Someone got back into the game too soon.
What They Say:
The nightmare-inducing brute known as Mirror is destroying the lives of Gotham City citizens seemingly at random, and an explosive confrontation between Batgirl and Mirror leads Babs to question wearing the cape and cowl at all!
The Review:
One of the first frustrations I had with the series, and the only real frustration at that, is the lack of anything being said about why Barbara got the use of her legs back. It was one of those plot points I wanted to have explained, but the further I get into the book and especially with this second issue, the less of a problem it is for me. As Barbara puts it while talking to her therapist, Gregor, while the two are out on a date she initiated, it’s simply a miracle. While she wants answers and is asking dark questions about it, the conversation paints it clearly that sometimes miracles just do happen, you have to accept it and make very good use of it. That kind of mindset is a hard one to take if you don’t have those kinds of miracles in your life, but when you really think about it and put it into perspective, it makes perfect sense when it comes to Barbara Gordon and what she’s doing.
Of course, she’s also realizing that she needed to do a bit more work before getting back into the game as Batgirl. Her opening moments of being able to go swinging through the city again were great, but encountering Mirror has not gone well, including the fact that her inaction helped cause the death of a detective and paralyzed her mentally. She has scars inside that will be there for awhile to be sure when it comes to guns and the damage the Joker did to her three years prior. Seeing her struggle with it, and having consequences, is spot on and works well to portray her as a human and flawed individual, something that can be overdone but is done rather well here. Thankfully, even if she is out of practice, she does have a lot of training from working with Bruce and the others over the years so she’s able to recover and go after him.
Mirror’s not exactly the most captivating of villains to be introduced but he is one that gets a lot of attention focused on when it comes to who he really is. Being that Barbara spent a lot of time as Oracle, she’s able to put her research side to good use and hits the books and the net to figure him out after an encounter at a rather interesting place within Gotham proper, a cemetery for the wealthy of years gone by. That sets her down the right path and we get a fair bit of exposition on Mirror and who he really is. But we also get a lot of grunting and physical moments earlier as she battles him over the streets and in the cemetery. There’s a really good feeling to how it works here, between the narration that Simone employs for her as well as the panel layouts and the facial expressions that Syaf gives her as she struggles to deal with a physically superior opponent. And with her own skills being as lapsed as they are. There’s a really good marriage of words and art here to produce this result.
Release Notes:
This comiXology edition of Batgirl comes with the main cover as released with the print edition and no other extras.
In Summary:
Batgirl is definitely one of the characters that I was most intrigued by with the relaunch to see how it would go and the first issue definitely grabbed my attention, though I wasn’t exactly enamored by the villains or bad guys in general. With this issue, we cement things more when it comes to the action side and get some good character material for her through the narration amidst the fight as well with what she does afterward, one segment with her roommate who is more than she seems and another with her physical therapist. As much as I enjoy Batgirl out in the streets and in action, I hope we get to see more of Barbara herself as she reconnects with the outside world in a new way. Similar to Dick Grayson, she’s not the type to become as intense as Bruce Wayne but there’s also a shy side to her that Dick doesn’t have that needs to be explored. I’d almost want a separate book to deal with all of that so we can have the best of both worlds.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
