Batgirl Returns!

You know who would be an awesome movieverse Batgirl? Steph Brown. She's funny, she's tormented (but not in a death-of-parents way, more like a I-screw-up-because-I'm-human way), and she's adooooorable. Seriously someone sign someone up right now and get this script written. I'm looking at you, Warner Brothers.

Of course, the Batgirl everyone knows is Barbara Gordon, so that's just not happening. Though they did try with Barbara Whatever that was somehow related to Alfred in The Movie With the Nipples.

I've already talked about how I'm pleased with the new Batgirl choice. In this month's issue, Dan Didio explained why it was Steph as opposed to, say, Babs or Cass (I'm glad something big is coming for Cass in 2010, and I'd really like to see her sack Damian around a little). Changing the Oracle would suck. Not just because the Oracle is awesome, but because I like Babs better in a wheelchair. It's bad (or good, I guess?) enough that people keep on coming back from the dead (btw, read Flash: Rebirth #4 finally), but giving Babs the ability to walk again would erase twenty years of interesting, painful, well-earned character development.

What can I say? I am a fan of the characters and their developing. And there was some nice development in this. And I love love love love love. Love. Steph Brown's voice. I thought issue 2 was stronger than issue 1, which is usually how it goes. We see some more of Babs' motivation, some more of Steph's motivation, and get a preview of how they're going to be working together. I couldn't help but think of the BoP, of course, but I have a feeling that that was at least partially intentional.

I think an excellent part of Batgirl is that they're setting it up very much as a mentor-mentee thing with Babs and Steph, and it's released the same week as Batman and Robin. This week's B&R had a great rooftop fight with Dick and Damian that ended with a small smirk from Dick that reminded me of my favorite Bruce (Frank Miller's), and was a very telling look into why Dick chose Damian for the job (sidenote: I think I missed the last issue of the last arc, which I'll have to find at some point, but I really love the way Phillip Tan's art works for this dark and brutal and creepy storyline). And in contrast to Steph's adventures (and foibles) this week and her interactions with Babs, it was really good.

Batgirl is both separate from and yet integral to the core of the Batfamily. You don't wear the Bat without being something important in Gotham, but at the same time she doesn't have Batman as a mentor the way that Robin does. And she's not entirely independent, like Red Robin. Also she's a female (hello!) in a very male-oriented family. Sort of like Mia in the Arrow family (I know Judd Winnick gets some flak for stuff, but I've never read anything of his I disliked, and I love the idea of making a young, teenage, white girl a victim of HIV. Also I was a huge Real World fan for the first few seasons. Ahem.) The idea of Batgirl teaming up with Oracle really appeals to me. And I think I'm going ot enjoy it as it develops, especially considering the revealed-this-week villain (I always appreciate when female heroes aren't patronized with female villains that didn't exist until we decided they needed to fight someone but it can't be a dude so it's just like a male villain, but is female. Yeah, Alice, you know who you are, Ms. Scarecrow+Mad Hatter.)

Anyway.

I like Batgirl. Some random guy on the T yesterday tapped me to get my attention, and asked me about the current state of Gotham city. "I heard Dick Grayson is the new Batman. Is that true?"

"Yep!"

"Huh. How'd that happen?"

I gave him a brief rundown of the death of Batman, the Battle for the Cowl, and then explained that I don't know the details because I really had no interest in Gotham City until Bruce Wayne had died.

"That makes sense," he said.

Thanks for the positive reinforcement, random guy on the T. Right back atcha.

A few things on Batman & Robin #1

Um. Spoiler alert?

So Batman's mostly-dead ("He distinctly said 'To blave,' and as we all know, to blave means to bluff, heh? So you were probably playing cards, and he cheated." Which, while we're on the topic, is followed by a much more appropriate quote: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.") but Gotham still needs a Batman.

I don't really know why Gotham needs a Batman. No one's ever explained it to me sufficiently. Sure, I get that whole "he's the spirit of Gotham" thing, and it makes a lot more sense in the movies where there's only him and, occassionally, Chris O'Donnell, but in a world with a gigantic Bat family, I don't see why Gotham can't be all set with a Nightwing (I'm just assuming he'd hang around since Bludhaven sucks), Robin, Red Robin/Hood (erm, well, he's sort of a good guy!), Oracle, Huntress, Batwoman, Question (also assuming she's hanging out there, since Montoya's a native), Spoiler, Batgirl... am I missing anything? I think as long as that bat signal's shining into the night, Gotham's pretty much all set.

But hey, it's comics and comics don't have to make sense and, dagnabit, Gotham needs a Batman.

I'm glad it's Dick. That makes sense. Who else could it be? I would sort of think this is an inevitible conclusion. In a world without Terry McGinnis (hey, I liked Batman Beyond) the only heir that makes sense is Dick Grayson.

I'm sort of bummed about the whole Tim-Drake-has-a-hole-in-his-chest-so-Damien-gets-to-be-Robin. Here's my thing about Robin... people fall into it, they're not born for it. It's a privilege, not a right. Damien treats it as a right, and it makes me want to punch him in his tiny-nosed face. I'm suuuuure that this is all part of his arc and he'll eventually come around (or die tragically), but right now I still wish for some face punching. Dick's handling him very well. I actually like Dick as the unwilling Batman. I don't think I've liked Dick since, um. Frank Miller's Batman threw him into a bit of lava or something after he cut Carrie Kelly up.

Anyway. After viewing some preview panels this morning, I'm kind of looking forward to Streets of Gotham, because it'll be nice to see the new team from a different perspective. Also Dick deadpans. Ish.


(Also I love when Paul Dini writes Harley, but that's a blog entry for another time.) Too bad the art makes them look like the Bruce/Tim combo. Which brings me to the entire reason I started writing this:

To gush about Frank Quietly.

I love him!

Okay, but more specifically. I've only been paying attention to the artists for a year or two, and I was immediately drawn to his style. What I like best about B&R #1 is that the team doesn't look the same. Not just because Frank Quietly is drawing them, but because they're different.

The differences between his Bruce/Dick team and his Dick/Damien team speak for themselves. And that's good. I don't want Damien to look like Just Another Robin. And I haven't been following Batman in a continuous enough manner to just be able to pick up a book and know someone is different just by looking at him. So besides the fact that I just like the way Quietly draws the characters, I also like the way he draws the world. I like the lines and the shadows and all sorts of technical stuff I don't know about, because I know next-to-nothing about art.

But whatever. It's awesome. And I'm looking forward to the run, and I think it'll be good. The villain is creepy (though he reminds me of Sander Cohen from Bioshock, so we'l see how that goes) and, like I've said before, I like coming in at the start (which is also going to add Gotham Streets and Red Robin to my pull list, sigh).

So, good book, and I wrote more on it already than I'd planned. But don't you want to punch Damien in the face now? Smug bastard.