Graphic Novel Reviews: Batgirl 011

The Story

Batgirl fights off Knightfall's goons, using her limited resources. When things start to go badly for her, Detective McKenna comes in and saves her. The detective explains Knightfall, Charise Carnes's story, how her family was butchered with her the only survivor. She was sent to Arkham even though evidence hinted at her being the perpetrator. McKenna reveals to Batgirl that someone in the Bat Family was a mole, ending the chapter with a shot of Batwoman.

The Review
As something of a connoisseur of fights, I have to say I liked how the first part of this issue was handled. Fights aren't really embellished much in american comics, but for what it was I really enjoyed it. Limiting Barbara's available weapons helped give the situation a sense of danger, and Barbara's narration of what each batarang does added a sense of progression to the fight.

The rest of the issue was decent. It was mostly backstory, but it was executed in a way that didn't bore me. So overall I have to say issue eleven is a solid installment. Not sure how I feel about Knightfall's team. Bleak Michael is...odd, and Katharsis is kind of boring. I do like Bonebreaker, even though a strong woman isn't unusual, with the exception of She-Hulk we don't normally see them as bulky as they'd have to be to be that strong. So it's a nice touch.

I'm a little confused by the Alyssa and James scene. I feel like I missed something. Which I suppose is just the danger of monthly installments. I'll have to skim previous issues to see what I missed. But I like the setup we're getting here. I imagine that James will be a fairly serious threat later on, in a much more mundane way than meta-humans. And it's about time I say, Batgirl needs more mundane villains, not more of the meta-human foes she's been facing.

Batgirl is one of the few bat-books that actually focuses on detective work. Sort of. Batgirl herself relies heavily on her intelligence and observation skills. The scene where she figures out something is wrong with McKenna is a little confusing, I'm not sure what the purpose of her being detectivy was there, but it helps establish that Batgirl is in fact a detective, something I feel the other bat-books could have some more of. Now all we need is for Batgirl to face someone other than a meta-human and we'd be in business.