Art By: Babs Tarr
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 8, 2014
OMG! WTF?
Well Gail Simone's run is over and now we jump into a new Batgirl with a new creative team and a new direction for our Gal Guardian of Gotham. I don't want to say that I'm going into this with a negative bias just because I looked at the preview for the issue and didn't like it, but I don't want to say that I'm not either because that would just be lying. So yeah, maybe I'm not thrilled about this Batgirl and what the comic will be doing in the future, but it is what it is and man I hope this doesn't ruin Batgirl for me. So let's check it out and keep our rose colored glasses on and then break them when we're disappointed. I'm so conflicted.
Explain It!:
Our story begins with Barbara Gordon moving to "Burnside", you know... The other side of Gotham. Well it matters to people who know the complete layout of Gotham and have memorized all it's districts..... NERDS! Sorry about that outburst, let's get back to the story. So Barbara has a new apartment and two new roommates and man are they annoying as shit. I don't know if I'm just getting old or what, but if this is the way that young women talk and act normally......... Well I guess I hate them. Yeah that's pretty harsh, but man was it hard getting through this issue while Barbara's roommates were talking.
Getting back to the story, it seems that Black Canary's dojo burned down while she was away and apparently even though the two weren't talking, Barbara decided that she'd use Canary's storage unit to keep her Batgirl costume, van and other various crime fighting gear safe. So yeah it's all gone and it looks like Barbara has a new roommate in Dinah while she finds a new place to live. If that wasn't enough of a story to get us all prepped for how this new run will go, the action of this story revolves around missing pieces of tech around the city and even Barbara's laptop being stolen. Yeah the girls had a party and while Barbara was drinking too much and blacking out after making out with a random guy, someone snuck into her room and stole her stuff. After a bit of eidetic memory detecting and creating a online dating profile, that the guy just happened to respond to, she finds out who the guy is and after creating a new Batgirl suit she confronts him.
With this issue revolving around women talking like teenagers and texting and online dating sites and even the bad guy using hashtags in his dialogue balloons, it's no surprise that all the tech being stolen is being taken to a dude who runs a website that pretty much blackmails people. Think of Batgirl meets "The Fappening". So Batgirl puts something into the guy who stole her laptop's phone and tells him to give it to the bad guy he works for, "Blackmail". So on the day of the website's relaunch party, Batgirl comes in and begins fighting Blackmail while telling him to delete all the stuff he's illegally obtained. Well he couldn't be just a regular scumbag since he's in Gotham, as it turns out he downloads everything into his brain through his data collecting cyborg eye............. Yup.
In the end Batgirl offers him the trade. She'll show him what she looks like without the cowl if he deletes his files. He agrees and after Bagirl sends him the pic through a text and he looks at it, he see's a QR code that somehow sets up malware within his brain and automatically deletes his data memory. Yeah somehow she set this up when she took the guy's phone earlier in the issue. So the bad guy is beaten and when Barbara thinks she can finally relax, she receives a text from someone who apparently knows her secret.
That's it for this issue of Batgirl and it's new take on....... well everything. I hate wishing bad things on anyone, but I hope that this creative team is gone real soon. I'm sure that this issue will sell a lot of copies due to all the hype and people's interest in seeing something new, but there is no way that the sales can continue to be good after people are done reading this. I just really want things to be like they were, so I could stop sitting in the corner crying about what's been done to my Batgirl.
Bits and Pieces:
So that's the new Batgirl........ Man if this is what comics will one day become, then I'm out. All the trendy hipster talk, all the girls with their upwards inflection in everything that they said....... Was that just me? Oh and why does everything have to revolve around texting and the interwebs? Yes I know people enjoy those things but they don't like them drilled into their freaking skulls............ I get it you're hip and modern. Damn was I unhappy with this issue and I haven't even brought up the Riverdale style of art. Guess what? I don't like it. It's just like a fanboy to hate new things and new takes on the things that they love, but I don't think that's the case here and I hope it doesn't last too much longer.
