ALLYSON'S ATTIC


/\ /\ /\ /\ Splash Page from Green Lantern #55 Pencils Doug Mahnke /\ /\ /\

Thursday, May 19, 2011

BATGIRL: THE FLOOD includes issues 9 10 11 12 13 14 2010

Rating 4.4 out of 5

Full of action and full of fun.  It's a lighter comic then the grim and gritty Batman series but it still has it's drama.  Bryan Q. Miller gives the best dialogue for the extraordinary circumstances that he puts Batgirl Stephanie Brown into.  Stephanie Brown has become just as witty as Dick Grayson was in the Nightwing series.

The trade paperback contains three complete stories of Batgirl Stephanie Brown:
The Flood: Issues 9-12, The Calculator turns the locals into techno zombies.
Trust: Issue 13, Batgirl battles Clayface and teams up with Detective Gage.
Terror In the 3rd Dimension: Issue 14, Supergirl comes to town for a visit and they team up to fight Dracula.

Reviews of the separate story lines are below:
Batgirl #9-#12 The Flood
Writer: Bryan Q Miller, Penciller: Lee Garbett, Inker: Jonathan Glapion and Richard Friend, Colorist: Guy Major, Letterer:Travis Lanham, Cover: Stanley "Artgerm" Lau, Editors: Michael Siglain and Harvey Richards

Rating 4.5 out of 5
This story has a couple of firsts. The first appearance of Johnny C. the future Gray Ghost. Also a first  with Proxy her new I.T. person when Oracle is out of the office. Not a first..., but It also has some awesome "Oh Crap...how does she get out of that" cool moments.



Spoilers and continued review if you don't want to be spoiled skip to the review in Blue:

Calculator decides to take some revenge on Oracle.  To do that he turns Gotham citizens into techno Zombies. Anyone connected to a electronic device gets Zombiefied (cell phones, TV, web, etc) and they are instructed to capture Oracle and take out Batgirl. You think at first this is bad as Zombie schoolmates and teachers come after you, but what ever is bad could always get worse when the local hero's become under the influence. See.. this  is where the "Oh Crap" comes into play.

BATGIRL #13 Trust
 Writer: Bryan Q Miller, Art:Pere Perez,  Colorist: Guy Major, Letterer:Travis Lanham, Cover: Stanley "Artgerm" Lau, Editors: Michael Siglain and Sean Ryan
Rating 3.9 out of 5 
This is still a cool issue with some action in it. Batgirl bonds with the local Detective while capturing Clayface.

BATGIRL #14 Terror in the 3rd Dimension Review


Writer: Bryan Q Miller, Penciller: Lee Garbett, Inker: Trevor Scott
Colorist: Guy Major, Letterer:Travis Lanham, Cover: Stanley "Artgerm" Lau, Editors: Michael Siglain and Sean Ryan
Rating 4.5 out of 5

Pure FUN.  Nothing cerebral about it...but who cares. It's so Great... just to have a FUN comic.  Bryan Q Miller is a master at telling Stephenie's story.  I hope he NEVER leaves this series.  I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.  It was good laughter...I was laughing with my heroes NOT at my heroes.   This story was wrapped up in one issue, so if you don't have any of the Batgirl/Stephanie issues, you could pick this one up for a fun ride and not invest in another....but I bet you will.




Review WITH Spoilers

VAMPIRES...I love a good Vampire story...but lately you can't swing a stick without hitting one.  They've become a staple of TV.  There's Vampire Dairies, True Blood, Being Human, and the newest show, "The Gates."

THAT's just the shows that are currently produced.

In reruns, you have Buffy, Angel, Moonlight, Forever Knight, Kindred, and one that I wish to see again but haven't in a long long time, Dark Shadows.

OH... and let's not get started with what's in the Movie Theaters.
  
They seem to be just as prevalent in comics.

NOT that this is a bad thing.

BUT HOW...Oh how.... CAN you have a NEW take on the same OLD OLD OLD Story.
Whatever it is...it's been done.  Hasn't it?

NOPE....and Bryan Q Miller actually came up with something different and FUN.

You see...there's this scientist (refreshingly not crazy), who had a lab overload with his experiment. He was working on a way to generate "Hard Light" (force fields) to create a three dimensional construct that could hold an image that was projected onto it. This is not that hard of a concept for sci-fi fans. We've seen it before, on Star Trek: Voyager, with the EMH Doctor.

The lab happened to be right next door to the campus theater, where Stephanie Brown(Batgirl) and Lana Lang(Supergirl) are watching a old black and white horror film with Dracula which had been redone in 3D. The blast from the lab only lasted a second, but since film runs at 24 frames per second, this releases 24 black and white "Draculas"...Blah blah blah...who run "Amuk Amuk Amuk" in Gotham City.

Control rods can destabilize their photon matrices when done at high impact. This is Miller's .. Wah Lah ...for stake through the heart.

Now LET the 'Buffy' in all of us out and just sit back and ENJOY.

There is a two page spread of the girls staking black and white Dracula's that is pricelessly funny. One 'Dracula' had tried to get away on a Segway.

This was the best Girls night out I've read in a long time.

Because the next issues are going to have more grittier stories, Miller will be teamed up with Dustin Nguyen on pencils.  I'm looking forward to this storyline... but I hope Batgirl doesn't become too toughen.. too soon, I'm enjoying the current character



Publisher: DC Comics
Jun - Dec 2010

1 comment:

  1. I cannot wait to get this TPB. I loved all the issues and I think that Miller's Batgirl is one of the strongest Batbooks out there right now.

    I love your review on this. Your review for the first Batgirl TPB is what made me go buy it too.

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