Comics Briefly: Batgirl #20, Birds of Prey #11, X-Men Legacy #247 (Age of X 5)

Favorite Issue this Week: Birds of Prey #11

All books were new in stores on 4/13/11


Batgirl #20
Writer: Bryan Q. Miller
Artist: Ramon Bach, Colorist: Guy Major

Overall this was a good issue, although it didn't quite wow me. Stephanie is competent as well as funny and charming, and the scene with her and Babs is cute. The fact that she has a transforming combat vehicle is...odd. I will happily admit, this book does badass-girly better than almost anything else, and the climax of this issue was awesome.


Birds of Prey #11
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Pere Perez, Colors: Nei Ruffino

It's the Huntress/Catman crossover issue! And it's almost note perfect from panel one. The very last page lost me a little, not sure why. I guess it was merely good, rather than great, but I enjoyed everything else about this. Huntress is in her element, busting ground-level thugs, rescuing hostages. Catman is his conflicted self, while Babs and Dinah are delightful in their side scene. In sum: great issue, shaky last page.

It was a slightly sour note to see a reader with constructive, friendly criticism sort of blown off on the letters page, but that's the dark side of letters pages. I think you were right on, Amy Wakano, and in this issue there was even some of what you asked about: more character moments outside of action. The people writing the responses to the letters are dumb.


X-Men Legacy #247 (Age of X Chapter 5)
Written by Mike Carey, Pencils: Clay Mann
Inks: Jay Leisten, Colors: Brian Reber

Exposition! I was just ho-hum about all the actual plot reveals in this next-to-last installment, but something about the tone was spot-on to me. The character beats were really good, and the art continues to be fantastic. Yeah, I don't know enough about some aspects of the X-men corner of Marvel to fully understand all of the revelations, but that's okay. The ads in the back of the book for upcoming issues of ongoing series make me suspect I'm going to be spending a bit more time there after Age of X is done.


Also Considered:

Flash #10
Written by Geoff Johns; Art by Francis Manapul

I read this (and the issue before) in preparation for Flashpoint, the upcoming event. It was a pretty solid little book: enjoyable, well plotted, good character beats. The double/triple use of the word Keystone was nice, and I tittered when it was revealed that alt-universe Flash has a Cosmic Motorcycle.