mike531's Profile

Another Batman arc who's premise seems to be: what if we got characters to act like idiot versions of themselves and fight?!

Dunno how to feel about this issue. There's some plot movement, but it occurs mostly at the end of the issue when Cela shows up (conviently) with answers. The ending lacks meaningful tension since we know Babs ain't dying; maybe Cela could conceivably be killed, but Thompson seems intent on keeping her around. My guess for next issue would have be neither Babs or Cela die; they both somehow survive prob due to Cela's familiar. Barbara and Dinah do a repeat of old tensions by having the same argument they had almost thirty years prior. Sure, there have been continuity reboots in the meantime. But one might expect since this version of them aren't strangers, that they've had similar tensions before and resolved them. The two arguing here, doesn't necessarily make much sense then, unless one attributes it solely to the tension of the moment.

Reminds me of Gotham War. Another story arc in this comic that based its narrative on forced conflict and OOC characterization. They should all be smart/experienced enough to not act like idiots and punch each other.

An okay issue. Nothing impressed me, except the ending, which was a little surprising. I mean, I wasn't surprised to see Barda get captured (last issue foreshadowed as much), but the ending still managed to surprise me.

Slow moving plot. Literally the only movement comes from pink hair girl's exposition. We learn what the monster thing is, it's origin, annnd it's (apparent) motive for coming after Barbara. Needless to say, that is way too much to reveal in chit-chat from some random OC. Sans Cela's convenient narrative, the plot has no meaningful movement

Nothing much happens. (Extra point for slight intrigue about some of the breadcrumbs the comic does drop.)

The problem for me isn't the character, it's the writing. She's a damn good character. The real problem is, Cecil Castellucci. She's a bad writer. A comic book character is only as good as their writer. She doesn't understand Barbara and hasn't been able to find her voice. Which is probably why the character's actions and words have been so OOC. You can compare the way, Castellucci writes Bab's to the way others who understand the character do. At the end of the day, I'm not sad this volume of Batgirl is ending because at least that means Castellucci will no longer be writing Babs. She writes a very poor version of the character. The irony of all of this is they had a good writer, they treated her badly and this writer is the replacement.