Batgirl #39 Preview/Discussion

[Frontier]

Good preview, and looking forward to reading the issue. While it feels a little fast, it's good to see Babs and Dinah acting like friends again and Dinah acting more like herself instead of the jerk she's been so far, however justified it was .

[ekrolo2]

Doesn't that apply to almost every comic book, ever? Pesky opinions, they're just never consistent!

Anyway, so Canary's all nice now because... reasons. (And by reasons, I mean narrative ones. Not "Well she's getting a solo book now so they need to try and make Dinah more likeable/less one-dimensional again").

And Babs finally cottons on to what's been going on a month after almost everyone who read the last issue already worked it out. Man, she so smart.

Kind of, I see it far more often on the Marvel side of things cause us DC guys are too busy with our "continuity battle royale: 2015 edition" atm to really fuss over that stuff. Still, I find it really annoying that people spend more time at each others throats arguing weather or not this direction is the worst or best thing ever (cause qualities in-between these two extremes are apparently dead now) rather than discussing what happened in the actual issue and its quality. I mean what is this, the Wonder Woman thread?

[Rakzo]

One of the best reads from the week for me.

Everything has been building up to this.

[ekrolo2]

Things are getting interesting, especially with that ending although I hope it doesn't go where Rich Johnston implied it may be going....

[SmokeMonster]

Awesome as usual.

Babs breaking into the HQ was so cool, as was Black Canary. Cant wait for her solo series.

[FHIZ]

Things are getting interesting, especially with that ending although I hope it doesn't go where Rich Johnston implied it may be going....

I read that article, and yeah... grasping for straws. It's pretty clear that Babs uploaded her brain scan and it just went Skynet on her... Batgirl isn't the type of book to go "PRE NEW 52 CONTINUITY COMING BACK BLAH BLAH" or whatever.

[Stormcrow]

Really good issue, the ending was a kicker and it look like Multiversity's theory was spot on. Can't wait to see where this goes, I might have to pick up the Secret Origins issue after all.

Happy to see Babs and Dinah mending their friendship, wish Dinah would be out in costume already but I suppose they're saving the debut for her ongoing. And it's most likely going to be a stage costume.

I'm happy we still have the Endgame issue as well, but damn after that it's going to be a long wait until June...

[Godlike13]

Best issue yet IMO. The other shoe dropped, there were no long winded speeches, BC showed other notes, and finally a respectable villain thats more than just cute. And even though people already guessed who the villain was i still thought it was cool. So ya. I enjoyed this one immensely.

[Rakzo]

Really, all this long-term planning and focus on little lighthearted stories coupled with fantastic art makes this my favorite Batbook so far.

[Smart]

Really enjoyed this, was there supposed to be a black canary preview as well? I bought the digital issue and it wasn't there

[K. Jones]

Oh man that was fun. This was a strong bat-week as far as I'm concerned.

I like how even though this continues to be somewhat grounded, comparitively, and keeps its influences relevant socially and contemporarily ... it still felt mega super-hero-tropish here, but in the good way. I mean it almost feels like 60s Batman, to be honest. A less Gothic and more metropolitan town, foes who are just general scumbags being the lead-ins to more outrageous sci-fi plots. This could easily be a Bill Finger story, or especially a Carmine Infantino jam, but yet it still has all that historical relevance because of Babs' history as Batgirl and Oracle that gives it an added layer of drama icing on top.

This is the first issue where I really noticed how well Babs suits 60s-style Batman. Obviously Grayson is truly epic at taking those 50s and 60s notes Morrison brought in and just kicking ass all day with them in a way that Bruce just doesn't pull off quite as stylishly. But the notes he's playing so well are quite different from the late 60s notes Babs is playing so well.

Where Dick does best with the most outlandish, fringe stuff and the James Bond international adventuring, Babs seems to do best with the "Jimmy the Jackdaw just robbed a bank ... but his henchman fell and hit his head against an electrical cable and become Electro-Man" or "Lew Moxon and his Aerial Bandits" style stuff. Pure Pop Crime. The classic Gold/Silver Age formula but really specifically that late Sixties period where Babs was first introduced.

There's something truly appealing to me about the big gun Bat-Kids claiming ownership over the styles and flavors of specific periods of Batman's life. (Jason for instance, totally owns that 80s vibe - both the early soap opera melodrama and the later grim n gritty period. Tim owns the 90s, where Batman's titles were all team books, crossovers and street gangs, as well as a large chunk of the heavily "Detective/Cops" 2000s.)

