You Don’t Have to be So Grotesque, Ugly
Writer: Mairghread Scott
Penciller: Paul Pelletier
Inker: Norm Rapmund
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Deron Bennett
Main Cover Artists: Sean Murphy and Scott Hollingsworth
Variant Cover Artist: Joshua Middleton
Editor: Brittany Holzherr
Group Editor: Jamie S. Rich
Cover Price: $3.99
On Sale Date: November 28, 2018
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**
This will conclude the first arc of Batgirl by Scott and Pelletier, and it’s been pretty good! Find out if it closes strong in my review of Batgirl #29, as shown below!
Explain It!
So the scenario is this: Evan Douglas is being controlled by the mysterious Dark Web operative Wyrm, made to steal expensive works of art and murder people in a grotesque fashion, in the guise of the villain Grotesque. Now, in order to secure said works of art, Wyrm has planted bombs and several Dark Web operatives at a gala event revealing duplicates of pilfered items, where these copies will be destroyed along with several attendees, including Commissioner Gordon. Now, I’m not criminologist, I cannot claim to have studied the inner workings of affiliated thieves and law-breakers. But I think this might be the most overwrought, stupidest supervillain plan of all time.
I just can’t get over it. No matter how you look at it, the thing makes no sense. So Wyrm wanted expensive art and has the means to force people to do it. Fine. Plus he likes to make his minions do the slice-and-dice. I can understand that. But this whole thing at the event, it comes together like a box of marbles spilling down an escalator. Barbara doesn’t want to cause a scene when trying to save the day, so she puts on an evening gown and pretends to attend the event. When push comes to shove, she tries to convince Detective Douglas to be a good guy, but gets the snot kicked out of her for the trouble. Later, she lies prostrate on the ground while the bomb-blowing moment ticks ever nearer, but then Babs wills herself to stand and clobbers Douglas into submission. All’s well at the end, including more closeness between Barbara and her father, which seems to be what this whole arc was really about. I mean, they kept mentioning it enough, sheesh.
Wyrm also kills Detective Douglas, just for funsies. Barbara is annoyed by this, but gets over it as she heads into surgery to get her spinal microchip polished or whatever. And while she’s in surgery, the set-up for the next issue is that the FBI has some questions for Jim Gordon. Which should be standard procedure, since he’d just been through a terrorist’s attack. But that’s just more of the incongruous weirdness that has settled into this series in the last couple of issues. I like the way Barbara is characterized, much more capable and cerebral than before. And truth be told, I like seeing her reconnect with her father after so many years of uncomfortable weirdness. But the contrivance around this stuff was too stupid, even for me. And I review Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane comics, for crying out loud!
Bits and Pieces:
Barbara arrives in plenty of time to save the day and make the conclusion more complicated than necessary. Some nice character moments, but the story arc itself sort of fizzles out instead of finishing in a satisfying way. Plenty of satisfaction to be found, however, in the visuals.
7.0/10
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