In past weeks I have been doing a weekly wrap up of the comic books that were published on the preceding Wednesday. I decided to shake the format up a bit and try breaking up that article into 2 separate articles, Comic of the Week and the Weekly Wrap Up. It might stay this way. It could go back. I might come up with another format. My point is, bear with me as I work through this to figure out what’s best and please feel free to let me know what you think in the comments on this article or on social media. Now without further ado, the Comic of the Week.
This week’s Comic of the Week is DC Comics’ Batgirl #41. This issue continues the series with the same creative team that gave us the de-aged, new look/new feel Batgirl that we have missed for a couple of months during Convergence. Written by Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher with art by Babbs Tarr (background assists by Joel Gomez and color by Serge Lapointe), we pick right up where we left off, following Barbara Gordon and her roommate Frankie as they are now in the post Hooq era and are a bit of a team (in the previous arc Frankie found out Barbara was Batgirl and is now helping her). Barbara is in the process of thwarting some new technological threat when Batman shows up on the scene. One thing though, this is the new Batman and this Batman is none other than Barbara’s dad, former Police Commissioner Jim Gordon.
Of course, Barabara does not know who is in the suit nor does Jim know that Barbara is Batgirl. However, this meeting is not as friendly as you would typically expect in a meeting of Bruce and Barbara. This new Batman is not just a Batman. He is a Batman of the police and bureaucracy and he intends to shutdown the vigilante element in Gotham, including Batgirl. Naturally, this leads to a comic book trope we have seen many times before. The hero under fire from the good guys is not uncommon. I’m sure there will plenty of infighting before they come to some agreement. So is comics.
Anyway, we eventually see Jim come to visit Barbara outside of the suit and he reveals to her that he is Batman. Barbara obviously wants to admit that she is Batgirl but Jim won’t shut up and makes her feel guilty about not telling and reveals that he is going to shut Batgirl down. At one point Barbara tells Jim he looks weird without his mustache and to grow it back and they talk about him being in better shape. All in all the issue is fairly straight forward and ends with another Batman/Batgirl confrontation.
The issue is about what you would expect based on the previous issues from this creative team. The writing is fun and the dialog feels young, not like old people writing young. The art is very cartoony and animated. It’s got fairly clean and distinct lines while not being too simplistic. The colors pop off the page and fit the mood perfectly. The acting and action are all done superbly. Batgirl #41 is a great issue while being unremarkable. It makes me smile and I don’t want it to end. I’m glad that DC is trying to push more books in this direction.
Last Updated on November 28, 2018.
