Wonderful art, fun characters, interesting story, and not just boobs all over the place. Barb is smart, strong, and fierce. ( )

Babs is my hero

I read this in single issues so this date is not accurate at all (which bugs me, but I wanted to log that I'd read it this year). ( )

I really wanted to like this one. I love the updates to Batgirl's costume, I love the social media aspect to the story, and I appreciated the diversity of the characters. But I found this to be difficult to follow without having read past Batgirl-related comics -- there were so many references to past events as well as characters that weren't fully introduced in this volume. It's a cool concept and a great read for superhero-comics fans, especially teen girls, but it's not a great read for those just starting out in the world of graphic novels or superhero comics.

Note: I received a digital ARC through NetGalley. ( )

There aren't a lot of New 52 books that still felt fresh/exciting after the 4th or 5th collection, but the quasi-relaunch that was done for Batgirl is nothing short of extraordinary. I couldn't tell you much about pre-Tarr/Stewart Batgirl other than it seemed like Gail Simone was doing her best to make sense of the snarled history the Batman books now had, and they mostly seemed to be house-style-type stuff, but this is a breath of fresh air in the best way possible. Babs Tarr is on another plane from most of the artists working for DC - every character seems to be full of life and energy, and the action scenes feel genuinely exciting. I really enjoyed Cameron Stewart's work on Sin Titulo, and he's in pretty great form here, playing nicely to Tarr's strengths with fast, exciting action combined with really nice character work amongst Barbara and her circle of friends. I think he stumbles a little bit with the social-media angle of some of the plots (which is a shame, because it seems like there could be something interesting to be said there), but that's forgiven in light of the rest of the work here. (The development of Burnside as the Brooklyn/San Francisco mashup "just over the bridge" from the rest of Gotham is really great as well, and has a lot of really nice touches like Starbucks-fill-in "Chiroptera" - with a very familiar logo.) Finally, I just want to touch on Maris Wicks's work as the colorist here, which is what really ties the whole thing together - this would not be the same book without the vibrant, lush choices made by Wicks. This just looks like nothing else DC is putting out (that I've read at least). Really excellent, and (I hope) destined to stand the test of time. ( )