Comics! Batgirl #0

Batgirl #0

Gail Simone: writer
Ed Benes: pencils and inks

The Solicitation
How did Barbara first become Batgirl? What led to her to don the cape and cowl? Witness Barbara Gordon's shocking injury and her inspiring drive to recover and walk again!

Preview

Why I Bought It
I have been trying to buy all the Zero issues from DC that I bought a #1 from. Seems only fair to balance it and see where stories could have gone and which Zero issues do better than the #1s. It will be interesting to see how Batgirl fares, only because I haven't really enjoyed much from the book.

What I Liked
I think this was one of the better Batgirl comics I read since the relaunch. Seriously.

Now let's look at that first half of the solicitation, because that is what the focus of the book was about. Quite frankly, aside from a few lines of dialogue, this was a Barbara Gordon I could get behind. This was the reason to make her Batgirl again. There is a sense of confidence and fun to the book that really take you in. The fact that the main villain was some guy who recruited girls into his cult (thus we get the typical "victim" card with the villain, but at least the villain himself isn't the victim), made some sense as for why he went for Barbara.

I'll give Simone this, she likes to name check in her writing. It is an important thing to include, especially for first time readers. But damn, there is a name check on every page. Slight overkill, but if i were a new reader then I would be very thankful.

What I Didn't Like
I can't tell you which was the cheesier line, James Jr. calling himself a Sphinx, or Barbara saying that Batman is like her, smart. Still, it was a better overall story outside of the cheesy dialogue.

From what I hear about Ed Benes, he is supposed to sexualize every female character he draws. Out of his New 52 work, that was kinda evident with Red Lanterns, but I wrote it off to alien anatomy being different and more flexible that human anatomy. So with this book, I was looking to see if there was anything weird about the art. For the most part, it is all fine and dandy. The only parts that rub me was the slight upskirt shots of Barbara as she gets knocked around with her skirt of ever changing length. And how she is sitting on the first page makes her look like she doesn't have any hips or has some weird anatomy problem with her pelvis.

If we now look at the second half of that solicitation, you will see what my other big problem with this issue is. We get the first half of the solicitation, but then the second half makes barely a page or two. We get a quick two page recap of her time as Batgirl and then flash to the Joker knocking on her door. For longtime fans of the character, you know what happens next. But if this is your first issue of the series that you pick up, nada. Sure, it is scary because Joker is there, but then you realize that there must be more. But you know what? Not next issue. Next issue will wrap up the previous issue's cliffhanger. You'll probably only get hints of what happened before from here on out.

But when that first panel showing her costume and time as Batgirl, that's when it hit me as to what this series should be about. From the word go, this should have been a "back in the day" type of comic. The stories should have been set during Barbara's first time as Batgirl and her adventures with Dick Grayson when he was first Robin.  Let it be the flashback title for awhile showing us a little bit of the new Batworld history. If anything, it would have given us a Batgirl that was confident and could have easily side stepped the whole "how did she recover?" question that has been hanging over this title for me. Then this issue could have brought us a little bit into the present after a quick re-telling of Killer Joke.

But it didn't. So I will keep that idea in fantasy land.

Panel to Remember
The one page spread of Bagirl through her career is nice. A couple of standouts need to be mentioned though. As a first look at the "classic" Batgirl costume - eh. It is a nice style, but there is no way that the daughter of the police commissioner would go out in public to fight alongside Batman without covering up her head a little more. That ponytail look would have to go.

Also, I'm reading that ninja lady at the bottom of the page as a carbon copy of Psylocke from the X-men books. That costume is just a little too close for my comfort for it to be anyone else but that.

Quotable
I'm going with the title of this comic - something I don't really point out or pay much attention to unless it grabs me in some way. "A Fire in the Heavens." I seriously have no idea how that relates to this story.

Grades
Words: 7/10
Pictures: 6/10 - Remember, those upskirts shots are supposed to be of a high school girl.
Buy Next Issue: Nah. I'll probably do what I have been doing and just buy the random next issue that is part of a crossover or something.