Written by Mairghread Scott
Illustrated by Paul Pelletier
Published by DC Comics
This is the finale of the storyline “The Art of the Crime.”
In it, Barbara knows that her father, Commissioner Gordon is in grave danger. Barbara races to save him. She goes undercover in a Gala where her father is. Yet, the criminal she is looking for can be anywhere. He might even just be right under her nose.
Scott writes a better ending with this issue than I expected. The last few comics were such a bore that I started to turn off. Barbara thinks she sees the villain and pulls the fire alarm.
She then suits up as Batgirl to face her oppressor! Things are starting to get exciting!
And then we get a muddy and weird kind of fight. There was just too much going on. The villain is tech based and the pacing of the first few pages just come to a screeching halt. Pelletier doesn’t do much to help matters as his panel layouts are unimaginable and just plain boring. The creative team just doesn’t work well together at all.
The fight just suddenly ends too. It resolved itself too quickly. You don’t even care what happens. At the end of the issue, we have a scene with Barbara and her father in a hospital that doesn’t add up to much.
The cliffhanger is actually the most interesting part of the book. Hopefully there is a good follow through although I’m not too confident.
This could be a better book. The characters are all there in place to make it great. It’s just not at the moment. This issue is another disappointment overall.
RATING: C-
