Ok...let me just say right off the bat (no pun intended) that this is not Barbara's hit list tribute. I have a much more epic tribute planned for her. :-D However, some foot scenes in the latest issue of Batgirl involving Babs and her roommates gave me the opportunity to discuss the new direction of her series. For those that haven't been following the news involving Batgirl recently, Her comics just changed their creative team this month giving her a new costume and tone to her series. I read the issue this morning and I'll try to cover some highlights.
This is Batgirl's new costume. The designers opted for leather rather than spandex.
As you can probably tell, the new direction offers a little bit of a lighter tone for Batgirl than the previous writer (Gail Simone).
Babs is living with 2 female roomates.
The black roomate's name is Frankie. She's a computer programmer for a dating site.
Her other roomate's name is Liz but they don't cover much about her in this issue.
This above scene was hilarious.
In order to catch a thief masquerading as a Casanova on an online dating site. Barbara creates her own online dating profile. It also answers questions readers have about what age she is supposed to be. :-D
When she catches said thief, she proceeds to rough him up a bit.
Then we are treated to her foot dominating him as she presses him for info.
She does show off quite a few powerful kicks throughout the issue.
Hopefully the series will have a lot of scenes like this in it.
(Most of these are scenes from Issue #35 with the exception of the last second to last pic which is an art piece depicting Babs in her new costume created by the Deviant Artist Stanley "Artgerm" Lau.)
I really liked the new issue a lot. The artwork looks good and I think that the issue's artist Babs Tarr (Yeah the artist's name is Barbara too) captures Batgirl's personality really well. The writing for the issue was very good too and Batgirl comes off as really intelligent making use of her photographic memory and computer skills to catch the criminals in this story in addition to her fighting abilities. It's worth noting that the issue presents Barbara Gordon as a modern girl who is very adept with social media and gadgets. We see her getting texts, checking her e-mails and hanging out with her friends something we're not used to seeing Barbara doing in the previous run. From the reactions I've seen to this issue online so far comic fans fall into two camps...they either like the new direction or they don't.
Personally I find the new direction really refreshing. As someone who has read every issue of Batgirl, I thought that Gail Simone's run on the series prior to this was a little too dark. She didn't make Batgirl lose her wit and charm but the events of the series sort of had a grim feel to them with Barbara having to deal with one depressing event in her life after another. It left me really hoping for a lighter approach to the character. The new team seems to provide that offering a much more fun take. It seems to fit Barbara a lot better.
I highly recommend this issue a lot. It a great starting point for people who haven't been reading the new 52 Batgirl before this and I think Batgirl fans will really enjoy this issue. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how this series continues to develop in the future.
-KSC
Looking good man.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bambino. ^_^
DeleteI was a bit on the fence about Barbra in the DC reboot, as I still rather like her portrayal as Oracle, but this series does look like it could be fun. I'll give it a try some time.
ReplyDeleteYeah...the thing about the New 52 is that DC lost a lot of character development in the reboot. :-( I have my own gripes about that but it's been three years now and it doesn't really look like there's an easy way to go back to the way it was before Flashpoint.
DeleteI have to admit I like seeing Barbara as Batgirl though. The new direction the writing team has put her in seems to emphasize that Barbara has some awesome computer skills so hopefully we'll get to see her put them to use in some future storylines too. ^_^
Who wrote the dialogues for these comics? a thirteen year old?
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the dialogue...I thought it was good for the most part. Then again I really like lighthearted camp. I'll admit that Frankie hasn't quite found her stride yet (right now she sort of has a shallow bff thing going when she talks) but we'll see how she develops in the future. Oh yeah and one of the jokes in the issue was that the villain (a computer blackmailer) added Hash tags into his speech. ^_^;
DeleteI was actually just checking this issue out yesterday. :D I love that they're trying to be more fun with Barbara. I still prefer the black and yellow costume, but her new one is cute. :)
ReplyDelete:-D Yeah I think that letting Barbara have some more fun is a good move for the character too. I like her black and yellow costume as well. That's probably her most iconic uniform.
DeleteNice post, her uniform is a bit different then what I'm used to. Although I do like it =D
ReplyDeleteThanks Destiny Dueler ^_^...Yeah it took me awhile to get used to the new costume too. :-D It does look nice though. ^_^
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