’s honest voice, clever dialogue, and continual build of serialized drama in Babara’s real life. It loses me with it’s unoriginal villains, and overuse of captioned angst. I have plenty of faith that Gail Simone is going somewhere good with the book though, and I’m hanging on to this series for the long haul. As Babs becomes more confident, I feel like the book will break out of the shell it’s built for itself. When that happens, this book may very well give all other Bat-Titles a run for their money.