Batgirls

[ComicNoobie]

I really enjoyed Batgirls Issue 9. Good stuff. I really liked Cassandra's summer outfit while she was checking out her latest book. And probably my favorite scene of the book was Stephanie in her kiddie pool on the roof. Pools are the best during the summer. The batgirls took that KGBeast to school, and I like the mystery going on along with the detective work of the batgirls. One of my favorite aspects of any Batman/Batfamily book is the detective case the heroes have to do. I also enjoyed the artwork here. I found it a improvement over the last two issues and the cover was perfect. Especially for a hot summer like this.

[millernumber1]

Well said! It's been really hot where I live, and Steph in the pool looked like she was having the time of her life!

[Aahz]

KGBeast became the Batfamilly punching bag ever since that story.

Kind of a shame, 10 Nights of the Beast is pretty good story, and KGBeast was pretty dangerous villain back than...

[millernumber1]

Kind of a shame, 10 Nights of the Beast is pretty good story, and KGBeast was pretty dangerous villain back than...

Yeah, I agree there's been a bit of mook-ification of KGBeast - in Tom King's adaptation of 10 Nights of the Beast - Beasts of Burden - he was still a pretty hardcore foe. But Taylor had Beast go down like a punk, and it kinda stuck here. I think it makes a bit more sense with Babs hacking his systems and both Batgirls teaming up on him, but he definitely didn't feel super scary.

But that's more or less okay with me. It's bothered me in the past, like in Gotham Academy Second Semester, when the kids were able to take down several of Batman's main rogues without much of a serious struggle, but I still enjoy that series too.

[ComicNoobie]

Well said! It's been really hot where I live, and Steph in the pool looked like she was having the time of her life!

You would think Gotham's criminals would take a break from the heat, but apparently not. I seriously just need a issue of Steph chilling in her pool with her two pigeon summer-buddies lol.

[Aahz]

Yeah, I agree there's been a bit of mook-ification of KGBeast - in Tom King's adaptation of 10 Nights of the Beast - Beasts of Burden - he was still a pretty hardcore foe.

Even if I don't really remember that story that well, I don't think that he was even close to being as hardcore as he was during 10 Nights of the Beast.

[millernumber1]

You would think Gotham's criminals would take a break from the heat, but apparently not. I seriously just need a issue of Steph chilling in her pool with her two pigeon summer-buddies lol.

Eh, I just take it as read that she spends lots of time up there with the birbs. We need her detectiving!

[ComicNoobie]

Eh, I just take it as read that she spends lots of time up there with the birbs. We need her detectiving!

She needs to train them to be her crime fighting pets and give them their own costumes and hero names.

[Aahz]

Are now all the Batgirls literature nerds?

Steph was apparently often citing classic literature pre flashpoint (which I never realised since I'm not native speaker and have no knowledge in that area), Barbara was a Liberian, and I think Helena also used to be an english teacher ...

[millernumber1]

She needs to train them to be her crime fighting pets and give them their own costumes and hero names.

I just listened to a podcast all about pigeons, and I agree. If you want a hacker proof communication system, pigeons are the way to go!

Are now all the Batgirls literature nerds?

Steph was apparently often citing classic literature pre flashpoint (which I never realised since I'm not native speaker and have no knowledge in that area), Barbara was a Liberian, and I think Helena also used to be an english teacher ...

Well, we know Steph likes to read from her own Batgirl run (the "accio fist" joke in the Klarion issue). Not exactly "classic" literature, but a reader for sure.

And I say yes! Bookworms are awesome!

Even if I don't really remember that story that well, I don't think that he was even close to being as hardcore as he was during 10 Nights of the Beast.

Well, he did snipe Nightwing in the head. And then Batman broke his neck after crashing three Batplanes and walking across all of Siberia in winter.

[Aahz]

Well, he did snipe Nightwing in the head. And then Batman broke his neck after crashing three Batplanes and walking across all of Siberia in winter.

Back in 10 Nights of the Beast Batman no chance in fight against him, that's why he had to lure him in trap at the end.

And I also kind of doubt that in that story anyone would have survived being shot in head by him...

[Rac7d*]

Are now all the Batgirls literature nerds?

