Written by Mairghread Scott
Illustrated by Elena Casagrande
and Scott Godlewski
Published by DC Comics
This is a fairly standard comic book with a fairly standard story that doesn’t really have much in the way of excitement. The problem is that the writing is so dull that you wish you were reading something else. I wish there was more I can say but sadly, I was pretty bored.
The beginning of the book has Barbara going into Blackgate Prison wondering why they decided to let her crazy brother James out.
The doctor there explains that he is part of a regimented recovery program and that James is just fine. We all know that it is not the case and that James is a vicious killer. It’s a pretty cliched opening to be perfectly frank.
From there, it’s Election Night and things are coming to a boiling point. Batgirl is suiting up for trouble and it’s time for the climax of this storyline.
Batgirl is trying to found out any information she can about James and to see if there’s any assassination attempts that are going to happen.
And it’s all done by the numbers, sadly. It also has a very generic feel to it all. Barbara eventually has a weird confrontation with her father, Commissioner Gordon who is trying to make excuses for his psychopathic son for some reason. It rang as false to me and a bit out of character. We plod around even more from there.
Eventually, Barbara confronts James. And it seems like James may or may not be better. The scene is loud is there’s a lot of passionate yelling. Then, the issue ends with a strange twist and makes a nod towards to Batman Who Laughs.
So this fell flat for me. The good news is that the art is much, much improved for this book than last issue. Elena Casagrande especially is fantastic and Scott Godlewski has a couple of pages in this issue that he does great on. If we can get a good story to match the artwork, it would be a top book for sure.
RATING: C
