Thursday, September 7, 2023

Batgirl Annual #1

I'm not going to lie. I'm not even going to try to make excuses. I bought this issue for 1 reason: Supergirl! I don't really care about Batgirl. Well, the Rebirth version that is. They never should have retconned or rebooted Barbara Gordon into no longer being confined to a wheelchair thanks to a bullet to the spine at the hands of the Joker. Barbara Gordon making the most out of tragedy as the Oracle was powerful storytelling. De-aging Babs and putting her back in the cowl due to the miracle of medical technology just feels like bad fan fiction. 

This story sees Batgirl meeting Supergirl for the first time. Supergirl has been receiving psychic messages from someone in custody at the DEO. Normally, the Maid of Might steers clear of the DEO as they look at her as an illegal alien and would chomp at the bit to get her in their grubby little hands for an alien autopsy. But whomever is sending these messages to Supergirl is sending them in Kryptonian and if the sender is another refugee from her native planet, Kara Zoe-El will take any risk to save them. 

As the DEO's security systems are products of Wayne Technology, Supergirl needs a member of the Bat-Family to unravel them. Enter Batgirl, as Supergirl feels that using Batman would result in a massive butting of heads. Witness as a new version of the best BFFs in the DC Comics universe join forces for the very first time. 

Speaking of BFFs, in the backup feature, it's the one-year anniversary of the friendship of Barbara Gordon and Alysia Yeoh. Being Batgirl has caused Barbara to issue more than her fair share of rain checks. An old foe of Batgirl's named Riot Black has been forcing some of Gotham's most brilliant experts in the field of cybernetics to perform upgrades to his brain which will give the foe the ability to tap into any computer. When Riot Black attacks again on the night of Barbara and Alysia's big night out on the town, it looks like Ms. Gordon will have to postpone again. That is until Alysia insists on going wherever Babs is going. Now Barbara must find a way to save the day while keeping her Batgirl secret identity and best-friendship both intact!

Both stories were enjoyable. The Supergirl team-up ends with one of those blurbs that make you have to buy a certain issue of her indy title to get the rest of the story. Good thing I have all of those issues. Otherwise, I'd be massively pissed. This same story tells you to get another issue of Batgirl to see the heroine take on the Penguin isn't so infuriating as for one, it's not really tied into this story from what I can tell. Plus, I don't really care to follow up on the Rebirth Batgirl. I've read a few issues and I just wasn't hugely sold on it. 

The second story was good. But that Alysia girl is annoying. If she was my BFF, I'd try to end that friendship quick. I don't know why, but I just feel like this person is a massive energy vampire or something. I can't put my finger on it. Only deep down, I feel like Barbara's pal just isn't genuine. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

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