Bat Attitude

Gotham Girls #5
February 2003

A satisfying conclusion to Gotham Girls shifts the focus back on Batgirl. Babs as the star gets all the good scenes and all the good lines. Her experience allows for the teamwork between she and Renee Montoya. Her intelligence and experience prepares her for Catwoman's death defying gymnastics, and her skill as a fighting artist makes her a match for all three villains.The action in this final chapter is much more believable than the overly slapstick antics in Harley's chapter. Yes, I know. What else can you expect from Harley Quinn? However, the Batman stories and therefore the Batgirl stories take place in a world where physics exerts force. It's not the Looney Tunes cosmos where the laws of nature only occasionally pay a visit.When Batgirl strikes, Harley is shown to go down and clutch at her stomach. Likewise, Catwoman's kicks injure Batgirl. You know she is going to be bruised tomorrow. The characters do not snap back to their feet. Taken in consideration with the slapstick issue, you can also see the consequences that are being displayed as an example of the fatigue felt by everybody, except maybe Ivy, during this crazy night.Layouts by Rich Burchett somebody who has Dark Deco corpuscles swimming along in his bloodstream make a slight difference but does not really change the attitude or continuity of the artwork. The artwork in this final chapter is a little less frenetic and a little subtler, but that's really the only difference I can see.Jennifer Graves has done a fine job with the series as has Paul Storrie, and it could not have been easy to a) find a means to bring all the women of Batman's animated world together as well as b) make the story coherent as well as more meaningful than one may expect. Much has been implied and inferred in Harley's and Ivy's relationship both in the series and the comic book spin-offs. Ivy's betrayal of Harley here while making perfect sense still is hurtful, but it's this type of character-driven moment that takes you by surprise and makes the book different than the empty dross in the so called original Universe. Batgirl also comes out of the series a little more haggard than usual. She's been beaten up, run ragged and forced to question, without angst thank Rao, why she puts on a mask to fight crime every night. She sees her similarities and differences to the much meaner Selina Kyle. These little nuggets of thought are simply unexpected but welcome. It's the kind of writing that used to be so easy to find but now is a rare treat.