A review by nancyotoole
Batgirl, Vol. 3: Death of the Family by Admira Wijaya, Vicente Cifuentes, Julius M. Gopez, Gail Simone, Scott Snyder, Ray Fawkes, Jonathan Glapion, Mark Irwin, Juan Albarran, Marc Deering, Ed Benes, Rob Hunter, Greg Capullo, Daniel Sampere

3.0

Volume three of Batgirl ties into the Death of a Family crossover event, which focuses on the return of the Joker, and how it impacts the Batman universe at large. This volume also contains a one shot involving Catwoman, and ties up the James Jr. storyline. The results are pretty entertaining. Personally, I found the Death of a Family crossover to be very strong, probably the best of Simone's run so far. Batgirl must face the man responsible for putting her in a wheel chair, an event that puts her in family in danger and brings Babs to a very dark place. The collection then transitions over to the final issue in the Death of a Family event, which is a little confusing as it's actually a Batman issue, but it's completely worth reading it to see how the story ends.

Personally, I found the James Jr storyline to be a little weak. It was worth my time to see Babs face off against her sociopath younger brother, but, given how many issues are dedicated to the joker, the two issues that really focus on James Jr make the story feel a little rushed. Also, there I found the use of voice over in one of the issues to be a little annoying. There's an issue that seems to be told from James's perspective, yet there are times when the narration feels more like third person, which is really weird. Still, this storyline is worth reading, especially given where it leaves Barbara by it's end.

If you've enjoyed Gail Simone's run on Batgirl so far, then I would recommend picking up volume three, Death of the Family.