Steph was apparently often citing classic literature pre flashpoint (which I never realised since I'm not native speaker and have no knowledge in that area), Barbara was a Liberian, and I think Helena also used to be an english teacher ...

are the girls not in school

[ohfellow]

I did think it was a bit odd for them to reference events of several years ago instead of a month or two ago, but as Drako said, KGBeast just escaped. It happens a lot, especially in Bludhaven and Gotham.

Yes, of course we can all fill in the blanks, they always escape - but honestly I'm not sure the writers or editors remembered. I think they could have mentioned it in the dialog and then had an editor's note directing people to Nightwing -- why NOT take the opportunity to advertise a Nightwing story from 3 months ago where Babs had been kidnapped?

As for Googe imitating Corona, I've been talking to Googe and the new colorist (who took over in issue #7), and both of them said they are deliberately trying to match their styles to the original artist and colorist. I'm a fan of Corona, so I think it's a good thing. It's definitely not Jorge making anyone do anything - it's similar to how Roger Cruz on Robin is trying to do a pastiche of Gleb Melnikov's style. I think it's good, though obviously with an artist as polarizing as Corona, it's not quite mainstream enough for many fans still.

I saw that with Cruz/Melnikov too - maybe a lot with the panel shapes. In that case, I like both of them, but also preferred Melnikov.

I see a discussion about this on Googe's Instagram now. He confirmed exactly what I noticed - capes and faces. That I noticed it suggests it didn't work that well for me. It was more of "Darn it, he's copying Corona" rather than simply having a comfortable feeling that the art felt consistent without being consciously aware of how he pulled it off. Googe is not looking for people to notice the craft, after all. He just wanted the book to feel consistent without anyone thinking about it too much.

George Duarte just took over from Riley Rossmo on Harley Quinn, and made a completely clean break. I doubt any artist could possibly succeed in imitating Rossmo, and Duarte didn't even try. And not only is no one complaining, but fandom has heaved a huge sigh of relief.

A book can survive any big change in art if the new work is good. Look at that recent weekly run of Detective, with 3 sets of artists working on different installments of the story. Was not a problem.

(Besides, how much DC care about artistic continuity? Think of how many books lately have had 2, 3 and sometimes more groups of artists working on different pages of the same book?! That is an annoying thing that doesn't ever work for me.)

Renzi's work seems familiar to me because he colors Spider-Gwen in a very similar way. It's because of his coloring that people describe Marvel's Earth-65 as having a neon glow to it, unlike the grittier Earth-616.

I'd say a big difference between Renzi and Stern is that Renzi's colors actually DO "pop." Stern used colorful shades, but desaturated everything (added tons of gray), so to me, everything looks muddy. I think Batgirls is now easier to look at not only because of Googe's line work, but because Renzi actually uses very bright colors.

You have to go back to #6 to see the Sarah Stern murkiness. Whole pages of shades of browns and grays. I think her colors, more than Corona's lines, made a lot of the book difficult to see. The Saints in particular were hard to make out, just a mass of grays, but you can look through any of her stuff and just see dull shades of brown and gray.

Also, the cover with Steph and Cass ready for swimming this month is awesome! The next two covers aren't quite as good, but I think it's nice to have a sense of artistic continuity, like Joelle Jones continuing to do covers for Catwoman long after Ram V took over writing the book and Fernando Blanco drawing.

It was consistent, and consistently bleh. I liked her interior work a lot, but avoided all of her Catwoman covers. I only bought variants, until Jeff Dekal started doing the main covers.

Blanco did try emulate Jone's style for the book, and that's obvious when you look at other things he's done. I think he was better than Jones.

I dunno what Cloonan and Conrad are saying about Steph, other than maybe she likes to swim and be clean? I hadn't noticed.

The writing, to me, was a big step up - two major character moments for Steph (swimming - yes, I know it's not super serious, but it's a very fun moment), and grief over her wrongful suspicion. Plus she recognizes a cipher immediately and plans to break it - Cluemaster Spoiler showing! It's still not exactly what I'd hoped for when the series was announced, but I think it's quite enjoyable. Certainly way, way more than the last two issues.

I agree it was better. Good point, I didn't notice that was Steph at the end saying she wanted to break the code - in print, it's kind of small.

[Digifiend]

are the girls not in school

They haven't been shown in school. And logically, they SHOULD have already graduated, especially if their pre-Flashpoint histories are back, in which, of course, Steph went to college. Tim's been shown considering college (though he ended up reforming Young Justice instead), and Steph should be a year older than him. If Tim has finished school, the girls definitely should've too.

