Batgirl #37 Review

Batgirl #37

writers- Cameron Stewart and Brendan Fletcher

art- Babs Tarr

Gotham City says goodbye to its dynamic heroine as she becomes Batgirl of Burnside. Writers Stewart and Fletcher, and artist Babs Tarr, take the character in a whole new direction. New stomping grounds, a new costume, and an entirely new attitude are sure to appeal to a younger fan base.

Outside The Cube has been very interested in Cameron Stewart taking on the task of writing. He's an award winning artist with titles under his belt such as Batman & Robin, Seaguy, Catwoman, and The Invisibles. And when working with writers like Grant Morrison, Ed Brubaker, and Mark Millar, Stewart is as much a story teller with his art as they are with their amazing words.

Co-writer Brenden Fletcher is currently working on Gotham Academy, so he's already in the process of showing us the plight of Gotham's youth. Including Barbara Gordon and her masked identity Batgirl into that trend seems perfectly up his alley.

Since the beginning of the New 52, Batgirl has been cutting edge and even quite mature for a “non-mature readers” title. But as of issue #35, the book has gone in a direction that users of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites will really appreciate. This is the Batgirl of a new generation.

In this issue, Batgirl tracks down the imposter Batgirl and realizes that there's more to it than simple delusions of grandeur. After a fight with her glitzy glammy doppleganger, Batgirl (as Barbara Gordon) attends a gallery opening of the ultra-edgy photographer, Dagger Type. The images in the exhibit feature none other than Batgirl in a series of seductive poses. Barbara bites her tongue, but she knows the model in the pictures is her impostor and goes full bore into a war against whoever is trying to ruin her by tainting the Batgirl name.

The plot is brilliant and modern, and that Stewart and Fletcher have made it into something that will undoubtedly lead into a bigger arc is fantastic. However, I am very dubious about the new style. It almost seems gimmicky and overdone. Screen captures of text messages, emails, and audio players are strewn throughout the book to drive home the idea that tech and the internet is a crucial part of the character. While Batgirl waits for the bad guys to show up, she texts Black Canary. When the fight is over, she takes selfies and posts them online.

The book's Lols, OMGs, and #s are all things that annoy me about a generation who cares little for correct spelling and proper grammar, and more about having their vlog go viral. Even though I'm a fan of a realistic hero in a comic book world, I'm not a fan of that hero living in a reality I find ridiculous. I know Stewart is a good writer. It's obvious in the plot.  And Fletcher's  Gotham Academy is fascinating, but they're not doing this Batgirl fan any favors by reducing my favorite heroine to a tweeting, flickr-ing, selfie obsessed, boy-crazy teenager.

Babs Tarr is a talented artist who has adopted a really cool style. I often talk about artist's importance in the story telling process and her art is definitely of that caliber. Unfortunately, it doesn't help the juvenile aftertaste the book gives off. The truth is that I really enjoy Tarr's art, but there's a time and a place for everything, and I don't think Batgirl in the New 52 is the time or the place. Her cartoony approach to what used to be a serious character along with the book's theme of social networking on the internet, has tainted my appreciation and love for Batgirl.  It's something I'd expect from Teen Titans Go on Cartoon Network, but not from one of DC's big league titles.

And I think all of this wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for two other things. One- Being a New 52 title, Batgirl fits into the universe continuity. It's a saturday morning cartoon that exists in the same reality as Swamp Thing, Batman Eternal, and Justice League Dark. All of which are dark serious books. If it were outside of the New 52 continuity, I think it would be easier to accept. And two- the book hasn't let go of some of its more serious elements. Batgirl parties like a twenty-something and takes strange guys home with her. I don't have a problem with a heroine that likes a good party, but when she looks like Kim Possible, it just feels wrong. Here's something of a spoiler, but the thing that really makes me see that water and oil aren't mixing is when Batgirl is at the art exhibit and sees a portrait of Batgirl in a wheelchair. In a more serious comic, I'd be wild about this, but here all I can do is see a “young readers” comic giving me flashbacks from Allan Moore's Killing Joke. She was shot, paralyzed, stripped naked, and photographed in that classic story and even though these are my horrible flashbacks from a major Batgirl event, it's what seeing that image made me re-live. It might not be something that occurs to a lot of people, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth nonetheless.

So there's Batgirl in a nutshell. Just my opinion, but my opinion counts when I'm putting down the money to read the book.

We're always interested in hearing your opinion. Just send us a message on Facebook or drop a comment below. Till then, see you Outside The Cube!