The Death of the Family-Batgirl Prologue
Spoiler ahead!
Batgirl #13 starts off with a kick in the face! Actually, that comes five pages later,
as the first scene plays out – and what a first scene! It’s time to come clean – I’m not a
Batgirl regular, and I picked up this issue because it’s being sold as a prologue to the
Scott Snyder-helmed “Death of the Family” Bat-vent. I’m glad I did, as this issue is a
worthwhile, stapled, bundle of fun, with great art and some wonderful writing on display.
Also, for someone first picking up a book in this ongoing series, the mechanic of starting
mid-fight, with our hero on the floor in dire circumstances, is a wonderful way to start at
a high level of excitement, and keep a reader hooked. Yes, “they got me.” Do I feel bad
about it?
No way do I feel bad about it! That first scene isn’t just a great attention-grabber,
but a bold move from “Death of the Family” event-planner Scott Snyder: to begin an
thusly-eerily-named event with what can be seen as foreshadowing, with an ally of the
Bat getting beaten up badly, even as she reflects, “Rainbows. I might be dying. And I’m
actually seeing rainbows.” I may be unfairly crediting Mr. Snyder, however, as the rest of
the book is clearly fueled by the creativity of its female writer, Gail Simone. Is it just me,
or is it wonderful to see a female protagonist’s book scripted by a woman? Simone brings
a distinctly feminine touch to her characterization of Barbara Gordon.
I don’t want to sound sexist, so let it be understood that it is with nothing but
the greatest of both independent and inter-sexually-comparative praise and respect
that I extol the handling of the interplay between Batgirl and Knightfall during their
fight which makes up the centerpiece of this issue. Under the pen of a male writer,
this might have come off as much more of a sexually-charged catfight (I’m looking at
you, ‘90s comics!), but Simone makes it not only worthwhile, but downright meaningful,
returning continually to the repeated phrase and concept of “knowing what’s behind your
opponent’s eyes.” It’s not just a clever quip, or a fight-scene one-liner: this is who these
women are, and they’re ready to fling knives and face-kicks to defend it!
If there was a weak point to this book, it was the abbreviated, roughly single-page
telling of what amounts to Knightfall’s origin story. I suppose, had any more of the book
been devoted to this, we would’ve been prioritizing something much less interesting over
the punches and kicks I’ve yet to find room here to discuss (read on!), and that would’ve
been sad, too. So – the backstory: typical, sure, but not altogether uninspired. In fact,
despite the played-by-the-1930’s “poor, little, rich girl turned vengeful when scorned by
love” bit, I found myself momentarily lost upon returning from the flashback-told-tale
to “current time,” unsure of who was the villain and who the hero.
Of course, Batgirl is who we want to “win,” but Gail Simone has done a fabulous
job reminding us that the line between a superhero and a supervillain is dangerously thin,
and, if I’m being honest, that we’ve all got a little of each within ourselves. I don’t think
there’s anyone out there reading this review who doesn’t know what kind of ridiculous,
perhaps even comic-book-tinged, revenge fantasies come to mind when one’s heart has
been broken. We don’t need to live our lives by these moments (thusly, we are not blood-
soaked, criminally-wanted supervillains), but they are, as are all of our past experiences,
an integral part of who we are, and it’s a function of art to explore just that, something all-
too-rare in standard superhero fare. Bravo, I say – or, rather, brava, Gail Simone!
I’ve saved my discussion of the art for last, because I thought it deserved to be
handled separately. In a word, it’s exceptional – though I should retreat here, and simply
offer an opinion that it’s some of my favorite variety of mainstream comic book art:
gritty, highly detailed, and full of kinetic line-work! Obviously, this style of rendering
descends from the legacy of Jim Lee, but it’s become a genre so independent of its
origins that I’ve begun to at least fool myself into seeing individual touches from the
artists who practice it; Ed Benes really does a wonderful job here! He handles not only
the pencils, but the inks as well, and doesn’t skimp on any of the panels, a common
practice used to save time and effort for the bigger, more impressive illustrations. The
colors, by Ulises Arreola, are bold, detailed, and flawless – he never washes a shade over
a line to save effort by making two adjacent elements the same color. Lettering is
credited to Dave Sharpe, who does a fine job.
In such an excellent comic, I can offer only one critique of the art, and that is of
the fight scenes. Each and every one of them is beautifully rendered, and the
choreographed action is adequately conveyed. However, with such talented creators
behind this book, I would expect more than a choreographed fight rendered at sequential
intervals: I expect a true sense of sequential and kinetic flow from one panel of a fight to
the next, and I found that to be lacking here in almost every instance. Again, this is a
personal nit-picking – just to be clear: all of the fight scenes look awesome, and the
layouts, especially of the double-page spreads, are spectacular!
As the book draws to a close, the exercise in mainstream, fight-and-explicate,
sequential storytelling winds down, and what a truly exemplary exercise it was! It’s
wonderful to see such a compelling work of art (for I do consider each book, regardless
of its arguable quality, a work of art) fit itself within such standardized boundaries. In
any case, as we come to the back end of the issue, things begin to point towards the rest
of Scott Snyder’s plans for Gotham and the Bat-family, with a defeated Knightfall
threatening her return, and, with it, to “tear Gotham apart.” As Barbara Gordon returns to
her home and her normal life, the eerie coincidence of a new cat with an old, family cat’s
name tips us to something fishy, as Barbara’s mother is abducted by some gun-totin’
fools in a clown-masked cliff-hanger. Almost epilogue-like, a tacked-on trio of pages
introduce and free from incarceration a group of villains we’ll likely be seeing in “Death
of the Family,” so… stick with us?
This is my first review. Do you rate these things? I’d give Batgirl #13 an 8.7 out
of 10. If I’m supposed to. I may never rate another comic again.
