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labunnywtf's review
4.0
Batgirl vs Gentrification.
I love the plot of this even without the inclusion of a classic villain's son. The presence of Ethan is entirely secondary to the plot, which makes it even more fun.
I'm not going to lie, the WalkHome app sounds amazing. Minus the, er, supervillains and all. And the kidnapping of homeless people flashes me over to the Harley Quinn series. I don't think this tie-in was intentional, (entirely different cities, after all) but it's still a fun little mental easter egg.
Just like with Volume 1, we got a fun DC cameo in Supergirl at the end. Not quite as good as Poison Ivy, but I'll take it. She's so peppy.
I can't wait for the next volume.
I love the plot of this even without the inclusion of a classic villain's son. The presence of Ethan is entirely secondary to the plot, which makes it even more fun.
I'm not going to lie, the WalkHome app sounds amazing. Minus the, er, supervillains and all. And the kidnapping of homeless people flashes me over to the Harley Quinn series. I don't think this tie-in was intentional, (entirely different cities, after all) but it's still a fun little mental easter egg.
Just like with Volume 1, we got a fun DC cameo in Supergirl at the end. Not quite as good as Poison Ivy, but I'll take it. She's so peppy.
I can't wait for the next volume.
daileyxplanet's review
4.0
Very fun, breezy reading, with some underlying deeper meanings. A big focus on this trade is social media and how powerful a bias can be.
xsleepyshadows's review
4.0
This is continuing from her last adventures in Japan and after the start of her new company and seeing how it affected Burnside in a negative manner. She cares a lot for her community and she decides to switch her major to library science! I'm really glad they decided to do this and the transition they took I thought was smooth and provided good character development for her. I really still love this new bat girl of Burnside version of bat girl, they show her doing problem solving and her balancing her superhero life and personal college life really well, I feel like they have equal time in the story and cover good topics for more modern problems. The art in these books still have a really nice pop of color and I feel the inspiration of Babs Tarr's past work on the art still running through the pages! The illustrations are really nice, has some great color and movement to these characters. The illustrator for this was a excellent choice.
The really only big thing that annoys me in this is the relationships, they are still making her fall in love with villains or suspicious people that she she knows she shouldn't get involved with. I feel like this would be different if it was a undercover to get information way, but it's always an actually dating type of deal. I just don't understand why because we see her intelligence through the series? If this just happens to be one of her character traits for falling for the bad guy it's kinda annoying.
Also the only plot bit that bothered me was [ If the penguin's son was jealous of Dick and Babs going on a motorcycle ride together and could see and identify the motorcyclist (or at least the bike and helmet) Then when bat girl tricked him to get him to the park and identified herself...couldn't he deduce easily bat-girls identity as Barbara? (hide spoiler)]
I was excited to see Nightwing in this book, and I hope they get together at some point. He's my fav. ~Ashley
The really only big thing that annoys me in this is the relationships, they are still making her fall in love with villains or suspicious people that she she knows she shouldn't get involved with. I feel like this would be different if it was a undercover to get information way, but it's always an actually dating type of deal. I just don't understand why because we see her intelligence through the series? If this just happens to be one of her character traits for falling for the bad guy it's kinda annoying.
Also the only plot bit that bothered me was [ If the penguin's son was jealous of Dick and Babs going on a motorcycle ride together and could see and identify the motorcyclist (or at least the bike and helmet) Then when bat girl tricked him to get him to the park and identified herself...couldn't he deduce easily bat-girls identity as Barbara? (hide spoiler)]
I was excited to see Nightwing in this book, and I hope they get together at some point. He's my fav. ~Ashley
tomesproject's review
3.0
3.5/5 - I really love Hope Larson. Having read her Goldie Vance series from BOOM!, it's nice to see some of the LGBT+ themes there leak over into the superhero sphere as well. The core story of this, the son of a penguin stuff, is fun but the Supergirl stuff at the end? I really appreciate Larson's activism, I do, but like, this feels like she's trying a bit too hard with that one?
w0nd3rl4nd's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this volume! When I heard that Barbara Gordon/Batgirl was dating the Penguin's son, I rolled my eyes HARD, but honestly it ended up being a unique story line. Sure dating Ethan Cobblepot was used to get intel on him, which felt manipulative at times, but he was a colossal douche so I'm choosing to ignore that.
I liked the social commentary of this volume, but I did take issue with how much was thrown in in such a short story arc. The tech boom, rising real estate and the effects of that (Ex. the homeless, rent), internet privacy, social media and those effects, and of course Millenials vs. Baby Boomers. It felt like Larson threw in every hot button issue she could, and I wish she could have stretched some of those issues through another arc or two.
However, one thing I enjoy about Batgirl is that it doesn't take itself seriously. It is a fun read! I would love to see a more mature, serious take attempted, but I understand that not all DC comics have to be doom and gloom. You can see this in the artwork, which honestly is quite fun to look at as well.
Why did I give this 4 stars? Well Barbara is studying to be a librarian, and honestly I would give this 5 stars solely because of that emotional attachment. She is officially my favorite superhero now though :)
I liked the social commentary of this volume, but I did take issue with how much was thrown in in such a short story arc. The tech boom, rising real estate and the effects of that (Ex. the homeless, rent), internet privacy, social media and those effects, and of course Millenials vs. Baby Boomers. It felt like Larson threw in every hot button issue she could, and I wish she could have stretched some of those issues through another arc or two.
However, one thing I enjoy about Batgirl is that it doesn't take itself seriously. It is a fun read! I would love to see a more mature, serious take attempted, but I understand that not all DC comics have to be doom and gloom. You can see this in the artwork, which honestly is quite fun to look at as well.
Why did I give this 4 stars? Well Barbara is studying to be a librarian, and honestly I would give this 5 stars solely because of that emotional attachment. She is officially my favorite superhero now though :)
cassie_grace's review
3.0
Lots of Alysia Yeoh who I am contractually obligated to stan, but overall it was a better book than vol 1.
unluckycat13's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Bad. Just bad. Almost Burnside bad. Characters are OOC both towards their past versions and towards other times Larson has written them. Moments appear weirdly fetishy, and in general the writing is bad. It at least remembers and isn't afraid of the fact Alysia is trans, which is cool, too bad Alysia personality was taken out back and shot sometime during Burnside. Not that Frankie or even Dick fair much better in these books.
Batgirl has been turned into an uncurious 10 year old with seemingly no knowledge of the DC universe, but also she's the SHE.E.O of her own girl boss company. Just absolutely end me.
The art isn't even particularly good.
It's honestly so hard to pick the worst part. The very special episode where they teach kids and data theft and how is dangerous to play Pokemon Go (but not about the dangerous gambling and mtx that often come with mobile games), or saying the problem with the gig economy is that it hires dangerous people who do things Barbara would do anyways. That's just the tip of the iceberg.
She used to be a super hacker who used social media to boost her image and now she's petulantly afraid of technology.
Batgirl has been turned into an uncurious 10 year old with seemingly no knowledge of the DC universe, but also she's the SHE.E.O of her own girl boss company. Just absolutely end me.
The art isn't even particularly good.
It's honestly so hard to pick the worst part. The very special episode where they teach kids and data theft and how is dangerous to play Pokemon Go (but not about the dangerous gambling and mtx that often come with mobile games), or saying the problem with the gig economy is that it hires dangerous people who do things Barbara would do anyways. That's just the tip of the iceberg.
She used to be a super hacker who used social media to boost her image and now she's petulantly afraid of technology.
hetellama83's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0