I'll continue to call them "Forbidden Work Dates,"
Now class in today’s lesson we’re going to be talking about the serious topic of ‘stalkers’.
Now I want all of you who’ve had a stalker to raise your hands. Good. Now all of you who’ve been a stalker raise your hands. Wow…. I was not expecting that many hands….. Feeling a bit uncomfortable now. Well anyway, there are many different kinds of stalkers, from facebook ones to the common garden camping with telescopic lenses camera variety. But then we have the uncommon “dressed as a superhero” variety which stalks the caped and costume heroes of our streets. One such individual is Clancy Johnson who goes around the streets of Gotham as “The Grey Ghost” stalking the young Batgirl, Stephanie Brown, despite the fact that I called dibs on her….S#!T! UMMMM I mean umm, umm, umm! Oh look Batgirl #19. Let’s all take a look at it (and hopefully forget that little slip of my tongue).
We open to the syrupy goodness that is breakfast waffles with Stephanie’s face reflected in the sweet syrupy pool as she starts going over random information of order and chaos (as well as
the beginning of the contra code) as her mother reads a news article about a recent bank break in. At the crime scene, Gotham Bank and Trust branch 19, we see detective Gage looking over the crime scene as a paperclip folded into the shape of a bat hits his shoulder. Gage asks everyone to leave, and Stephanie drops out of her hiding place. Gage shows Stephanie the photos taken at the break in, showing that the vault doors were blown open by a speedster, the one who rescued the reapers at the end of issue #16. Gage then shows Stephanie the strange abnormality with all the break-ins, that the speedster only takes a small amount of the money and leaves the majority in the vault. Meanwhile outside the bank, listening in on the private conversation of the bubbly-crusader and detective Gage is C Johnson. Will Stephanie be able to catch the speedster, and with Oracle out of the scene how will she do it? Well there’s only one way to find out, pick up Batgirl #19.
The writing brilliance which is Bryan Q Miller has yet to disappoint with his brilliant blend of action
and humour in a series which could easily have been a dark, brooding one as the legacy of the “bat” title has done before. He returns us to the plot which appeared in issue #16, after two fantastic stand alone issues, but in a way which doesn’t require picking up that issue. Miller's characterisation of Stephanie as a bubbly character (to which I now bestow her with name of the bubbly-crusader) still plays well for the story, advancing it in a way that doesn’t feel forced or dull. The return of the Grey Ghost adds some more situational humour to the series, and the introduction of Slipstream and the reapers increases the size of Stephanie’s rouges gallery without having to use villains from another hero’s rouges list. The story itself still has some holes that need filling, but it’s likely that they’ll be filled in next month’s issue. As you open the issue and read the creative teams names and responsibilities you’ll notice that Dustin Nguyen who’s usually responsible for the art inside the book is only credited for the cover this month, this is most likely due to his work on other series this month, but despite this Ramon Bachs art is still
great and befitting Millers writing style and not adding to much detail to the characters appearance, but in some cases leaving a bit to much detail out, leaving us with what just appear to be coloured outlines in some small panels. Guy Majors colouring of the issue is great, utilizing bright colours that really represent the bubbly nature of the character, story and series and going against the usual portrayal of Gotham as a dark dingy city of black, greys and browns. So good work.
To conclude I award Batgirl #19 a 4/5. The issue is fun, exciting and easy to read with no real complications or complaints. Fans of the Stephanie Batgirl series would like the issue as we finally see a development on her rogues gallery. New readers will be able to pick up and read the issue without any hassle as the necessary information that you need on the issue such as who the speedster is, is briefly explained, so there’s no real need to pick up a back issue except just to read some great and fun stories. So my final verdict to batgirl #19 is:-
4/5.