Comics Briefly: Batgirl # 19, Birds of Prey #10, X-Men Legacy #246 (Age of X Chapter 3)

Favorite Issue this Week: X-Men Legacy #246

All books were new in stores on 3/9/11

Batgirl # 19

Writer: Bryan Q. Miller

Artist: Ramon Bachs

A decent issue, but not exceptional for this series. I'm a little sad that we're back to the plotline after such enjoyable side stories as the last two issues. I'm not sold on Steph's crush on the cop yet, but I'll hold my judgment on that for now. Also worth noting: large parts of this issue don't make much sense without the current plot of Birds of Prey and at least knowing the premise of Batman Inc, and I have mixed feelings about the way it's presented here.

Birds of Prey #10

Writer: Gail Simone

Artist: Inaki Miranda

This was almost a really good issue. The dialogue was good, the plot came together nicely, there were kick-ass moments for just about everyone. My biggest problem? The art was just awful; actually distractingly ugly. The cover is gorgeous. The internal art is not.

I'm going back and forth about how I feel about the high number of guest stars. It seems to be pulling the title further into the Batman Inc. line of books. This issue adds things I want to see more of, like Misfit and Catwoman, along with some I could happily skip, like ugly art of Batman, and just odd things, like why, in her stronghold, with only Batfamily who are privy to her secrets present does Barbara call people by their superhero names? It's just weird, and it 'sounds' wrong. Reading this issue, I realized that I'm going to be mighty disappointed if most of these extra Bats don't take themselves back to their own books pronto and leave the Birds to be their own team.

X-Men Legacy #246 (Age of X Chapter 3)

Writer: Mike Carey

Pencils: Clay Mann, Inked: Jay Leisten

This was the most fun and exciting of my issues this week. I'm enjoying the alt-world story, I love the focus on Rogue and Magneto, and the action was great. I like mini-series in general: writers can tell a defined story in a set number of issues, and then have an ending. I know that the ending of this will probably be with the characters restoring the “actual” time-line, or something similar. It's how they get there, and how they got this way in the first place, that are the big mysteries. I like the specific things that make it hard for anyone to figure out that there's a problem, like the big example: no one believes in telepaths. I really like the art; I like the little spins on the characters and their relationships. However the writers get to the end, I plan to enjoy the ride.