Batgirl #17: Wait, What?

Batgirl #17
Writer: Ray Fawkes
Penciller: Daniel Sampere
Inker: Vicente Cifuentes

Writer Ray Fawkes?? Where's Gail Simone!?  Oh wait, she'll be back in two issues.  Call off the internet search party.

Ok, so you got me, I went into this issue with skepticism and came out with a "decent face" (that face you make when you're pleasantly surprised by something/someone--see the latest Judge Dredd movie for plenty of examples).

First off, props to Fawkes for writing this issue from her brother's perspective.  Ballsy move.  Readers are used to hearing Batgirl's inner thoughts but....

You know, I just thought of something.  I always associate Simone with Batgirl herself.  Her run on the series is characterized by Batgirl's inner narration.  I can't help but hear Simone's voice through Batgirl.  And I don't think I'm alone in that.  Her fandom freaked out when she was unceremoniously fired and re-hired on Batgirl.  Her voice was reestablished as Batgirl's and now we have a new writer for two issues.  I don't think it's a coincidence that Fawkes has chosen to take on her brother's voice.  At one point, her brother says, "I know her so well."  The statement struck me at the time because I didn't yet know that the narrator was her brother--I was still hearing Fawkes' voice.  All of Batgirl's readers are out there, knowing that a new writer is on Batgirl, and we're all thinking, "You don't know Batgirl.  What makes you think you can write Batgirl?"  Admit it, you thought it too.

I revise my previous statement.  I'm not going to finish with a "decent face."  Fawkes just blew my mind.  I'll be reading the next issue with relish.

Oh, also, I love this first page.  Love it!

What We've Been Reading: January, 2013

Alright, I'm going to make this quick to get all caught up to what we're reading now.  Christian and I were ridiculously sick over the holidays so we've been catching up on our lives ever since then.  But that doesn't mean we stopped reading comics!  What have we been reading?  Well, let's start with Colder, because I am still so freaking blown away by the last issue that I can't stop thinking about it.  Remember that issue I picked up on a whim back in November with the creepy cover?  Yea, this one:

Creepy, right?  Well, Christian and I are IN LOVE with this comic.  It's incredibly well-written--total page-turner.  I'm not even going to describe the plot for you because you should just go read it; it's THAT good.  We just read the third issue and it's only a four-issue run, so you need to get your hands on it before it's over.





What else have I been reading...let's see.  Well, I tried out Brian Wood's Mara but it was pretty lame, to be honest.  I picked it up because I played power in high school volleyball and I thought there would be some good old volleyball talk.  He missed out on all the good lines he could have used! Volleyball players like to get low and hit balls, for example.  Boy, was I ever disappointed.  I don't think this guy has ever watched a volleyball game before and neither had the artist, for that matter.  Everyone was very stiff and posed--the volleyball matches were skimmed over, although still managing to screw up the entire concept of volleyball.  What position does Mara even play?  They're playing indoor volleyball, not beach volleyball, so there is no way there would be ONE star player who gets to call all the shots and hit the balls.  You know who really calls the shots in indoor volleyball?  The setter.  Yep, that's right, the one who DOESN'T get to hit the ball.  Anyway, I'm getting all worked up again.  Oh, but the kicker was that she uses her new-found superpowers to CHEAT at volleyball.  So frustrating!

Batgirl, Batgirl, Batgirl...what to say about Batgirl?  Well, Gail Simone is still around.  THANK GOD!  So, I am back on the bandwagon.  And it's still awesome.  That is all. Oh but wait, what is under that bloody platter lid that the Joker is holding?  And what is going on with her brother??  Is her mother dead???  Did the Joker cut something off of Batgirl????  The next two issues will be written by someone else, which is sad-making.  But then Simone will be back.  And it will be good.





We've also been reading All-New X-Men (the younger X-Men time travel to confront their older selves) and Avengers Academy (Hunger Games with superheroes)--both good, both recommended, but I'll leave those for another day.  Right now, I'm going to read issue 7 of Fables, because I'm supposed to be doing thesis work.  A graphic novel about fairy tales totally counts, right?

Gail Simone Fired Through E-mail

I just found out that Gail Simone was informed in an email from her new editor that she is no longer the writer of Batgirl.

