Batgirl

A very enjoyable read, this definitely contributed more then a few things to my ideas on feminism and comic strips which was very fun. I had never read a Gail Simone comic before, and she certainly lived up to everything my husband had been telling me.

Tone wise I thought this story really broke the mold for me as far as feminist friendly comics go. After reading Lumberjanes, Bloodspell and Ms Marvel I was starting to wonder if there were any ladies writing comics in the darker grittier vain. I mean I do appreciate things going a bit lighter after everything going so grim and depressing, but I definitely felt like something was missing.

Opening up new 52 Bat Girl I was prepared for disappointment. Instead i found myself pulled into the world of an inspiring strong female character! I loved how Gail Simone didn't let her past as Oracle disappear but instead used it to inform who Barbara Gordan is today.

Bat Girl is certainly not at her peak in this comic. Out of the game for so long she's struggling to keep up with some very athletic villains. But this only serves to make her look stronger. On top of that we get to see her flirt with more then one guy, show agency, talk about past crushes and work through her own feelings without a hint of slut shaming or womanly feelings are bad nonsense. She's a grown ass woman! And, unlike in new 52 birds of prey, all the guys respect that and none of them kiss her randomly!

All that said, I certainly still had some issues with this comic. Namely the art. This is a perfect example of the difference between books with artist writer teams and those without. Sometimes there is a disconnect - sometimes small, sometimes large. This time it was pretty wide.

I will start out by saying that for the most part the style of art in this comic was rather skilled. Up until the last issue, where everything started feeling rushed, every panel was pretty consistent. The pages have a variety of layouts and the frames are pretty dynamic. I believe this is a pretty standard style for the new 52.

But! And that is a pretty big but. This particular style encapsulates most of the issues people like myself have with super hero comics today. The style is too f'ing sexualized. Not that sexual things are necessarily all bad, but with a character like Barbara Gorden it quickly becomes inappropriate. Especially when you consider the treatment of men in the same comic book.

While it is just as rough for men to have overly muscled men to look at as it is for me to look at supermodel ladies, that actually is not the issue at hand. To put it simply, muscles on men = actor, tight asses and perky boobs on a lady = object to be acted upon (to use not use so called swear words). I also would like to point out that I only saw Batman's crotch once, whereas Bat Girl's goodies kept flying in my face. Poses of characters, as well as their placement in the frame is a pretty conscious choice on the part of the artist.

But going back to the art style itself. Everything about it is a set up for crotch/ass/boob shots. If we didn't have this consistent detail and unnatural glowing shininess all the characters wouldn't look like their clothes were barely painted on! I'm not saying it's always horrible, some comics that use this style more evenhandedly - because it's mostly just an issue because it's one sided. But it is prone to these sorts of problems so I felt like ranting.

And winding down now, I also felt like this sexualization was inappropriate because of who Barbara Gorden is as a character. I haven't read a lot of her solo stuff, but I have read quite a few Birds of Prey. One of the things you learn quickly is that sexuality is one of the things that really differentiate Bat Girl and Black Canary is how sexual they dress, and this felt like a visual betrayal of Barbara Gorden as a person.