Things haven't been going well for the heroine known as Barbara Gordon. She's seemingly responsible for the death of her brother and her father nearly killed her boyfriend. To make matters worse, her nemesis Knightfall is nearing her endgame to make Gotham City her own. Thankfully, Batgirl has a few friends to help her bring down Knightfall's criminal empire.
Batgirl Volume 5: Deadline collects issues #27-34 of Batgirl, along with Batgirl Annual #2 and Batgirl: Futures End #1, written by Gail Simone and featuring art by Fernando Pasarin, Jonathan Glapion and Robert Gill.
Deadline collects the conclusion of Gail Simone's stellar three year run on Batgirl. The stories collected here feature Batgirl and her allies facing off against Knightfall and the Disgraced, as well as some rather creepy supernatural foes. Simone pulls out all the stops, giving her longtime readers the kind of moments that made her run on Birds of Prey so successful. After seeing a more dour Barbara in the preceding trade, it's nice to see her trading quips with Black Canary in between kicking bad guy butt. Simone even tosses Huntress into the mix, which definitely stirs up some major nostalgia. If that weren't enough, we also see the re-introduction of Secret Six fan-favourite Ragdoll in a one-off issue facing off against Batgirl.
For the first few issues of this collection, Simone dabbles in the horror genre to deliver some of her most chilling work to date. In a two-part story, Batgirl teams up with the former assassin Strix to battle the vampire hunter Silver. He's kidnapped a little girl he believes to be the queen of the vampires and Strix is deadset on rescuing her from his clutches. The dynamic between Batgirl and Strix is electric, with the former playing a figurative big sis. In a way, it also mimics the chemistry between fan-favourites Spoiler and Black Bat. Despite being filler, this two-parter is very effective in keeping the reader engaged and even features a surprise twist worthy of any (good) horror movie.
Another standalone story features Batgirl saving a group of teenagers after they've summoned a shapeshifting beast to Gotham City. By and large, the story's purpose is to reinvigorate Batgirl's resolve as a hero and to become more confident in her abilities. Simone does this not only through the action of the story, but by using Batgirl's internal dialogue to explore her place within the Bat Family. It's a successful way of emphasizing the fact that Batgirl was never just some sidekick like Robin, but rather she was a hero in her own right whose independence helped to usher in a new wave of superheroines all the way back in the late 1960s.
The horror trend continues with the issue that guest stars Ragdoll. As one of the standouts from Gail Simone's run on Secret Six, Ragdoll is equally as funny as he is creepy. The imagery within the issue is enough to send a shiver up your spine, particularly one panel which features Alysia trapped in a bathroom stall with him. Of course, the dialogue that accompanies the art cuts through the horror to provide a more layered reading experience.
Of all of the stories in Deadline, the one from Batgirl Annual #2 is perhaps the best of the bunch. Taking place over the course of several months, this story features Batgirl forming an uneasy alliance with Poison Ivy as they investigate the shady business dealings of the man known as Mr. Rain. Despite carrying her name, the annual actually has very little to do with Batgirl. Instead, it serves as a fascinating character story about Poison Ivy. By and large, writers have a tendency to portray the redheaded villainess as a one-note eco-terrorist who uses sex as a weapon. That's not the case here. Simone provides a truly riveting story that explores Poison Ivy's complex motivations and her internal battle with her own humanity. She does this using the framework of the changing seasons, as well as placing the character in situations where she witnesses human suffering. It's nothing short of brilliant.
The conclusion of Simone's run on Batgirl is a bittersweet reading experience. In the three part story "Deadline," she reunites Batgirl with Black Canary and Huntress for an unforgettable showdown against Knightfall and her Disgraced. It's a page-turner, with some of the most eye-popping action thus far in the series and it even features some rather cool guest stars. It works beautifully to re-establish Batgirl as a champion of the light, dusting away some of the melancholy that set in after some of the terrible things she's experienced. Not only that, but it sees Batgirl using her head to strategize and has her defeating Knightfall, not through fisticuffs, but through outwitting her.
What makes this conclusion so bittersweet is two-fold. The first being that the story itself should have been much longer than it was. With it taking place over the course of three issues, which were largely preceded by filler, doesn't give Simone the legroom she needed to really set everything up the way it needed to be. It's especially unnerving considering she lost one issue to a tie-in (#27), which otherwise could have gone towards something more important. The other part of it is that Simone truly hits her stride here. The reunion of the most famous members of the Birds of Prey featured is maddeningly frustrating. We get them working together for all of two issues before Simone bids farewell to these characters (for now at least). While she couldn't quite possibly write the same characters forever, it's still disappointing that her run couldn't have gone on longer.
It's really no secret that Gail Simone is one of my favourite comic book writers. Her tenure on Birds of Prey continues to be one of my all-time favourite runs by any one writer, while her subsequent work has been equally as impressive. Batgirl comes closest perhaps at rivalling Birds of Prey. Her three years on this book were thrilling, dramatic and elicited just about every emotion imaginable from readers. It's sad to think about the fact that there won't be any further stories featuring this specific cast under Simone's direction for the foreseeable future, but the stories she's left behind are impactful and stand as some of the greatest (if not the greatest) that the New 52 had to offer.
RATING: A
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