2018.034 Batgirl: Stephanie Brown Vol 1

Batgirl: Stephanie Brown Vol 1
Written by: Bryan Q Miller
Illustrated by: Lee Garbett, Trevor Scott, Sandra Hope, Pere Perez, Jonathan Glapion, Tim Levins, Dan Davis, Aaron Sowd, Oliver Nome, Talent Caldwell, Richard Friend, Rodney Ramos, Walden Wong, Yvel Guichet, John Stanisci
DC Comics

2018.027 Batgirl: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 1

Batgirl: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 1
Written by: Frank Robbins, Elliot S Maggin, Bob Rozakis, Gardner Fox, Mike Friedrich, Denny O'Neil
Illustrated by: Don Heck, Mike Grell, Carmine Infantino, Frank Springer, Gil Kane, Bob Brown, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Pablo Marcos, Curt Swan, Jose Delbo, Irv Novick, Dick Giordano, Vince Colletta, Sid Greene, Murphy Anderson, Frank Giacoia
DC Comics

168 Batgirl Vol 2: Son Of Penguin

Another series I'm enjoying way more than I really should.  This book is fun, quirky and a pleasure to read.  Hope Larson GETS Batgirl!

Batgirl Vol 2: Son Of Penguin

Writer: Hope Larson, Vita Ayala

Artist: Chris Wildgoose, Jon Lam, Inaki Miranda, Eleonora Carlini

DC Comics

160 Birds Of Prey Vol 3

Last weekend I flew to Dallas for a wedding.  I brought four books on the plane hoping to read two of them.  This is one I brought.  I wasn't sure how much of it I was going to get through considering it's about a dozen issues and I'm not the quickest reader.  Needless to say, I got through ten of the twelve issues reprinted in here before the plane landed.  The other two I read the night after.

I've forgotten how much I loved this era of BoP.  It's still pretty early in the series, but this is the part where the BoP universe really starts expanding.  The previous volumes set up the series and got us used to the characters.  This book we really spread our wings.  Catwoman shows up.  Nightwing shows up (and his book crosses over with this one.)  We learn about Power Girl being a former BoP.  Babs and Ted Kord start up their thing.  Jason Bard reappears on the scene.  Dinah and Babs finally meet face to face.  There is a lot going on besides the main story plots and that's what really makes this a fun book to read.

I just love everything about this book.  It's been sitting on my shelf for longer than it should and for that I apologize to myself.  LOL.

Birds Of Prey Vol 3

Writer: Chuck Dixon

Artist: Greg Land, Dick Giordano, Patrick Zircher, Butch Guice, Drew Geraci, Jordi Ensign, Jose Marzan Jr

DC Comics

077 Batgirl And The Birds Of Prey Vol 1: Who Is Oracle?

I loved this book.  Cover to cover.  I loved the story.  I loved the art.  I loved everything about it.  Rebirth Birds of Prey is so much better than New 52 Birds of Prey, I can't even tell you.  And I'm not quite sure, but reading this makes me think that New 52 Birds of Prey has been retconned out of existence.  It builds more on pre-Flashpoint BoP than anything else.  But it's not pre-Flashpoint.

Anyway, Batgirl and Black Canary are together again and they're trying to track down and figure out who usurped Batgirl's old Oracle identity.  It also brings into the mix The Huntress, fresh from her run in Grayson.  And not only is BoP building on the foundation laid down by the pre-Flashpoint BoP, the Huntress has her roots in the origin of the pre-Flashpoint Huntress.  It's a fun story to read, it's great watching the dynamic between all three main characters, and it's fucking awesome watching them burn up the streets on their motorcycles.  

I really, really, really, really can't recommend this book enough.  

Oh, and I forgot to mention this in my Justice League post, but Yannick Paquette has turned in some of the best covers of his career with this book.  He did the variant covers for JL, but the main covers for this book.  They're all amazingly beautiful, at least to me.

Batgirl And The Birds Of Prey Vol 1: Who Is Oracle?

Writer: Julie Benson, Shawna Benson

Artist: Claire Roe, Roge Antonio, Yannick Paquette

DC Comics

062 Batgirl Vol 1: Beyond Burnside

I don't know anything about new Batgirl writer Hope Larson, but I was expecting to not like this volume as much as the previous run.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe I was setting the bar low in case DC hired some hack to write Batgirl.  After reading this, I still don't know anything about Hope Larson, but I do look forward to more Batgirl from her.  I don't believe she's ever written comics before.  I assume that based on two things.  1) I have never heard of her before and 2) this book feels different.  I can't quite place my finger on it, but it kind of feels like all the regular superhero comic conventions were stripped away from it.  The story is kind of simple, kind of quiet, but very enjoyable.  It's a fun story.  If I had one major gripe about it, it's that there were too many coincidental things in the story.  Things were just too set up to not notice, whether it's her trainer's former home, her hostel roommate and where some of the bad guys learned to fight.  It's all just a little too convenient.  But it was still fun and I'm willing to overlook that.