3/10
Great review and you pretty much nailed my entire thought process!!! I'll have a review up soonish and will point out a few things you didn't.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with ur thoughts...I Really hate this new look Batgirl. Its way too girly, childish, makes Barbara seem so immature, she gets drunk n can't remember the guy... What the hell? They have destroyed Gail Simones Batgirl. The costume is too year one, too new crime fighter with no money n no friends who can help her out. I don't like the art or all the hip teeny bopper chat and coffees and lets get drunk n party. They have taken Barbara from being a responsible and smart and mature adult who fights serious crime in an amazing armored costume and made her a silly immature girl who is running around in a leather jacket trying to b batgirl!
ReplyDeleteThis Barbara is NOT a good role model for girls, Gails batgirl is definitely a much better role model .
We need Gail back on this book with Batgirl in her armored Black awesome costume.
DC what have u done to such a strong and smart character? SHAME ON U!!!
I wish there was a "like" or "favorite" button on here. Get all the emotions out, it's the only way we'll move on from this. I personally like to go to the bar and yell at strangers about comic things they don't understand. They might not appreciate it, but it's all part of my process.
DeleteI for the life of me do not see how this artwork looks anything like an Archie comic. I've read Archie comics, I've watched Weird Mysteries, and I even checked the artwork for their various series recently to see if it has evolved in any way. And in all of that, I do not remotely see how this art style looks the same as an Archie comic. Hell, I'm looking at the pages you posted and I think you ultimately prove your wrong on that. This is more of a cross between Cameron Stewart, Becky Cloonan, and Paolo Rivera with the layouts, the colors, the way the characters look and emote, the movement and flow, and more. Ultimately, you really dismissing this comic's art I feel (the artwork of Simone's run was so generic and over saturated with purple that it made any artist's work look the same).
ReplyDeleteThe "Riverdale" comment was a generalization about the cartoony style of the book. I'm sorry I didn't give more examples to other books that I don't like the art in.
ReplyDeleteBLESSED BE YOU. Of all the awful things the N52 has done, "Batgirl of Burnside" has to be one of the absolute worst. It enrages me more than the cancellation of 2008's Secret Six and the re-design and personality destruction of Harley. This comic in NO WAY knows what in Hell it is doing. They take Barb and try to force the "cool" and "hip" look to appeal to the tumblr 16-year-old girl demographic. All it ends up doing is dumbing it down super hard and making Barb look like a stereotypical hipster bitch and it DISGUSTS me, this was not the girl I wanted to be when I grew up. I always wanted to be Barb or Kara when I was little, and I loved the evolution of Barbara's character as she grew throughout the years. This isn't Barb, this is some closet-cosplaying hipster POS.
ReplyDeleteAlso, let's note how Babs Tarr (a very UNPROFESSIONAL [and pretty bratty from friend-actually-seeing-her-at-a-panel experience] individual) brags about her giving Barb a leather jacket. Cough cough, there's a REASON heroes wear spandex. Leather chafes and restricts movements, spandex does not.
Oh, and the dialogue sucks.
I'm 18, have wanted to work at DC since I was 15-16, and the only good this awful comic has done is make me feel better about my chances to work there if they can let awful stuff like this go on for 30+ issues. Good gravy.
I do love me some Good Gravy! I feel your pain. However, it has actually gotten a little better the past few issues. Don't get me wrong, I am with you about the whole change and it infuriates me even more that DC seemed to have changed their whole approach to comics based on this book (I may be exaggerating a bit, but only a bit).
DeleteWhat you said here sums up why I think they are off base with these "young" characters...they are trying to make the heroes more like you, when you want a hero you can look up to and strive to be more like yourself.
For me, it would be like turning Luke Skywalker into a guy with five kids, working at a cardboard box factory and writing comic reviews at night...who the hell wants that?!? I'd rather have a guy who saves a princess, becomes a jedi, all in space!!!
Please get hired by DC and let them know that young comic readers want something more...and then you write it and we will review it!
a 3 rating? are you insane? or just a fanboy? how can you justify such a high rating for dog poop stuck between your toes? I swear I still can't get the smell off.
ReplyDelete