Batgirl #37 Review

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Written By: Cecil Castellucci

Art By: Carmine Di Giandomenico, Jordie Bellaire, Andworld Design

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: July 24, 2019

I was really all about what Mairgread Scott was doing with Batgirl during her run and at the end of it I was afraid that things wouldn't continue along the same path that she had started...... for anyone who shared the same fears that I had, don't worry just yet because even though we're dealing with Cecil Castellucci's first issue of her run on this book, she's pretty much easing us into this thing by showing us the familiar.  We have the Terrible Trio here, (don't worry it makes sense) Jason Bard and all of Barbara's political volunteering associates......... and most importantly, we have Batgirl....... That's all that really matters.  Let's jump into this issue and see how things are going to be for Barbara Gordon during this run.  Let's check it out.

While I found it odd that we started this issue out with the Terrible Trio, since Shark died in the last issue and it looked like Fox and Vulture may be on the outs, this is all explained away simple enough, while also explaining that we now have the Terrible Trio trying to find something that will enable them to make it back into the spotlight of the criminal underworld.  I don't know how they know about where they are or what this place even is, but it seems to be the center of our story going forward since it revolves around a name we all know associated with Barbara Gordon and it also ties into the Year of the Villain and Lex Luthor's offer.  

Besides for that though, we see the majority of our Batgirl parts of this book focused on her fighting off a new and improved Killer Moth, which I love because not only am I a fan of the character, but I'm a fan of the idea that Killer Moth is tired of being a joke and is upping his game in the hopes of getting an offer from Lex Luthor.  This is all fun and makes the villain look great, while it also lets newer readers know about Barbara's new status quo as a poor person.  While these aspects could be enough for an issue in my mind, Cecil also wants to remind us of Jason Bard's continued obsession for Barbara's affection and Izzy from Congresswoman Alejo's office's continued disdain for Barbara's continued flakiness.  While this aspect to the story isn't my favorite it does show us a connection that Izzy has with a character from another book that gets me intrigued with where this part of the story is going.

All in all, I like the characters' look in this book and think that all the character models look great under Carmine Di Giandomenico's helm, but when it comes to the action that's trying to be depicted, the art gets wonky for me and the many small panels that are presented here aren't helping it any.  I felt lost in what was going on and since Batgirl's entire part of this book was an action scene, I wanted to be able to figure out what was going on, but sadly had to just rely on the dialog and narrative telling me because the art became a mess in these scenes.  Besides that though, I was pretty happy with what we got here and found everything pretty interesting..... Yeah, the dialog was a little off on some of the characters, but it didn't bother me too much.  I look forward to see what Cecil will bring to this book and going forward I just hope that the art improves or the panel layouts are better.  

Bits and Pieces:

While I found the art lacking during the action of this book and want to know more about our character receiving Lex's offer.... or how that character is even a thing, I did enjoy myself during Cecil Castellucci's first issue of Batgirl and enjoy that she's easing us into her run by showing us the familiar.  There's definitely some room for improvement here, but overall I look forward to see where this series goes for this writer's run.

7/10