Batgirl by Gail Simone / What is your verdict?

[sabongero]

Whoh! The complete forum has been rebooted. Well, it's going to be great to see how the new members of CBR will vote and say their opinions on this book by this writer. Post your opinions guys & gals if you have any.

Personally, I am going to miss re-reading the Birds of Prey verdict on Gail Simone's work on that book. Those were some fantastic and insightful posts over the years. But... you have to move on.

[Penguin Truth]

Well, measuring it against the usual DC work now has it coming out looking a lot better if you just measured the run by how good it was/is itself.

Above average by New 52 standards. Average by normal standards, at best.

[Nygma]

There have been missteps sure but for the most part it's been really enjoyable. First book I started collecting individual issues of, so I'm probably a bit biased but a 4 for me

[MajorHoy]

I gave it an "average", though I stopped buying it a while ago and really am not a fan of Gail's writing.

But there's so much worse stuff that's strewn across the New 52 landscape, and I can tell Gail really cares about the character and the story.

[Aliltron]

I gave it a 4, it's starting to get better now

[Tim Drake]

Her run is above average but a lot better than most of the books in the New 52 for sure.

[Godlike13]

It bobbles between 3 and 4. Like the Wanted arc had me a little bored, but then the vampire arc ends with this hilarious twist and i thought the annual with Poison Ivy was very good.

[The Man From Room X]

You couldn't pay me to read it.

[exile001]

Sadly, I find everything about it very hit and miss.

Sometimes Barbara's character comes off extremely flat, but other times I'm laughing at her inner monolgue. The situations she gets into are like this too. Some fights are dynamic and feel worthy of Batgirl's time, and others just feel like filler.

The new enemies are the same. I really like Knightfall but can't even name her henchmen/women. Mirror was interesting in the first arc, but made no impact in his rather forced return.

The Joker issues were solid, but the end of the James Gordon story felt rushed. Also, using an excellent, complex Scott Snyder character may not have been the best choice as he seemed more two-dimensional under Simone.

It really annoys me that her dad doesn't know she's Batgirl, but I'm guess this was editorial mandate. Further to this, I was really enjoying the interaction between Batgirl and Gordon in the final 'Wanted' issue, but this was ruined when Gail re-used Rucka's excellent unmasking bit from NML. I'm sure she meant it as an homage, but it just felt like a rip-off.

Because of my indecision, I don't want to rate it in the poll as I waver between 3 and 4. I'm also not comfortable with rating it against other New 52 titles. For example, Batman, Green Arrow and Wonder Woman are in a different league entirely so she'd get 1-2/5. However, Batgirl is a million times better than Batwing, Catwoman or World's Finest so would get 4-5/5. There is no basis to set an average across the entire New 52.

That said, I don't dislike the book at all and I do like Gail so I'll continue to pick it up. In fact, I was utterly opposed to Barbara returning as Batgirl and only picked it up in the first place because Gail was writing.

I would have preferred an Oracle ongoing by Gail (and still would... Joker's always got more guns).

[ceroxide]

when it first started it was intriguing and quite good after the first arc though it suffered heavily. Court of Owls and Death in the Family didn't do it any favors either. The book has picked up since and is moving in the right direction so I'm glad I picked it up again.

Still when compared to the far superior: Batman, Detective Comics, Batwoman, and Batman & Robin. The book while good is not as strong as it should be. At least it should be better than Detective Comics, Batwoman, and Batman & Robin, still it's better than Nightwing that's a victory in of itself.

so long story short, the book is good but in the grand scale of things is average at best

[DHarper]

Still just a middle of the road type title. Never really bad but still waiting for that break out storyline.

[Batman Forever]

It's very poor. I strongly dislike it. It's the worst batgirl series so far, and I look forward to a new creative team taking over.

[sabongero]

Thanks for the update guys. I just bought the latest issue, and was somehow felt underwhelmed for a reason. I'm not going to stop again, I'll see the next two issues and see how it comes across. For some reason I miss Cassandra Cain as Batgirl. In fact, for another reason, I kind of miss Bryan Q Miller's Stephanie Brown as well. But hey, I did like the first volume of this series, so here's looking forward to some "improvement" and that sine wave is heading up on this one.

[BaneofKings]

4 stars for me - I'm loving it so far, with some great issues in the form of the Ragdoll and Wanted Arcs - with the Poison Ivy Annual being very strong. Like Nightwing it suffered from multiple crossovers however, but hopefully it looks like (Future's End #1s in September aside) this should be good for the moment. Having recently started Bryan Q. Miller's Stephanie Brown Batgirl on Comixology playing catchup - I can say that both books are excellent, and it'd be very hard to pick between the two.

[Maxpower00044]

It's a 2. It would've been a three but the art has always been pretty bad to me.