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A review by captwinghead
Batgirl, Volume 1: Batgirl of Burnside by Cameron Stewart
2.0
Okay... not sure how to phrase this but if you have never read a Batgirl comic before this series, you will probably enjoy this. If you've read quite a bit of Barbara Gordon's previous features, you will probably hate this. Unless you're better at compartmentalizing than I am because nothing about this felt like Barbara Gordon.
I have a problem with the trend of smarmy, snarky female characters in comics. Some began that way like Kate Bishop and I love her because that's the way she was written from the get go. However, lately I feel like male writers keep creating the same clone of the "Cool Girl" image and we get 500 different versions of this character type meant to appeal to both millennials and to men who will want to get with them. (Not that ladies don't want to get with them, as well. (Kate, if you're reading this, call me).) It was done to Jessica Drew, for example.
So, I preface my review with that to explain that I understand who this book is meant to appeal to. It came at an odd time because New 52 had been going for a while and we already had Gail's New 52 book before hand. I adore the way Gail writes Babs. She's partially responsible for my love of the character. When DC took Babs out of the chair and I still read Gail's run because she writes a Babs I believe in. Barbara Gordon is smart, confident, mature and capable. That's who's she's always been in the books I've read.
This Babs is better suited for a CW television series about the struggles of fighting crimes and getting Instagram followers. Literally, that's a plot from this book. She talks like a teenager, she worries about things a teenager would worry about and this book is so colorful that it felt like a Bryan Lee O'Malley book. And all of this would have been fine with me if the main character was not called Barbara Gordon. If they'd introduced a brand new character and made her Batgirl, that would have been fine with me.
But they didn't. They called this character Babs and gave her Babs' history. So, I have to look at this book and line it up with other iterations of Babs and it doesn't hold up. This book is quite shallow. The plots don't last long and Babs doesn't seem very capable of anything. She's constantly asking other people to drop what's going on in their lives to help her. She doesn't seem able to make anything for herself except her costume which is also very geared towards millennials. Her thesis is supposed to be quite important to her yet we never see her really working on it ever.
The few things I will give this book credit for:
- passes the Bechdel test
- more than one other female character exists in a significant role
- it is diverse and features a disabled character who occasionally needs leg braces. That's not something I've ever seen before.
- the art is beautiful!
I will say, I was 10x more interested in Frankie and Dinah and if Frankie had been in Dinah's book, I would've dropped this one to read that one in a heartbeat.
So, at the end of the day, I ask myself if it's fair to rate this.
If this was a book about some random character called, oh, I don't know, Jessica or something, I would be less harsh on this.
But, this is supposed to be Barbara Gordon; one of DC's beloved characters, Barbara Gordon and so I must consider what I know about the character.
This is not a recommend unless you've never read a Barbara Gordon book in your life.
I have a problem with the trend of smarmy, snarky female characters in comics. Some began that way like Kate Bishop and I love her because that's the way she was written from the get go. However, lately I feel like male writers keep creating the same clone of the "Cool Girl" image and we get 500 different versions of this character type meant to appeal to both millennials and to men who will want to get with them. (Not that ladies don't want to get with them, as well. (Kate, if you're reading this, call me).) It was done to Jessica Drew, for example.
So, I preface my review with that to explain that I understand who this book is meant to appeal to. It came at an odd time because New 52 had been going for a while and we already had Gail's New 52 book before hand. I adore the way Gail writes Babs. She's partially responsible for my love of the character. When DC took Babs out of the chair and I still read Gail's run because she writes a Babs I believe in. Barbara Gordon is smart, confident, mature and capable. That's who's she's always been in the books I've read.
This Babs is better suited for a CW television series about the struggles of fighting crimes and getting Instagram followers. Literally, that's a plot from this book. She talks like a teenager, she worries about things a teenager would worry about and this book is so colorful that it felt like a Bryan Lee O'Malley book. And all of this would have been fine with me if the main character was not called Barbara Gordon. If they'd introduced a brand new character and made her Batgirl, that would have been fine with me.
But they didn't. They called this character Babs and gave her Babs' history. So, I have to look at this book and line it up with other iterations of Babs and it doesn't hold up. This book is quite shallow. The plots don't last long and Babs doesn't seem very capable of anything. She's constantly asking other people to drop what's going on in their lives to help her. She doesn't seem able to make anything for herself except her costume which is also very geared towards millennials. Her thesis is supposed to be quite important to her yet we never see her really working on it ever.
The few things I will give this book credit for:
- passes the Bechdel test
- more than one other female character exists in a significant role
- it is diverse and features a disabled character who occasionally needs leg braces. That's not something I've ever seen before.
- the art is beautiful!
I will say, I was 10x more interested in Frankie and Dinah and if Frankie had been in Dinah's book, I would've dropped this one to read that one in a heartbeat.
So, at the end of the day, I ask myself if it's fair to rate this.
If this was a book about some random character called, oh, I don't know, Jessica or something, I would be less harsh on this.
But, this is supposed to be Barbara Gordon; one of DC's beloved characters, Barbara Gordon and so I must consider what I know about the character.
This is not a recommend unless you've never read a Barbara Gordon book in your life.