[Fuzzy Cactus]

This is the first issue where I really noticed how well Babs suits 60s-style Batman. Obviously Grayson is truly epic at taking those 50s and 60s notes Morrison brought in and just kicking ass all day with them in a way that Bruce just doesn't pull off quite as stylishly. But the notes he's playing so well are quite different from the late 60s notes Babs is playing so well.

Where Dick does best with the most outlandish, fringe stuff and the James Bond international adventuring, Babs seems to do best with the "Jimmy the Jackdaw just robbed a bank ... but his henchman fell and hit his head against an electrical cable and become Electro-Man" or "Lew Moxon and his Aerial Bandits" style stuff. Pure Pop Crime. The classic Gold/Silver Age formula but really specifically that late Sixties period where Babs was first introduced.

There's something truly appealing to me about the big gun Bat-Kids claiming ownership over the styles and flavors of specific periods of Batman's life.

Yeah, I like this genre diversification using the former big name Batkids. And it looks like Damian will be heading into his own niche of genre fiction, where he goes on grand adventures and meets big magical monsters, not unlike recent Pixar and Dreamworks movies.

I thought this was probably the best issue of the Fletcher/Stewart run. The art is starting to take a front seat in directing the narrative. I thought previous issues had cases where the the pacing of the story would get bogged down with lengthy diatribes, but now everything is starting to flow.

[Fuzzy Cactus]

This is the first issue where I really noticed how well Babs suits 60s-style Batman. Obviously Grayson is truly epic at taking those 50s and 60s notes Morrison brought in and just kicking ass all day with them in a way that Bruce just doesn't pull off quite as stylishly. But the notes he's playing so well are quite different from the late 60s notes Babs is playing so well.

Where Dick does best with the most outlandish, fringe stuff and the James Bond international adventuring, Babs seems to do best with the "Jimmy the Jackdaw just robbed a bank ... but his henchman fell and hit his head against an electrical cable and become Electro-Man" or "Lew Moxon and his Aerial Bandits" style stuff. Pure Pop Crime. The classic Gold/Silver Age formula but really specifically that late Sixties period where Babs was first introduced.

There's something truly appealing to me about the big gun Bat-Kids claiming ownership over the styles and flavors of specific periods of Batman's life.

Yeah, I like this genre diversification using the former big name Batkids. And it looks like Damian will be heading into his own niche of genre fiction, where he goes on grand adventures and meets big magical monsters, not unlike recent Pixar and Dreamworks movies.

I thought this was probably the best issue of the Fletcher/Stewart run. The art is starting to take a front seat in directing the narrative. I thought previous issues had cases where the the pacing of the story would get bogged down with lengthy diatribes, but now everything is starting to flow.

[Sans Simian]

I thought this was probably the best issue of the Fletcher/Stewart run. The art is starting to take a front seat in directing the narrative. I thought previous issues had cases where the the pacing of the story would get bogged down with lengthy diatribes, but now everything is starting to flow.

I think they've found their groove on this book. I have hope that the finale of this arc will be up to this level of awesomeness (although I'm slightly annoyed that I have to pick up an issue of another series to get the full story [and slightly more annoyed because I was waiting to get Secret Origins in trade later on]). Oh well. I'm a sucker for Babs books.

[El Sombrero]

Liked this issue quite a bit. I feel like they've dialed back the daring storytelling elements which makes me a little sad. The first issue was so dense and loaded with the social network-driven storytelling, then in the second issue you had the really cool manga interlude, and the third issue had some great fashion and art gallery-inspired work. The last two issues feel more like your standard superhero storytelling (albeit done very well).

I liked seeing Babs & Dinah back together. To be honest I don't really give a **** about Black Canary and have never cared for the character, but their friendship is such a key element of their characters and I think keeping them apart would be forced and not really accomplish anything, especially considering the fun and friendly tone of the book. All of the writing (dialogue, pacing, plot) was on point and I thought they did a very good job with the "villain" reveal and the cliffhanger at the end, which made me badly want the next issue and will probably even make me pick up that Secret Origins issue against my better judgment.

Babs Tarr & Maris Wicks remain a force to be reckoned with. Wicks' coloring is so pleasing to the eye and plays a big part in how different this book looks from the rest of the line. Tarr is phenomenal and has zero flaws. Her facial expressions and body language are so wonderful. She feels like a cross between Bruce Timm and Amanda Conner in the best ways.

TLDR I still think this is DC's best book (and probably better than anything at Marvel) but I wish they would continue to push artistic boundaries the way they did earlier in this run.