Super Mega Batgirl Review the nineteenth
Okay, so um the twentieth issue of Batgirl came out today, so I imagine I should post a review of the nineteenth.
College. It takes up time also I was busy writing about Sailor Moon and getting TWO PAGES OF COMMENTS HOW DID THAT HAPPEN but don't worry Steph, I haven't left you for the Sailor Senshi I love you both
Also I am in a RELATIONSHIP NOW how ( Read more... )
College. It takes up time also I was busy writing about Sailor Moon and getting TWO PAGES OF COMMENTS HOW DID THAT HAPPEN but don't worry Steph, I haven't left you for the Sailor Senshi I love you both
Also I am in a RELATIONSHIP NOW how ( Read more... )
Man, I get the feeling Steph is going to come in conflict with her Mom about the Batgirl thing soon. Ms. Brown can't keep being oblivious forever, she should know at this point how her daughter operates.
Agreed. She knows that her daughter used to be a vigilante, and she's got to realize that her interest in the bank robberies stems from that and not a desire to open a savings account. If the look on her face was more stern instead of disinterested, I'd almost think that "Why do you care so much, sweetheart?" was her way of reminding Steph that "it's not your problem anymore, don't get involved." It doesn't help that Steph is apparently a terrible liar: her explanations come off like obvious excuses and she hints too much at the truth.
Wow, Steph is being blatant (and flippant, as usual) with her crush.
I'm not entirely comfortable with how thick they were laying it on about the crush in this one and the one that follows. Age difference aside, it's always felt rather forced to me, and now it's popping up in places where it's coming off kinda awkward and a little inappropriate. I'm concerned that this could wind up damaging the readers' respect for Steph. Don't really want to see another instance of issue #1's "Oh, he's cute. Look tough, Steph." in the middle of a firefight.
These two pages make reference to the "Death of Oracle" storyline in BoP, which I AM REALLY NOT SURE ABOUT. So far it's felt pointless and stupid and I'm not sure what the outcome is going to be...
Yeah, I'm really not feeling the "Death of Oracle" thing. For one thing, Oracle has become a pretty big deal to the superhero community, running her own superteam and being the tech support and infojock of most of the others. It's way too late to put the cat back in the bag and go back to being in the shadows. Especially since she hasn't changed her codename, so everyone who does know she's alive will still be yelling for Oracle when they need something... which will pretty much ruin the whole point.
For another thing, the whole plan hinges on making Calculator believe that he killed Oracle... and then Dinah let him go. Stop and think about that for a moment. If somebody had killed your partner, would you let them go? Not just heroicly restrain yourself from killing them (or putting them in the hospital like Dinah did to that guy in BoP #1), but let them go free? Not even a token attempt to have them arrested? Do you think Black Canary would, if someone killed Oracle? Would Huntress? Would Zinda? (Dove might.) And if I don't believe that they would, why do they expect the villains to? (For that matter, the claim that Oracle, who's never come onto the battlefield herself before, would be in the helicopter, which is not substantiated by much of anything.)
And finally, Babs has basically withdrawn a valuable service from the superhero community, with the exception of a few. She left a lot of people in the lurch to sell the con (to her own side, not even to the enemy), and while they all managed to muddle through with brute force (after Babs makes a big speech about having faith in people), there was no way to be sure of that. What would she have done if somebody had been killed because a hero had been counting on her support at a critical moment? Now, if the argument is that she can't be mission control for the whole superhero community anymore, that it's just too much for one person to do, then I agree. But how does dumping all that on Wendy, who's only been at this a couple months, help? They need more support personnel, not less. Really, it would be great if every hero or team had their own Oracle, or Proxy, or Hector & Nadia feeding them information that they can't get in the field, even if it was just someone searching Wikipedia.
And like you said, Oracle was cool.
(cont.)
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Seriously. Tell me if you spot a pattern here:
-Babs takes Cassandra Cain under her wing and into her home, and mentors her in the role of Batgirl. Cass even says that Babs is the closest thing she's ever had to a mother. Then, after War Games, Babs decides to skip town and cut Cass out of her life.
-Babs takes Charlotte "Misfit" Gage-Ratliff under her wing and all but adopts her, since Misfit is just a kid. Misfit is glad to finally have a home. Then, at the end of Birds of Prey, volume 1, Babs decides to skip town and dump Misfit with Helena.
