Saturday, December 17, 2011

Batgirl #4

Four months in and 12 bucks later, we're finally seeing Batgirl move forward - at least a bit.

She's been struggling with a villain called The Mirror, who has decided to punish the people in Gotham City who have enjoyed a miracle of some kind. The Mirror's family died in a car accident, and he miraculously survived - so he's out to "correct God's mistakes."

It's a pretty thin premise for a bad guy, and writer Gail Simone obviously uses him to examine Barbara Gordon's own guilt over her amazing recovery from the shooting that left her in a wheelchair.

We still don't know the whole story behind her recovery, but we get a few more clues here.

We get a reasonably satisfying conclusion to the opening storyline in this issue, but it feels like this could have easily been wrapped up in two issues max - the rest feels like filler.

The art is quite good, from the outstanding Adam Hughes cover to the solid interior art by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes.

But we still don't know much about Batgirl or her alter ego - why she's driven to fight crime, why she risks another crippling injury, and why she's forced to live in humble surroundings when she's an ally of billionaire Bruce Wayne.

There's a cute plot development at the end, but I don't think it's enough to keep me coming back for more.

This comic has a lot of potential, but it's apparently going to take more patience than I have to see it through.

Grade: B+


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