[millernumber1]

Back in 10 Nights of the Beast Batman no chance in fight against him, that's why he had to lure him in trap at the end.

And I also kind of doubt that in that story anyone would have survived being shot in head by him...

Well, to be fair (and I will admit I don't really like the Beasts of Burden story, so I don't have THAT much invested in defending it), KGBeast was hired to main, not kill, Nightwing. I think shooting in the head to maim is ridiculous, but that was the explicit goal.

are the girls not in school

Steph hasn't dealt with school issues since before Batman Eternal. Cass has, as far as I can tell, never, ever, ever gone to any school, just private tutoring. Babs was theoretically in school for a library degree, but that was dropped after Hope Larson's run, I think?

Yes, of course we can all fill in the blanks, they always escape - but honestly I'm not sure the writers or editors remembered. I think they could have mentioned it in the dialog and then had an editor's note directing people to Nightwing -- why NOT take the opportunity to advertise a Nightwing story from 3 months ago where Babs had been kidnapped?

I saw that with Cruz/Melnikov too - maybe a lot with the panel shapes. In that case, I like both of them, but also preferred Melnikov.

I see a discussion about this on Googe's Instagram now. He confirmed exactly what I noticed - capes and faces. That I noticed it suggests it didn't work that well for me. It was more of "Darn it, he's copying Corona" rather than simply having a comfortable feeling that the art felt consistent without being consciously aware of how he pulled it off. Googe is not looking for people to notice the craft, after all. He just wanted the book to feel consistent without anyone thinking about it too much.

A book can survive any big change in art if the new work is good. Look at that recent weekly run of Detective, with 3 sets of artists working on different installments of the story. Was not a problem.

(Besides, how much DC care about artistic continuity? Think of how many books lately have had 2, 3 and sometimes more groups of artists working on different pages of the same book?! That is an annoying thing that doesn't ever work for me.)

Renzi's work seems familiar to me because he colors Spider-Gwen in a very similar way. It's because of his coloring that people describe Marvel's Earth-65 as having a neon glow to it, unlike the grittier Earth-616.

I'd say a big difference between Renzi and Stern is that Renzi's colors actually DO "pop." Stern used colorful shades, but desaturated everything (added tons of gray), so to me, everything looks muddy. I think Batgirls is now easier to look at not only because of Googe's line work, but because Renzi actually uses very bright colors.

You have to go back to #6 to see the Sarah Stern murkiness. Whole pages of shades of browns and grays. I think her colors, more than Corona's lines, made a lot of the book difficult to see. The Saints in particular were hard to make out, just a mass of grays, but you can look through any of her stuff and just see dull shades of brown and gray.

I agree it was better. Good point, I didn't notice that was Steph at the end saying she wanted to break the code - in print, it's kind of small.

Because that Nightwing story wasn't good? (That, of course, is a ridiculous answer given the story they referred to is the Ric Grayson saga, but...sigh, whatever.)

All I can say to fans who don't like Corona's art is...he won't be back. I miss him, but I also like Googe a lot.

For a weekly book, I think schedulling is much more important than consistency, as I see in the Batman Eternal series. Usually you're drawing at the same time with no ability to see what the other artists are doing, so there's really no point in even trying that much. But when you have a two month gap between Corona and Googe, I think it's nice to have a sense of continuity. But as I said, I like Corona's art a lot.

I'm not a sharp enough color eye to notice what you're saying about the grays and so forth - the books look pretty consistent in coloring to me. I like it, with the exception of Steph's face sometimes, which looks the same color as her hood. Mostly it works, but sometimes it looks like she's glowing red from exercise.

I also didn't catch Steph being the one to say she wants to break the code until my second reading - but I think it's a great character detail!

They haven't been shown in school. And logically, they SHOULD have already graduated, especially if their pre-Flashpoint histories are back, in which, of course, Steph went to college. Tim's been shown considering college (though he ended up reforming Young Justice instead), and Steph should be a year older than him. If Tim has finished school, the girls definitely should've too.

I would love if they explored Steph in college again, but I don't think DC really wants to "age" the characters that much. But that gets to the policy of characters aging unevenly and I have no idea what even is happening there.