Batgirl #23 // Review
The bad news is that things are getting worse in Gotham City. The good news is that Batman is able to get the world out to all of the Bat Family about precisely what it is that they’re all up against. The worst news of all? Things are changing. Electrical will burn out fast. Comms aren’t going to work for long. In very short order, they’ll all be on their own in Batgirl #23. Writer Tate Brombal continues the Bad Seeds crossover event with artist Takeshi Miyazawa and colorist Mike Spicer. Brombal finds a distinctive way of working through the crossover event without compromising a sharp focus on Batgirl in another satisfying issue.
Batgirl just saw a giant plant pick-up a couple of cars as it shot=up several stories in height. In the midst of it all, she gets a video conferencing message from Batman on her smartphone. He’s telling her and everyone else in his network that Gotham City is under attack. Cass is very task-oriented. She needs to know how best to help. Batman is the one at the center of it all. She needs a mission. She needs to know what it is that she needs to do...but the comms have already gone dead and now she and her friends are completely in the dark as to what to do...
Brombal does expecting the impressive job of making it all come together. We get a strikingly vivid looking at Batgirl and what it is that she's going through at this particular moment. In the past, she's been more independent. But with things being what they are, Brombal manages to make her seem both more powerful and confident and at the same time also in need of direction. It's a delicate balance, psychologically to deliver for Batgirl, but Brombal renders the complexity with admirable sophistication.
Miyazawa has a careful attention to detail. There's a great deal of it in around the edges of every panel. However, the artist knows when to take a step back in a while, the color and the reader to do work on a rendering the full visuals of the adventure. Through it all, Batgirl looks strikingly graceful. The artists also shows a great deal of emotional sophistication on the face of the title character in spite of the fact that her mask basically covering everything on her face. Delicately nuanced renderings of her posture, and the whites of her eyes continues to develop a very intricate emotional made for the title character.
It's a bit early to tell, however, this Bad Seeds crossover event appears to be one of the better integrated in articulated crossover events in recent history. Everything seems to be mapped out and blown out with a great degree of style and integration and articulation. Very impressive stuff. Of course, there's still a lot of crossover yet to be done as the story enters a crucial point in the second week. Time will tell.
