By: Bryan Q. Miller (writer), Lee Garbett & Pere Perez (artists), Jonathan Glapion, Rodney Ramos & Pere Perez (inkers), Guy Major (colorist), Michael Siglain (editor)
The Story: Batgirl Rising, The Flood, Part Two of Four: Calculator is one creepy dude. He knows more about computers than Oracle, and he’s got a serious hate for Stephanie Brown. Maybe that’s why she’s unplugging all her systems. Oh, and he’s got a Justifier Helmet. As Babs and Steph would say: “Crap.”
What’s Good: Miller’s writing. Miller’s got the voices of his characters down cold. Calculator is creepy– seriously creepy. Babs is confident, brave, sarcastic and in over her head, and it shows in her dialogue. Gotham PD Detective Gage talks like a nervous guy seriously crushing on Assistant Professor Barbara Gordon. And Batgirl? She’s classic Stephanie, telling hookers to stay in school, having monologue issues (“OHGODOHGODISAIDTHATOUTLOUD!”), and delivering such internal monologue gems as, “Way to sell it, Dork Knight.”
The art was dynamic (layout, poses, panel composition) and it gave us views from all sorts of angles that breathed movement into the pictures, and the faces were expressive (ex.: page 2 shot of Calculator, page 6 shot of Babs, pages 12-13 shots of Detective Gage). The works of Garbett and Perez really enabled Miller’s writing, bringing various character moments to life, especially scenes with Stephanie’s crush on Gage (a nice love triangle that’s eventually going to bite someone). Major, as always, delivered fine color work. The glowing green of Oracle’s computer image and the activation of the pulse are great examples of where color takes a driver’s seat in the telling of the story.
What’s Not So Good: Although Miller and Garbett are the principal storytellers, it seems that (a) Garbett keeps getting assists and (b) the amount of inkers never seems to drop, or stay consistent more than a few issues at a time. That makes for some issues where the art is just kick ass, and others where it drops a notch. I think the credit splash page shows pretty well where the drop is, as perspective and proportion seem a bit off and the draftsmanship doesn’t quite make it. There are other poor moments throughout, and this got in the way of my reading.
Conclusion: Miller has suspense tension, romantic tension and personality friction driving this story along in classic Batgirl mode. That being said, Batgirl remains an adventure comic that delivers action and romance, and not a book that offers anything new or innovative to the field. The genre probably needs books that deliver adventure month after month, but no matter how well-crafted, the reader experience of Batgirl will have a hard time moving above average. We love Stephanie. We’re going to read her stories. Now Michael Siglain has to ask Bryan Q. Miller what he wants to say in his Batgirl stories.
Grade: C
-DS Arsenault
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