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BATGIRL #6

During the day, Barbara Gordon has to deal with the emotional fallout of the return of a key figure from her most painful memories, while at night, high above Gotham City’s streets, Batgirl and Batman face the deadly Gretel, a damaged woman with the lethal ability to control men’s minds!

It’s Batgirl’s first face-to-face with Batman since her rehabilitation – and he has a few choice words to say about her return to crime fighting!

Written by GAIL SIMONE
Art by ARDIAN SYAF and VICENTE CIFUENTES
Cover by ADAM HUGHES

Price: $2.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 0.3%
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Avg Rating: 3.6
 
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Comments

  1. Epic says:
    February 6, 2012 at 3:15 pm

    This book is not very popular, and I have to wonder why. Is it a grudge against the decision to take Bans out of the chair? Is it more than that? I find Barbara to be a very compelling character with a feminine voice that rings true. The layouts are interesting, and the pencils and colors are consisting good. So what’s missing for you?

    • farceur318 says:
      February 6, 2012 at 3:56 pm

      I feel that part of the community’s disappointment with the series may be the fact that Simone set our expectations for her writing so high with Secret Six. That was simply an AMAZING series. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with Batgirl, it does fall short of amazing, and I can’t help but be disappointed by that, as ridiculous as that may seem.

    • kcekada says:
      February 6, 2012 at 4:56 pm

      I was one of the few who had no problem with Barbara walking again. But really expected a better series. My problems with it are many:

      1) Don’t care for Barbara’s iffyness. This being a nu universe, they should just have forgot the Killing Joke. It makes no sense that a character who was in a wheelchair would risk returning to it — especially this version of Barbara who is lacking in confidence and ability. I mean, she was shocked that she was able to lasso a guy falling off the bridge, and had problems taking on four non-powered crooks. Not impressive.

      2) I don’t think the art is good. The inks are decent, the layouts and poses are mostly subpar, and seem to actually be getting worse.

      3) With the exception of Gordon, the supporting cast seems one-dimensional — and mosty annoying — especially Babs’ landlady/roommate.

      4) Bab’s voice is kina annoying. Certainly not the confident woman she was prior to nu — or even way back in the Silver Age.

      I think this is Adam Hughes’s final cover, and a good stepping off point for me. Really, I’d recomend a complete change of creators. Sorry, but this is some of Gail’s worst work to date.

    • Avatar photo Conor Kilpatrick">Conor Kilpatrick (@cskilpatrick) says:
      February 6, 2012 at 5:36 pm

      It needs a stronger creative team.

    • edward says:
      February 6, 2012 at 7:08 pm

      I totally agree about Bab’s voice being annoying. She is written like the nerdy adult woman in the comic store who wears one of those beanies with the animal ears on them, has a novelty backpack and talks in a cutesy voice. The exact opposite of an appealing geek

    • Avatar photo Smutty says:
      February 7, 2012 at 7:14 am

      My main gripe with this book is merely the fact that the Stephanie Brown Batgirl written by Brian Q Miller was pretty much my favourite DC title for a really long time.
      This is a decent book, but it’s really nothing compared to what it replaced.

  2. Avatar photo Flash923 says:
    February 6, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    Epic- I am with you 100%; great comments!! I have easily picked this over Batwoman and has climbed in status as one of my favorite reads month to month so far. I just hope that the case is not the whole chair thing and it’s just taking people a little while to come around to this. What I do think, is that like my statement people have made it a choice either you read Batwoman or Batgirl there is no both, kinda like Cubs or Sox in Chi-town there is no in between. The thing is one has nothing to with the other and they should be read as such. I prefer this title because the artwork and the stories seem to appeal to me more. \

    K

    • Avatar photo adrianrigter says:
      February 6, 2012 at 7:21 pm

      i read the first four issues of Batgirl alongside Batwoman, then decided to drop the book because i didn’t think it was that great. the two books/characters are more or less unrelated. thay are compared because they’re bat-books with female protagonists that come out the same week.

    • Avatar photo FrasMacc says:
      February 7, 2012 at 4:22 pm

      I agree with Edward and Smutty. these two gents have nailed it for me, I’m still getting the book when it comes out. But it’s getting harder and harder to care.
      I haven’t read Batwoman. Should I?

  3. Avatar photo misterckent says:
    February 6, 2012 at 3:28 pm

    I liked the first arc ok. However, it’s a different Batgirl than I’m used to. I’m loving the covers and will keep reading. I feel like there’s more to come from this series and maybe they’re just working their way up to it.

  4. Avatar photo FaceCrunchMcGee says:
    February 6, 2012 at 6:01 pm

    As a new Batgirl fan, I can’t say if this is better or worse than pre-reboot but I really like this book, both the story and the art.

  5. Avatar photo adrianrigter says:
    February 6, 2012 at 7:16 pm

    The creative team is fine but the initial story was just very rote to me, Babs feels guilt, fights a vilain with a related M.O. if they had dealt with the elephant in the room outside of a few allusions i likely wouldn’t have had such a sour taste in my mouth at the end of the first arc.

  6. Avatar photo mgriffith says:
    February 6, 2012 at 7:20 pm

    Incredible cover!

  7. Avatar photo player1 says:
    February 6, 2012 at 11:28 pm

    Last issue for me.

  8. dix says:
    February 7, 2012 at 6:28 am

    I keep almost picking this series up but never quite getting there. I don’t like that they took Barbara out of the chair, but I am not avoiding the series because of it; I’ve just heard such mixed things. I read through Brian Q. Miller’s Batgirl after the fact and really enjoyed Stephanie (who doesn’t?), and wish that they’d just rebooted with her in costume and Barbara playing mentor – or, if not, let Barbara keep the sort of swashbuckling personality that characterized her in her Batgirl days and, yes, Stephanie too, if with a little different flavor. I think that’s why Batgirl usually works as a character. In a world full of madmen with superpowers, the people who just dress up like bats and try to fight them have got to be really special.

  9. Elementaljj says:
    February 7, 2012 at 3:41 pm

    I don’t know if I’m going to buy this because I dropped off after the guest spot buy Nightwing. However I think that cover is smooth in so many ways.

  10. Avatar photo Alexferrer says:
    February 9, 2012 at 9:28 am

    That panel where Bruce whispers in Barbara’s ear is a fantastic example on bad timing and how to write Batman out-of-character.

  11. Avatar photo mithrandir says:
    February 9, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    I agree with the critiques of this book, especially kcedada’s point about the other characters being one-dimensional. Its true, there is something not quite clicking with this book. That being said, there is some X factor that keeps me buying this book each month. I can’t put my finger on it: maybe it’s Barbara Gordon (an awesome female lead in any book, any time), maybe its the quirky dialogue (I actually don’t all the inner dialogue of the book), maybe its the fact that Gail Simone, even off her best game is still pretty darn good … I don’t know what it is but I’m on board with Batgirl!

  12. Avatar photo JesseG says:
    February 9, 2012 at 11:31 pm

    Gail Simone is officially the worst comic book writer I have ever read.

    Batgirl is the comic book equivalent of Nic Cage’s southern drawl in Con Air. It’s so bad that it becomes inexplicably engaging and you can’t stop thinking about the ridiculousness of it long after you’ve finished with it.

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