Another re-read as I'm presently on a Nightwing/Oracle kick because of the Convergence release. I went back to the retconned beginning of these two and their burgeoning relationship.

This one picks up a few years after Year One: Robin, with Babara trying to find her way. I appreciate how it's about the same size of writing, but it was broken into 9 issues (more gorgeous cover-art if admittedly costs more all across the board to the customer).

I do love this book so much. Barbara comes at this life from a completely different place, not mired in despair and death, and she's all pro-female power which is glorious to see. I loved all of it. I love the burgeoning romance, and the ups and downs of the bat family, and the importance of Jim & Gotham's cops. All around a glorious read. ( )

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

I had wanted to really like Robin: Year One from (mostly) the same creative team as this story, but found it a bit disappointing. Not terrible, but I didn't feel like it really gave very much insight into Robin. So it was with a little apprehension that I approached Batgirl: Year One-- but that needn't have been the case, as Batgirl: Year One is excellent. The story covers the first few months of Batgirl's career, filling in with the occasional flashbacks to Barbara Gordon's pre-crimefighting life. Barbara wants to enroll in the police academy, but is too short, and beside, her father is entirely against letting her be in the same line of work as him. Deciding to tweak him by turning up at a costume benefit gala in a homemade Batgirl costume, she ends up accidentally becoming a crimefighter when the Killer Moth turns up, and then decides to run with it.

Batgirl: Year One gives us a succession of adventures as she "proves" herself to Batman. (Robin is, of course, smitten from the beginning. I think Barbara is 16 and Robin 14 during this time?) Along the way, we also see the miserable career of the Killer Moth (who no one takes seriously), Barbara teams up with Black Canary for the first time (but certainly not the last!), and Batgirl and Robin take down the Condiment King (yes!). The book is just fun and vibrant: the main tension with Batman comes from the fact that Barbara doesn't have a "reason" to fight crime. Bruce and Dick both lost their parents to crime, but Barbara just wants to help as best she can, and this turns out to be enough.

Everything conspires to make this book work: the charming narration by Barbara, the banter between the characters (like in Snow, I can totally hear Kevin Conroy saying all of Batman's dialogue), Javier Rodriguez's vibrant colors, and most of all, the expressive artwork of Marcos Martin and Alvaro Lopez. Their art is energetic and dynamic, their storytelling is rock-solid, and they just bring the whole book to life. The book was a joy to read from start to finish. I'm not saying every superhero comic should be this way, but it wouldn't hurt if more of them were!

Batman "Year One" Stories: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence »

Scott Beatty doesn't do the profession of librarianship any favors with this book, setting up Batgirl's day job as the very thing she wants so badly to escape she's willing to risk her life in daredevilry at night. But I came around, because Barbara Gordon is such a winningly progressive female character and because even she begrudgingly comes to see how her skills as a librarian help make her a vigilante-detective on a par with Batman himself. There are still times when she comes off as too "girlishly naive," as though Beatty is never quite sure how to maintain a strong female character, but I forgive it because the story is good all the way to the end, one of the rare (for me) satisfying conclusions to a hero graphic novel. ( )

This is actually a pretty neat little backstory/origin story on Batgirl's beginnings. And, shesh, people talk about Gail Simone and how much she does for women in comics, but this comic here really seemed to be digging deep into the "women are stronger than male chavinist pigs think".

I was somewhat reluctant to continue my reading of Batgirl after reading the most recent Gail Simone volume. Glad I did. Not five star quality stuff, but still enjoyable. ( )

I just have to start off with one thing. Boo on DC for retconning Barbara as something other than a librarian. C'mon now, y'all had to take that away from us Librarians too? Least you didn't turn her blonde or something in this TPB.

It's another restart (although this one came way before the current New 52 restart, and then the restart of the New 52 restart as well, the early 2000s I believe) of Batgirl as they seem to do every few years with all the characters (or at least that's how it feels to me).

Her journey towards becoming Batigirl (a name that she seems resigned to in this TPB) is less about hero worship of Batman and more about being Batgirl in spite of Batman. Much more feminist sorts of view points for sure. It was an okay TPB, but, as I said, I did miss some of the old canon too. ( )