I do not leap to judgements or conclusions. My mom does that, so I decided at a young age that I would try something different. I would think things through, consider both sides, a have a fair, objective opinion. That having been said, I’ve fairly and objectivly decided that Batgirl is a stinky book and I don’t wanna read it anymore.
A couple years ago, when Grant Morrison was slogging Bruce Wayne through time and DC was launching all kinds of new Bat-family books, I picked up Batgirl #1 by Brian Q. Miller and Lee Garbett. I’m not sure why, as Stephanie Brown was going to be the new Batgirl, and I never cared for her Spoiler character. I also wasn’t reading any of the Bat-titles during her short stint as Robin, so I had nothing really to convince me that I’d like that book at all. But, it was new and I was looking for more Bat-books to read, so I checked it out. It turned out to be one of my few can’t-miss books at the time. Brian Miller brought Stephanie, as a character, to life in a way that other writers just weren’t trying to do in their books. It seemed that while most were focusing on plot driven , decompressed stories, Batgirl was a character study first and foremost, and I loved it. Stephanie Brown became a favorite of mine pretty quickly, and when I first heard about the New 52 and Barbara Gordon putting the suit back on, I wasn’t happy about it. All I could think was, “Why? This book is GOOD. Do people still really care if Barbara is Batgirl or not? Wasn’t Oracle a better, more developed character? Aren’t we way past this?”. I wanted to be fair, and I wanted my nagging questions to be answered (“How old is she supposed to be, then? And how is she walking?!”), so I picked up the first issue, didn’t hate it, and now I’ve come back for issue #2.
I’ve always liked Gail Simone’s work, at least enough to try a new book she’s writing, or pick up some of her older stuff in trade. With this series, she’s done nothing yet to make me care about Barbara, either as Batgirl or in her civilian identity. If she were an ice cream flavor, she’d be vanilla, and not even the french kind. So far, I’ve seen nothing to make me feel for her or what she’s doing. Her “banter” seems out of place, like she’s trying to be a light-hearted youth but can’t shake her stoic, serious Oracle past. She makes jokes, gives cute nicknames to the baddies she’s fighting, and observes the peril of a given situation out loud for all to hear, but Stephanie Brown she ain’t.
Ardian Syaf is the missing Kubert brother, but more detailed than both of those two artists, and more dynamic in his approach. However, that doesn’t mean his art’s for me, and in the same spirit as my well-thought-out opinion of the new crop of Jim Lee-designed super hero costumes, her look is too complicated and it’s only a matter of time before a lesser artist screws it up.
All in all, it’s not sentiment or an unwillingness to change that makes me dislike this book. I’ve given it a fair shake, and Batgirl’s last series and incarnation were just plain better.