'Batgirl, Volume 4: Wanted' chronicles Batgirl/Barbara Gordon's fallout from 'Volume 3'.
There is still much suffering - and psychotic villains - to go.
There is no question that Batgirl's life is hell. It turns out there is such a thing as going past the breaking point. The hell road paved with good intentions is dark and covered in sharp, bloody spikes.
She is barely hanging in there, and dealing with everything going on.
But she is a hero.
She is a survivor.
She will never give up fighting the good fight.
Highlights and lowlights include:
Shauna Belzer, the female Ventriloquist, who is... absolutely @&^!ing terrifying; Babs's mediocre romance with Ricky Gutierrez, and his criminal, drug dealer brother drama; Babs's father, Commissioner Jim Gordon, who is out to arrest Batgirl for murder (why not just have him irrefutably know that Batgirl is his daughter, I can't guess); Babs's queer WOC roommate Alysia getting sidelined in favour of heteronormality (why can't she know Babs's hero identity yet?); me realising I no longer care for Knightfall/Charise Carnes (where has she been in the previous volume?); a great two-page scene where Barbara stands up to a couple of street harassers; to go along with the pitting-gangs-against-each-other plot, there are villains who are callbacks to the first and second volumes; and a fantastic final issue, 'Homestead', aka 'The Zero Hour', which is a prequel story of a younger, pre-Batgirl Barbara, during a flash flood and storm emergency, where she is alone and trying to protect her brother. Dangers from Mother Nature and human betrayal are all around her. It is like an Exodus story. It shows she was always meant to be a hero.
Selfless, brave, smart, resourceful, resilient, determined, and compassionate - that is Barbara Gordon.
The artwork continues to be superb. 10/10 perfection.
I'm still waiting for Batgirl to have a victory on her own; one that is a lasting victory, and means something in the grand schemes of things.
Let her have something! And some happiness!
I'm nonetheless enjoying these dark, sombre, clever, hard-hitting, heartbreaking, energising, and marginally nihilistic 'Batgirl' comics. I shall wait on the fifth and final volume of Simone's New 52 'Batgirl' series.
'I had to know that I not only could win, but that I deserved to win.'
'I admit it. It's been a bad time, and it got the better of me.
When all of a sudden, there it is. The reason I'm here in the first place.
That thing I thought I'd lost.
Hope, Barbara.
Hope.'
My review of 'Batgirl, Vol. 1: The Darkest Reflection' can be read here.
My review of 'Batgirl, Volume 2: Knightfall Descends' can be read here.
My review of 'Batgirl, Volume 3: Death of the Family' can be read here.
Final Score: 3.5/5
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