Batgirl 21 continues our heroine’s battle against the Reapers. This time out, she goes toe-to-toe with the latest villain to take a crack at the title, Melody (think Shriek from Batman Beyond with a steampunk edge). Melody uses sound waves to to battle our favorite Bat-Family femme fatale. Last month it was a speedster, this month a sound manipulator. What’s next? Battling Supergirl?
This month’s issue was really interesting with a couple of storylines, one of them obviously Batgirl’s battle with Melody. The other one is Proxy’s little visitor, the ghost, or perhaps even hallucination of her deceased brother Marvin.
Proxy has her own journey ahead of her now. She needs to find a way to “get right” and be the best hero she can be, if that’s what she really wants. Her path to enlightenment is made possible by the generous folks at Batman Incorporated.
So Steph has lost another computer aided partner. Now, she is really on her own, unless you count her crazy stalker playing Grey Ghost. That’s right even superheroines have stalkers, and this one is all about fighting the good fight, but not for Gotham. I find it interesting Stephanie Brown of all people is able to tell someone not to be a hero. Of course, if she had listened to Tim Drake, Bruce Wayne and the other voices of disbelief; she would have stopped when she was Spoiler.
I have really been enjoying this story arc. Writer Bryan Q. Miller has Stephanie showing a whole next level of tactical thinking. She’s not just letting the fight come to her anymore, she is looking for an opening and ending it as soon as possible. Her witty banter is still one of the highlights of this book each and every month. I reached out to author Miller on Twitter a couple of weeks ago to see if Batgirl would have any Flashpoint tie-in, and to my disappointment the answer was no. Not being included in Flashpoint isn’t the end of the world. You can look at Batgirl #22 next month as your break from the shakeup in the DCU.
I’ll leave you with one simple question when it comes to one of the best books in comics right now. If you aren’t reading Batgirl yet, why not?
