Sunday, March 15, 2015

I Reads You Review: BATGIRL #35

BATGIRL #35
DC COMICS – @DCComics

STORY: Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher – @cameronMstewart @BrendenFletcher
ART: Babs Tarr – @babsdraws
BREAKDOWNS: Cameron Stewart
COLORS: Maris Wicks
LETTERS: Jared K. Fletcher
COVER: Cameron Stewart
VARIANT COVERS: Babs Tarr; Kevin Nowlan
28pp, Color, $2.99 U.S. (December 2014)

Rated “T” for “Teen”

“Burned”

Of the many incarnations of the character, Batgirl, the best known and most popular is Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.  Barbara is the daughter of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon, and she first appeared in 1966, introduced in Detective Comics #359 (entitled “The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl”) in a story written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Carmine Infantino.

DC Comics recently launched a new era of Batgirl-Barbara Gordon with the creative team of writers Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher, artist Babs Tarr, colorist Maris Wicks, and letterer Jared K. Fletcher.  From the start, this looks like its going to be an exciting and invigorating new era.

Batgirl #35 (“Burned”) opens as Barbara moves to the other side of the bridge from Gotham City to the hip Gotham borough, Burnside.  She has a new roommate, Frankie, and is continuing to work on her graduate degree.  This should be a fresh start, but trouble rears its ugly head.  All around her, laptops and hand-held devices are disappearing, including her own.  Plus, Barbara's former bestie, Dinah Lance/Black Canary, has shown up on her new doorstep.  Then, there's Riot Black.

It is hard not to like the spiffy new Batgirl, and I didn't resist.  Like recent Batman-related launches, Grayson and Gotham Academy, Batgirl is mostly free from being connected to continuity.  The new-direction Batgirl is not quite a Batman version of the classic 1960s sitcom, “That Girl.”  Still, Batgirl looks as if it will focus on the life of a young woman who is on the cusp of adulthood while still preparing for it.

I am enamored with Babs Tarr's art, with its Darwyn Cooke's inflection.  I also thought of Jaime Hernandez's Locas stories enjoying the art.  Being similar to Cooke and Xaime are good things, as far as I'm concerned, so I plan on reading more of this new-era Batgirl.

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


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