The art kept pace with the style set out in the last run of Batgirl.  It's a little rougher, but still very Batgirl.

Batgirl Vol 1: Beyond Burnside

Writer: Hope Larson

Artist: Rafael Albuquerque

DC Comics

025 Batgirl Vol 3: Point Blank

The Batgirl series starring Cassandra Cain is a series I never read before.  I'm not exactly sure why.  I'm guessing it was because Batgirl FINALLY got her own book, but she wasn't Barbara Gordon.  It might also be because I wasn't reading any of the Batman books at the time.  A little of both, probably.  But the good thing about living in the age of collected editions is I now have my chance to see what I've been missing.  And I really did miss this.  I find that I actually like Cassandra as Batgirl.  She's nothing at all like Barbara Gordon (who is a supporting character here) and dances to the beat of her own drum.  I love the tone of the book.  Cassandra started off not speaking at all, but has slowly started building a limited vocabulary.  It's really interesting to watch the stories develop from her mostly mute perspective.  She's all movement, all action.  Little speaking, no thinking.  Just instinct.  It's fun watching her relationship with Stephanie Brown develop.  Cassandra has no societal norms and seeing her confused and confounded by some things is really refreshing.

The art suits the book so well.  I don't know if Damion Scott continues on beyond this volume, but I can hope.  And Kelley Puckett seems to have a firm grip on who Cassandra is.  As grim and gritty as Cassandra is supposed to be, there's a lot of joy and light in this series.  It's a delicate balance, but it works.

Batgirl Vol 3: Point Blank

Writer: Kelley Puckett, Chuck Dixon, Scott Peterson

Artist: Damion Scott, Vincent Girrano, Guiseppe Camuncoli, Robert Campanella, Jesse Delperdang, Klaus Janson, Wade von Grawbadger, Cameron Stewart

DC Comics

022 Batgirl: A Celebration of 50 Years

DC has published a whole line of these Celebration books.  From what I understand, this is the last one, at least for a while.  And what a note for them to finish this up on.  Batgirl: A Celebration of 50 Years should be the gold standard on how to assemble one of these books.  In it's limited space (less than 400 pages), it manages to cover the true spirit of Batgirl.  While it's the Barbara Gordon Batgirl who graces the cover and is the best known Batgirl, there have been others and they are all represented here.  The book starts off with a Betty Kane Bat-Girl story before devoting the most space to Barbara Gordon.  It also covers Helena Bertinelli's very short run as Batgirl as well as Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown before returning to Barbara Gordon.

The one thing I found odd about this collection is the placement of a story from Batgirl: Year One.  It's the second story in the Barbara Gordon section.  While the stories presented are in chronological order of when they happened, I would have preferred this story to show up at the end of Barbara's section, not the beginning of it.  But that's a minor nitpick.

I love that they've included the story of Barbara running for Congress (and winning!) as well as a story from Batman Family.  I'm still holding out hope that DC will reprint Batman Family in some shape someday.

At work during my lunch breaks, I'm reading a volume of Batgirl featuring Cassandra Cain, so expect a post about that shortly.  I enjoyed the Cassandra stories in this volume.  Until I started reading the trades collecting her run, I really had no experience with the character.  Stephanie Brown never truly felt like Batgirl to me.  While I enjoyed the stories, I think I would have liked her in her Spoiler identity better.  She just felt hollow to me as Batgirl.

The one story I didn't really care much for in this volume was The Last Batgirl Story.  It was a special published back in the day.  DC was retiring Batgirl (see The Killing Joke) and issued this special as a grand send off.  Only it was awful and felt like a bad inventory story rather than a last hurrah.

This book is everything!

Batgirl: A Celebration of 50 Years

Writer: Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, Scott Beatty, Chuck Dixon, Frank Robbins, Bob Rozakis, Barbara Randall, John Ostrander, Kim Yale, Greg Rucka, Kelley Puckett, Dylan Horrocks, Bryan Q. Miller, Gail Simone, Cameron Stewart, Brendan Fletcher

Artist: Sheldon Moldoff, Charles Paris, Carmine Infantino, Sid Greene, Marcos Martin, Alvaro Lopez, Gil Kane, Don Heck, Irv Novick, Vince Colletta, Trevor von Eeden, Rodin Rodriguez, Barry Kitson, Bruce Patterson, Brian Stelfreeze, Karl Story, Greg Land, Drew Geraci, Mike Deodato, Sean Parsons, Damion Scott, Robert Campanella, Rick Leonardi, Jesse Delperdang, Tim Levins, Lee Garbett, Don Davis, Aaron Sowd, Trevor Scott, Pere Perez, Ed Benes, Babs Tarr

DC Comics