Batgirl #11 Review and **SPOILERS**

Blackened Blacksun

Script: Hope Larson 

Pencils & Cover: Chris Wildgoose 

Inks: Jon Lam 

Colors: Mat Lopes 

Letters: Deron Bennett 

Variant Cover: Francis Manapul 

Cover Price: $3.99 

On Sale Date: May 24, 2017

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

We return to the misadventures of the most naïve superhero in the DC Universe, Batgirl! Will she blunder into another obvious trap, or completely misjudge someone’s character again? Who can say? I can! Read my review of Batgirl #11, and wonder no longer.

Explain It!

Just as Ethan Cobblepot—I’m sorry, Blacksun <snicker> confronts his dad with the intention to take over the family territory, Batgirl comes crashing through a circular skylight and creates a very Batman ’89 scene. A stunt like this would give Batman the upper hand, however, while Barbara Gordon is still led along like a puppy dog by Ethan’s slender hipness. He ushers in a bunch of app-addled zombies who crowd the room, while explaining some nonsense about “murmuration” which is probably the name of the next iOS update. Barbara remembers that a murmuration is what you call a flock of Starlings, and I’m like hey fucko there are TWO supervillains standing in the same room with you for crying out loud! You wanna like, I dunno, punch someone?? Anyway, Blacksun <heh> mind-controls everyone to start rending the Penguin into ribbons, then splits while Babs subdues the crowd and saves ol’ Oswald. Then she smashes out of the window and is someone how on Blacksun’s tail, despite several minutes having clearly elapsed since he skedaddled.

Blacksun hops on his hover bike and leads Barbara through Burnside, while informing his legion of smartphone users that Batgirl just saved Penguin—so now they want to claw at her, too! I mean of course they do. Why did we even bother changing locations? They could have swarmed her back at Cobblepot’s pad and saved us the trip. Babs ziplines out of the fray, and considers that Blacksun’s only weakness is to get him outside of wi-fi range. I’m going to say that again: Blacksun’s power can be compromised by shitty wi-fi. So basically he is powerless in nearly any hotel or internet café. Barbara considers where she could lure Ethan that would take him off the grid, and it hits her: Prospect Pine Park! She overheard some women complaining about the bad signal in the bathroom at last night’s soiree. Now hold on: Barbara Gordon uses a special spectrometer to find a Faraday bag among a crowd of messengers a few issues ago, but to learn about wi-fi strength in Gotham City she uses something she overheard in the rest room? Don’t you think there might be a better resource for that, like maybe some kind of a survey about wi-fi strength in Gotham? Here’s the world’s greatest computer hacker and she’s picking up intel in the bathroom like a reporter for the Enquirer.

Barbara is able to lure Blacksun <chortle> to Prospect Pine Park by dressing up like Dick Grayson and leading him on a merry chase. Remember, Blacksun hates Dick because he thinks he stole Babs from him. Except I never really got the impression that he was furious, just a little disappointed. Well, now he’s livid enough to tear around on his hover bike, right into the Triple P, where he no longer has power over the minds of app junkies. Batgirl gives him a swift kick in the chest, which causes his suit to do a mega-taze that burns the crap out of Blacksun, until Barbara can put it out with a fire-extinguishing pistol. Two weeks later, we’re celebrating the return of Frankie to Barbara’s apartment, a problem that never really solidified or felt meaningful over the last few issues. And in an epilogue, Penguin retrieves his son’s heavily burned and scarred body from the hospital, prepared to embrace his progeny now that he will look like week-old Limburger cheese when all is said and done.

So that was a bit of a waste, huh? Feels like we sort of watched a bunch of stuff happen, but couldn’t engage with the titular character because she seems more clueless than I am. And I’m an idiot! I never really felt like Ethan Cobblepot was a real threat to anyone, and I hated how Batgirl was just chumming around with him and his father like it’s all hunky dory in daylight. Batman has used the Penguin for information and influence—but he always acts like an extreme dick to Oswald while doing it. It really disappoints me how ineffectual and spaced out Barbara came off in this arc and during this series as a whole. It’s like no one even sees her as a plausible threat because she acts so dopey all the time. The art is pretty spectacular, for the most part, but I found this story to be lame.

Bits and Pieces:

Batgirl bumbles through another fine mess and comes out fine and sippin' wine at the end. This concludes a low stakes arc that ultimately has few consequences. I sure wish Batgirl would be smart again. Anyway, it looks pretty cool, though the art is uneven in places.

6/10