Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Batgirl Vol. 2: Knightfall Descends by Gail Simone - Book Review

One of the characters to experience a major change as DC rebooted its comics was Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl.  She is still the daughter of Commissioner Gordon and is still a part of Batman's extended "family".  However, she is no longer paralyzed from the waist down.  Since the late 1980's, when she was shot by the Joker, Barbara has been in a wheelchair and set up a cyber-network to help Batman and his allies.  In the new Batgirl title, she has been healed.  This huge life change is not ignored, though, as Barbara struggles with the mental aspects of her injury.  She is physically able to fight bad guys, but is still trying to overcome some mental blocks.  She also carries some survivor's guilt.  This makes for a complicated character and some avenues for storytelling I haven't previously seen in comics.

In the current volume, Knightfall Descends, Barbara runs into a new villain, Grotesque, who seems overly obsessed with her.  Another story ties in with the Night of Owls arc running through the Batman comics.  Finally, a former Arkham Asylum patient decides to take care of crime in a more "permanent" fashion.  All of this is going on while Barbara tries to hide her secret from a prying roommate.

While never the biggest Batgirl fan, I enjoyed this collection.  I recommend it with 4 out of 5 stars.

I was given a review copy of this book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

No comments:

Post a Comment