Batgirl #42 - A Review

The good news for Batgirl is that the new Batman - who is secretly her father, Jim Gordon - is trying to dodge his orders to bring in the rest of Gotham City's vigilantes. The bad news is that he's also after Livewire - an electricity manipulating metahuman who can easily overcome the defenses of his power armor.  Can Batgirl help him ground Livewire without blowing Batman's cover or her own secret identity?!

I was skeptical about the idea of Jim Gordon as a police-backed Batman... and I still am. But the script for this issue, by Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart, makes the idea work by playing off the sheer absurdity of Barbara's position in having to help her father while not revealing herself. And it's nice to see Livewire - a favorite from the Batman/Superman Animated Series - being given new life and an update from her shock-jock DJ origins as a YouTube sensation.


The artwork for this issue is, in a word, phenomenal. This may be Babs Tarr's best issue yet, which is saying a lot. There's a great sense of motion in this issue and the battles between Batgirl and Livewire are particularly well blocked. And the colors by Serge Lapointe are incredibly vivid and well-chosen.