Be warned, this goes waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off topic:

While ostensibly a good issue on its own rights, this particular Batgirl comic set my mind spinning on the tone of all the DC books featuring women characters.  With the exception of Rucka’s Detective run, the only DC books with female leads that seem to be selling are ones that capitalize on humor.  It struck me when, three pages in, this started to feel like a Power Girl comic.  That’s not a bad thing.  I love how Power Girl is written.  But do all female hero books need to lay on the ha-has about the hero’s beauty?

Palmiotti’s “Power Girl”.  Simone’s “Birds Of Prey”, Dini’s “Gotham City Sirens”.  These titles have all sold moderately well, and they all have the blushing comedy and innuendo laden throughout.  I *think* Wonder Woman, one of DC’s big three, has been written more on the serious side, but our store has only one customer who reads it regularly, and he buys twenty copies of each issue, five copies of each trade, and two of every Wonder Woman statue.  So, at least one guy REALLY likes the series, but I don’t know anyone else reading it, and I have tried reading several trades, but only got really hooked into the ones that also featured Batman.   Even Rucka’s Wonder Woman really didn’t reel me in.  Is DC incapable of selling a female superhero who doesn’t play the bimbo innuendo card every issue?

I think I’m most bothered by this because when Stephanie was Spoiler, the “look at the pretty heroin” card was never played.  It probably had something to do with the bat-burqua she wore.  But no one ever says anything about Tim and Dick being hot when they’re out breaking heads and saving ladies.  And some people find Robin quite attractive.

I was a bit worried byt the cover, as the color pallete seems to suggest that Stephanie has joined X-Force, but luckily the interiors are sufficient.  And that’s about as far as I’ll go, since there are some anatomy issues (no, not giant boobs, there are just some poses that are rendered improbable by too much color saturation), and the wheel chairs for Oracle and Heather look llike someone stapled wooden crates onto 1870’s style wagon wheels.

Despite my “awakening” to the odd gendertype isues in DC comics, this was a well-written story.  While I never laughed myself into hiccups over anything, none of the jokes rolled my eyes back into my head, either.  And the actual story twists were well done.