-Babs takes Stephanie Brown under her wing and mentors her in the role of Batgirl. Babs also takes Wendy Harris under her wing--hell, all but forces her under her wing without asking first--and mentors her to be Proxy. Then she fakes her death and quits mentoring Steph while basically making Wendy take over her old job with only a couple months' training. And doesn't even let Cass know that she's alive.
Babs, stop taking on proteges and surrogate daughters if you're just going to abandon them every time your life gets complicated. I don't want to stop liking you.
I'm tickled Babs seems as fed up with this "New Internet" idea of Bruce's as I am (THAT IS NOT HOW THE INTERNET WORKS)
It's the year 2011 and Grant Morrison lives in a first world country. He has no excuse for being that ignorant of how the internet works.
Steph's ALWAYS had a thigh bandolier, and I don't see what's so terrible about it
Nothing wrong with it, as far as I'm concerned. It's extremely practical. Puts her gear (batarangs or grapple gun, I'm guessing) at the right height for a quick draw. It's pretty much exactly where soldiers keep their sidearm ammo.
Probably a complete coincidence, but the device (somethingphone can't remember what it's called) he holds is similar to the one Steph had in her first appearance.
I think it's supposed to be a parabolic microphone (in both instances). The parabolic dish reflects soundwaves to the microphone at the tip. Very useful for listening in on people at a distance.
...Wait, why does the bank vault have windows?
I'm thinking her sleep partner will factor in later (is he a Reaper?)
Yeah, that struck me as foreshadowing right away. BQM wouldn't spend one of his 22 20 pages on it if it wasn't going to be important later.
she was two toned purple in the beginning, but it seemed no artist/colorist could remember that
As with many such comic book costumes (including Steph's Spoiler mask), whether it's black, dark blue or dark purple seems to vary depending on the colorist. (Even black usually isn't quite black, since that's hard to draw details or shadows on. Notice how Slipstream's "black" portions are a combo of black and dark grey depending on the shadows.)
But apparently Clancy can teleport with some device? Huh.
The first time he disappeared in a flash, back in #15, I assumed that he'd just triggered some flashbulbs and taken off while everyone was blinded. Now it... seems like that might not be the case. Where would he have gotten a teleporter? They don't just sell those, do they? 'Cause that's a scary thought.
(Clancy, next time don't stop to introduce yourself to the speedster. Hit him before he can react!)
Steph keeps up the banter like a plucky heroine should (I love how saavy she is about her need to quip) and man that is an awkward looking kick, but it doesn't work anyway.
I've been enjoying the banter. She's got quite a knack for it. Looking forward to seeing it confuse and infuriate an opponent a some crucial moment. Plus, more pop culture references. Army of Darkness this time. Always a winner. :-)
(Yeah, that kick was drawn just plain wrong. Her head, body, hips and leading leg all seem to be heading different directions. And then she seems to teleport a couple feet to the other side of him when he catches it in the next panel. Unless he superspeed dodged to the right, maybe? ...still a terribly-drawn kick, tho.)
(cont., again? I've got to stop being so wordy.)
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Steph talks to her right in front of him twice in this issue (and it sure seems like she's talking outloud, not mouthing the words over a subvocal mike or anything), so it'd be kind of hard for him not to realize that she's got a radio and "Proxy" is the name of the person on the other end.
But that said, it seemed like they were implying that when he was holding the phone behind his back earlier, he was intercepting their radio traffic. And then he knows which bank to go to, and I'm not sure how he could know that unless he heard what Proxy said. But... how? There's no way that all the BatFamily's communications wouldn't be encrypted, right?
I think this is a little of what was missing from the gang in the last issues. They're still not that exciting, but the mysterious game plan HAS gotten me intrigued.
Looks like we've got the makings of an overarching plot, at least for a little while. I'd been hoping that there would be one.
Steph lifted a spraycan! Good job, Steph, you little stickyfingers!
Not the first time she's done that, either. Sometimes the fight is just a distraction while she plants or lifts the thing that she'll use to track you down later. She thinks on her feet.
(I'm trying to figure out when she could have lifted it, tho... during the clinch when she's shooting her grapple gun at him? That's the only time I can think of when she was close to him. When he was locked down by the override would have been perfect, but if she had the opportunity to get that close, I'd assume that she'd just have smashed his faceplate in.)
Ramon Bachs art was okay, I've never been particularly fond of his blocky and big-lipped style...
Yeah, the art was not as good as usual. Faces, especially. Steph's face, in particular. Just didn't look right to me in a lot of the panels.
Looking forward to your next review!
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