Batgirls, Vol. 1
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Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
Two Bats are better than one! Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown star in the team-up book you’ve been waiting for—under the mentorship of Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl! Batgirls Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown are only able to navigate the dark, gritty, and oftentimes scary city of Gotham by leaning on the bright light that is their best-friendship. Mentored by Oracle, the Batgirls move to the other side of town where Barbara Gordon can keep a better eye on them while the hacker Seer is still invading their lives. Steph may be too rash sometimes, and Cass doesn’t speak much—but what they lack in similarities, they make up for with their mutual respect and love for each other…and what makes them stronger together as Batgirls! And they may be good at kicking ass, but they are just trying their best to be normal teenagers—who’ll borrow the keys to a muscle car that belonged to a bad guy and perhaps give it a joyride around town without a driver’s license, then race to get back home to Oracle by curfew! Splashing the pages with bright colors against a dark backdrop of Gotham, Batgirls is the pizza slumber party you don’t want to miss! This volume collects Batgirls #1-6, and the Batgirls short stories from Batman #115-117.
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The initial section of this, consisting of three shorts originally published in Batman, rushes quickly through the setup, seeing Steph, Cass, and Barbara forced into hiding. Once we get to the stories published in the actual Batgirls series though, things slow down, allowing for character interaction and some touches of domesticity in between patrolling the streets and joyriding in a car appropriated from some villains. Indeed, it might have been a bit too slow when spread out over six issues - the Batgirls do take some time to get around to doing anything - although, at least for me, it works fine in this collected version.
The main villain is decent, fitting well with the Batman mythos as well as harking back to the Batgirl comics set in Burnside. However, there are also other villains, adding some complexity to the story. Two of these are largely in the background, presumably being saved for future instalments, while the remaining gang are set up to be menacing, but eventually prove to be a damp squib. It's also notable that both Cass and Steph insist on being called ‘Batgirl' although the writing is good enough that this is less confusing than it might be.
The art is perhaps likely to be the biggest divider of opinion. For me, it worked better than I thought it would, cartoony without being too sketchy or weird, but I doubt everyone's going to agree. It's not a truly great story, but it's fun and I found the characterisation good (assuming, of course, you accept that Cass and Steph are still teenagers, but that's comics for you). And there's enough set-up that there's clearly room for plot development going forward.
