By Bryan Q. Miller (writer), Lee Garbett (penciller), Sandra Hope & Oliver Nome (guest inkers), Guy Major (colors)
The Story: Core Requirements, Part One of Three: Batgirl is in a burning building, taking on some meta called Diesel. She’s not making huge headway, when Oracle (her handler) tells her she’s got company: Batman and Robin. They all take on Diesel. Neither Batman nor Robin is impressed with Batgirl. This leads later to a massive fight between Dick and Barbara, and a smaller parallel one between Damian and Stephanie. Stephanie agrees to take it easy, but by the end of the book, she’s back in the sorts of unpremeditated adventures she falls into.
What’s Good: The whole freaking book, from beginning to end! Great writing, great conflict, great art.
The writing pulled together some quality character and conflict in this book. Stephanie, Damian, Dick, and Barbara were all clear and distinct in dialogue and in the text boxes and there were lots of zingers. Miller captured both Dick and Damian perfectly. Damian gets a line like “You certainly aren’t very skilled in…anything.” The irrepressible Stephanie owns most of the book (Barbara is still a big tenant), but the conflict between her and Damian allows her to get the essence of her Bat-book in two lines: “Everything doesn’t have to be about fear. There’s room in our line of work for hope, too.” Very insightful and even a bit metafictional. Batgirl is Gotham-lite. And while Damian and Stephanie have a baggage-free fight, Dick versus Barbara is an emotional slap down born of some real disagreements, but also leftovers from romantic might-have-beens. They trade some verbal blows that were painful to watch and will leave marks on both of them. Finally, Miller lightened the mood by giving Damian and Stephanie some parallel stalker moments that were just plain fun to read.
The art seemed different to me this issue, with Hope and Nome filling in for Scott. The inks were lighter than with Scott alone or with his occasional co-inkers. It was an interesting departure. Check out the splash page of Batman and Robin crashing in on the Diesel-Batgirl fight. The fine lines of Batgirl’s cowl are nothing like we’d have seen in any of the last 4 issues, but they work. The action sequences were great and everything was clear, if occasionally stylized (check out Damian under the tree with crows).
What’s Not So Good: The art confused me for a bit when Barbara was waiting in the diner. The cop meeting her seemed to teleport from booth to booth at some point (or one booth got eaten by a black lantern or something…). Small quibble – I don’t really care how many booths are in the diner. And a couple of pages later, I found a typo. Maybe production of this book was a bit rushed. That might explain why Scott wasn’t on deck, but again, these are quibbling points.
Conclusion: This book was awesome, and part one of a new arc means it’s a great place to pick up the Batgirl series. Having two of DC’s most popular characters guest starring is also a great move and sure to show this book to a larger audience. Pick it up!
Grade: A-
-DS Arsenault
Filed under: DC Comics Tagged: | Barbara Gordon, Batgirl #5, Batgirl #5 review, Batman, Batman, Bryan Q. Miller, Comic Book Reviews, comic reviews, Damian Wayne, DC, DC Comics, Dick Grayson, DS Arsenault, Guy Major, Lee Garbett, Oliver Nome, Oracle, Robin, Sandra Hope, Stephanie Brown, Weekly Comic Book Review
Oh for pete’s sake…could you mods please do me a favor and delete these comments…I put it in the wrong &@^ article. What I get for not writing with my glasses on….sorry… :/
Well, I’m pretty darn new to comic reading, so while these issues affect me as someone who buys both monthly comics and the graphic novel/tpbs, it certainly hasn’t been on my radar as much as it has for longtime readers–after all, for me, many comics have “always” been $3.99. It makes me sad to hear about this issue and what an impact it may have on the industry I’m growing to love, though.
The “chapterish” nature of recent comics is very interesting to contemplate. Personally I won’t be making any adjustments to my pull list; the way it breaks down for me is that I NEVER double dip storylines; I either buy it all in comic form, or I wait for the tpb/graphic novel. I mostly use the trades to bring me up to speed on history or storylines that would take far too much money (or space!) if I was to buy them as individual comics. So…for what its worth, that’s where I come in on that issue. I just don’t double dip.
I am curious about the 3.99 price though…how recently has that become an issue, and what was the industry’s response to the (inevitable) initial outcry by the fans?