Batgirl #18, by Marc Alan Fishman – Snarky Synopsis | @MDWorld

March 17, 2013 Marc Fishman 0 Comments

Written by Ray Fawkes, Pencils by Daniel Sampere

Oh Batgirl #18, how I loathe thee! Let me count the ways. Is it the ham-fisted scripting so overtly melodramatic it makes my brain smoke? Is it the “Requiem” badge on the front cover that barely gets roped into the book in the most forced way possible? Perhaps it’s the continued murdering of James Gordon Jr.’s character? Oh, gentle reader, it’s all of the above.

The obligatory backstory for those not in-the-know: Joker recently came back, messed with everyone’s heads, and for a time kidnapped all of the Bat-Family. During this time, he ALSO kidnapped Barbara Gordon’s mom (by coincidence apparently), played a game of chicken with James Jr., and put on a mock wedding with Babsy, threatening to cut off her limbs so she’d be a good wife. Yeah. Elsewhere, in Grant Morrison’s “Batman, LLC”, Robin (Damian… not Jason. Not Dick. Not Drake. Not Steph Brown.) was killed by his own aged-up psycho-clone. Heroes’ death and everything. Hence the ‘Requiem’ tag on the cover. In the issue itself? Barbara learns about it over the phone. She gets sad in a panel. And that’s that. Moving on!

Batgirl #18 makes an attempt to move Batgirl back into it’s own skin, after being roped into the “Death of the Family” epic-crossover completed over the last few months. While it’s tempting to take time out of this review to once again state my loathing of inter-book crossovers… I will save that specific bit of piss and vinegar for my ComicMix column. Suffice to say: Batgirl needs to get back on track, and this issue does little to get us there. Prior to all the editorial hoopla behind the scenes… Gail Simone was setting up a nice little universe for Babs. Her mother was back in her life (the Barbara part), and she was doing well thwarting D and F class bozos (the Batgirl part). By the end of the arc, things were well in hand; Barbara was able to stand on her own two legs (natch) and was finally confident in herself again. She was truly on the verge of breaking out of the doldrums Simone built up for her, and I for one was hanging on for the next big leap.

Ray Fawkes—wrote issue #17, this issue, and perhaps the next 1 or 2, lord-save-me— delivers us 19 or so pages of rote super heroics dotted with the predictable beats of a book skating by. The biggest problem Fawkes suffers from in his script is his portrayal of James Gordon Jr.. Whereas Scott Snyder was nimble, minimal, and nuanced with the would-be-villain… Fawkes (and Simone to a lesser extent previously) turns James into a full-blown inner monologuing angst factory. Where the character was one a sociopath with grand schemes and unpredictable brutality, Batgirl #18 sees him as nothing more than a mustache twirling idiot. Take for example his final gambit, where he threatens Babs (for what feels like the eight-hundredth time since the New52 began…) with a dead bat, and a creepy phone message. This is done all the while he deadpans in caption boxes about all the ways in which he could kill his sister. Since Snyder’s time with the character (which he himself unearthed, and slowly built up), we have seen him transfer to nothing more than another omniscient Bond villain.

The fact that we must keep up with James as he “presents” the story to us, makes me weary for the possibility that Fawkes might have been tapped to write the book indefinitely after the faux-firing of Gail Simone. If this was to be the new start of something big for Babs, then this would easily be the death-knell of the series for me. I have been up and down on the series from the get go. Gail Simone’s will to make me like Barbara paid off. But even since the ending of her arc on the title, we seemingly end up in the same skirmish every episode. Mark my words… if we must open on Batgirl once again swamped by street-level thugs, collapsing buildings, and morty-psuedo-super-villains, I will close the book for the good. And to see issues #17, and now #18 amping up James as the next villain du jour, my patience is getting thinner by the page flip. Pepper in yet-another worthless villain who delivers the absolute WORST line he could possibly utter (“The people I work for… you have no idea…”), and this issue is better as kindling as it is kindle-fodder.

Simply put, Gordon Jr. is best served in small, methodical doses crecendoing to a major reveal. Instead, he is out, about, scheming and plotting for all to see. It weakens all the work done up until this point to make him a standout force of evil not even two years ago. And to make it an even stronger point: Snyder set up James as Dick’s Joker. Barbara was (and still should be) collateral damage. Instead, we shift gears as the hand of editorial shifts it’s grip, firmly up the ass of this title. With no memorable villains to the series’ name yet, it’s more than obvious the powers that be are demanding more “A-Listers”. While I’d trust Simone to do it, instead, we’re watching someone else bat clean-up and strike out.

I have left my take on the art shelved here, in the waning part of the review. Sampere continues to deliver the polished by-the-books visuals the series has carried since it’s debut. The only art worth an extra gander is the cover. Sadly, it seems DC is unwilling to put a grittier or more challenging artist on the book. The team (including a bloated set of 4 inkers in order to finish it…) put forth an effort that reeks of “The Big Two House Style”. Bells and whistles in the form of photoshopped knockout color washes, and wicked blurs do nothing extra for the book aside from make the colorists’ portfolio shine. The art here is simply “acceptable”. Given the quality of the story? I guess there’s not much else to do with it.

Ultimately, as I’d said before: Batgirl is amidst growing pains. With a crossover taking much steam out from the books original momentum, and Ray Fawkes doing a hackneyed impression of Scott Snyder and Gail Simone… the need for a real change is looming on the horizon. Barbara Gordon spent the first dozen or so issues dealing with feelings of inadequacy. If her writers don’t take that to heart very soon, I’m afraid I’ll be wishing for Joker’s return sooner than later. Do you hear that Babs? It’s the doorbell…