Batgirl 1 (November 2011)

I like Ardian Syaf. I’d never heard of him before Batgirl but he does a good job.

The big question of a Barbara Gordon Batgirl comic is how Gail Simone is going to handle The Killing Joke. She handles it like it’s 1991 and Barbara’s getting over it. That approach is at once the issue’s greatest strength and weakness.

Simone does it all quite well–victim recovering and so on. But it makes Batgirl a decidedly retro book–and it’s a good one. Syaf’s style is in line with the never explicitly identified DC house style of the eighties. He’s good at action, good at detail. Barbara is physically realistic (i.e. athletic, not slutty).

There’s a strange red herring with her new roommate, who seems to be Dick Grayson’s girlfriend from Nightwing years back… but isn’t. Must be a clone.

I don’t love Batgirl but feel hopeful I will.

CREDITS

Shattered; writer, Gail Simone; penciller, Ardian Syaf; inker, Vicente Cifuentes; colorist, Ulises Arreola; letterer, Dave Sharpe; editors, Katie Kubert and Bobbie Chase.; publisher, DC Comics.