Things are looking a bit… strange.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Mirka Andolfo
Colors: Wendy Broome
What They Say:
Captured by the Penguin, the Batgirls struggle to rescue Harvey Dent as Lois Lane races to combat their newest foe-KILLER FROST! Batgirls part 3 of 3.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
To my surprise, the first two installments of the Batgirls arc have been a lot of fun. While I like the concept and the characters well enough, past outings with them didn’t enamor me to them all that much. With a fairly sizable group and not enough time to really connect with them – especially since I don’t know most of them in the mainline DC books, there’s just a kind of disconnect for me. The first two chapters made it a lot of fun and played to some good material with parallels to the politics of today but set in the early 40’s and that combined with the action and just the sense of fun and adventure about it all made it pretty enjoyable.
Unfortunately, the finale for it doesn’t quite hold up as it feels like things aren’t quite cemented. With the girls captured by Penguin and Killer Frost, there’s the usual rolling out of the plan by the villain and how they’re not going to be able to stop him. All well enough, but it’s the plan itself that just feels weird. Penguin’s looking to change the world to something pure in a way, reminiscent of Hitler’s views of course, but it’s something that even he realizes won’t be a world that includes him since it will eliminate vice and force a world of supermen into it through proper genetics and breeding. When they reveal Hugo Strange as the one behind all of this, including the manipulation of Harvey Dent, it just feels like an even less concrete plan as he reinforces what Penguin was talking about. Even after reading it a few times I don’t really feel like I “get” it.
There is a lot to like here beyond that however as there’s just a lot of fun in watching the girls in action, trying to sway Dent, and pushing back against Strange and Penguin with what it is they’re trying to do. But for me, it was the epilogue section that really drove this installment to be a lot of fun. While things are wrapped up and the girls aren’t quite as hunted as they were, Maggie works to draw them together in a way so that they can become a more unified team that understand each other better. This comes in having them all move into the building with their own places, since a lot of folks have moved elsewhere recently, and we get the Bombshells version of the Batcave. It’s a lot of fun to see how it plays out but just to see how Maggie is taking a really good role with these young women and playing a big part in their lives.
In Summary:
This three-part arc worked well for me overall even if it falters at the end with the larger reveal. The first two parts added some fun stuff in looking at the home front and what’s going on there to be dealt with while showing how the next generation is coming up to defend it as well. This issue adds some nice color to things overall and it expands what the girls are capable of and the concept of the Batgirls themselves. There’s a lot to like here overall as a whole, though I’m also looking forward to getting back to some of the other storylines and seeing where the next phase of the larger war will be going – and who with.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 15th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
