Book: Batgirl volume #3: The Lesson written by Bryan Q. Miller with illustrations by Dustin Nguyen, Derek Fridolfs, Pere Perez and Ramon F. Bachs (Issues #15-24)
Rating: 5 stars
Review:
I did not read the trade edition, I read the single issues #15-24. These were the last issues of Stephanie Brown's run as Batgirl before the reboot.
This was fantastic. College student by day and crime fighter by night, Steph had a full load going. Including trying to stop a mysterious team called the Reapers.
In the first two issues (#15-16), Batgirl had to deal with being accused of murdering a college student. It all happened while she was trying to stop a mysterious group from attacking two students on campus one night. They ended up getting away thanks to her unwanted new sidekick the new Grey Ghost (Clancy Johnson). But along the way she got additional help from Oracle (Barbara Gordon), Proxy (Wendy Harris) and Detective Nick Gage to try to capture the real villains and clear her name. Oh, I absolutely loved Steph's graph of the History of Batman that opens up issue #15. It's so funny.
Issue #17, had Batgirl teaming up with her "favorite" Robin (Damian Wayne) as they try to figure out who is behind the recent abduction of children. This issue has Damian going undercover as a "regular" little kid on a school field trip and he hung out with Batgirl's biggest fan Nell. While in issue #18, Batgirl teamed up with Klarion the Witch-Boy for a Valentine's Day issue to try to find Klarion's heartbroken cat Teekl and stop him from attacking more people.
Issues #19-21, Batgirl and her unwanted sidekick the Grey Ghost were on the trail of the Reapers. Leading to Steph devising a rather ingenious plan to stop one of the members. She was also surprised by having her Batgirl lair updated by a certain Cape Crusader which included a new car. The side story in these issues focused on Wendy and her striving to get her life back together. Issue #21 also marked her last appearance in the series.
In issue #22, Steph went on a fun little adventure in London for a Batman Inc. team up with Squire. They took on The Orphan and his rag tag group of assailants. However, Steph's main reason for traveling to London was to meet up with Batman for a special assignment (Batman Inc. Leviathan Strikes).
The last two issues had Batgirl finally putting an end to the Reapers plans and meeting the person leading the group from behind the scenes. As well as a death she had to contend with. I like these last two issues because you could tell how much Steph had grown as a crime fighter because the old Steph would have tried to handle everything on her own while the more mature Steph knew when it was time to call in a little back up when needed. Once the group was taken care of Batgirl went to take on the groups leader and was quite shocked to find out who it was. That incident gave her the chance to accept a few things about her life and figure out the best way to embrace it.
The entire Batgirl series starring Stephanie Brown was great and these last issues were just as fun to read as the first. To take a quote from Barbara Gordon, "She was a Pollyanna to the very end". She never gave up even when things didn't work out, she kept up the fight. She was the positive, glass half-full kind of crime fighter that never knew when to call it quits. Her very last words in issue #24 stated it perfectly "It's only the end if you want it to be".
Her adventures in the books may have ended but she will always be one of my favorite characters.
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