Batgirls #18 // Review
There’s a sniper on the loose in Gotham City. A note has been given to the police that makes the situation perfectly clear: either they bring three prominent vigilantes to justice, or more people will die. Babs, Steph, and Cass aren’t about to turn in their cowls. They have a killer to catch in Batgirls #18. Writers Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad begin the conclusion to their series with a very satisfying issue brought to the page by artist Robbi Rodriguez and colorist Rico Renzi. Conrad and Cloonan manage a very well-rounded action drama that leads quite appealingly to the final issue of the series next month.
The Batgirls have to lay low while the pressure is on. The police commissioner is under tremendous pressure to bring in the Batgirls. The team doesn’t want to make it any harder for them than it already is. So if they’re going to fight crime, they’re going to have to do so as shadows and phantoms working around the edges of everything. It’s okay. It’s what they’re good at. They are Batgirls, after all. Babs has arranged a deep-fake to make it look like the Batgirls have turned themselves in. Public reaction to the news could be problematic, though: the Batgirls are loved in Gotham City.
Cloonan and Conrad once again find a way to make crime fighting feel fresh and new with the familiar bat motif, which is quite an accomplishment given the fact that it’s been going on for the better part of a century now. The threat on the Batgirls plays with their public image in a way that conjures deep conflict, which adds a great deal of depth to the dramatic tension of a sniper on the loose in one of the most volatile cities in any universe. Cloonan and Conrad also deliver an appealing and witty rapport between the three leads.
Rodriguez’s heavy inks make for deeply expressive action that shoots out of the shadows. The heavy shadow work lends a powerful resonance to dramatic moments. Rodriguez frames action in a way that provides a stylish sense of motion. Early on, the three Batgirls are leaving a crime scene with a few words for a GCPD detective. The framing of the motion on that exit offers a gracefully slick look at one of the best teams to emerge on the comics page in the past few years. Once again, Renzi defines the color palette of the Batgirls with deep blues and purples, which assert themselves gorgeously in and around all the heavy black of Rodriguez’s inks.
Only one issue left. Conrad and Cloonan have accomplished quite a lot in less than two years with the series. It’s just too bad it has to end at only 19. The creative team has done an exemplary job of taking a tired, old setting and breathing new life into it for a couple of years. With any luck, there will be a future for the three Batgirls somewhere down the line. As for now--there’s one more issue in June.