She was fired in an email.

I am so unbelievably pissed off.

For those who haven't been reading our blog for long, Batgirl is one of the first comics I started following in the New 52.  It's also the first superhero comic I really identified with.  You can read my first blog post about her here: Tonight, I'm Batgirl.  I can't express how disappointed I am in DC's decision to remove Simone as Batgirl's writer. 

Simone has been incredibly classy about the whole mess.  You can read her response here: I am so fricking fortunate.  There has been an outpouring of support for her on Twitter.

All I have to say is that I will be taking Batgirl off of Christian's and my pull list as soon as Simone's run is over and I will be following Simone to wherever her next project takes her.

"Tonight, I'm Batgirl"

Last week, I decided that I needed to follow a superhero comic.  I had three criteria:
1) it had to be written by a woman,
2) it had to be about a female superhero,
and
3) Christian couldn't be following it already.

To qualify my criteria, it's not that there aren't good comics about women written by men and it's not that I'm trying to exclude Christian from what I'm reading.  What I wanted was a superhero comic of my very own that I could read and feel good about. 

I think part of the draw of superhero comics is having a fantasy role model to look up to and see parts of yourself in them.  They bring out the kid in us, who still thinks we're invincible and that good always gets back up, and always wins.  As a young girl and as a woman, it's really difficult to find that model in female superheroes who are drawn like sex objects, rather than athletes; women who are written like manipulative bimboes who use sex to further their own objectives, rather than scholars or free-thinkers or even just everyday women who act strong but still feel vulnerable or insecure.

It helps that Christian had read the first three issues of Gail Simone's Batgirl last year and he'd asked me to read them too.  I was reading anything he handed me at that point, mostly because I was intrigued by a world that I hadn't really experienced or discovered yet.  Sure, I'd read Sandman and Maus but I hadn't read any straight-up superhero comics.  So I gave them a try and I really liked them--there were a lot of exclaimations of, "Cool! She is so bad ass! Check out her kick!"  But then Christian stopped following it (I forget why--budgeting, I think) and I forgot about it because I wasn't buying single-issue comics yet. 

So we went to Comic Readers yesterday and I found the hardcover of Volume 1 immediately, then saw that they had Issues 1-5 bundled together.  Issue 6 was nowhere to be found, so I hemmed and hawed, and calculated the money in my account, and picked up the hardcover and put it down, and I just couldn't walk away from it.  So I have Volume 1 and Issue 7 and I'm catching up now.  I was worried that it wasn't going to be as good as I remembered it but, I have to say, IT'S BETTER.

What I love about Batgirl is her insecurity.  That sounds funny but the thing is, she went through a trauma and now she's trying to get back on her feet (no pun intended).  She's been about as vulnerable as a woman can get and she's still getting up and kicking ass.  Her insecurities don't stop her from being bad-ass; if anything, it makes her joy in kicking down bad guys even more poignant and it makes her character incredibly easy to empathize with.  Gail Simone writes Batgirl's interiory amazingly well--there have been more than a few moments when I've thought, "Wow, that's exactly what I would be thinking if I were ever jumping through a window or kicking a gun out of someone's hand."  Seriously though, I cannot praise Simone's writing enough.

I'm really impressed with the art as well--the pencils are done by Ardian Syaf.  Batgirl is always sleek and athletic, never forcibly posed (so far! keep it up!) and her kicks just make you want to fist-pump.  Seriously, how cool are these?

Also, Christian just told me last night about the woman who dressed as Batgirl at San Diego Comic Con in 2011 and went to panels, asking, basically, "Where are all the women?"  I wish I had been there.  I would have been standing up with her and cheering her on.

Here's a description of the event: http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/7985599811/panels

And an interview with "Batgirl" and her view on what went down at Comic Con 2011: http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/8130151171/bgsdccinterview

Batgirl is the perfect example of a comic that women can enjoy and share with their daughters.  If I could cos-play as anyone, it would be Batgirl, because then I could pretend, for a moment, that I'm flying high over everyone's heads, kicking down bad guys, and say, "Tonight, I'm Batgirl!"  I only hope that more comics like Batgirl start appearing on the shelves.