STORY BY:Â Alisa Kwitney
ART BY:Â Rick Leonardi, Mark Pennington
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
So, I took a week off from looking at the Convergence books, to kind of give my disappointments a rest. But with the second issue of Batgirl I am back into the thick of it.
Alisa Kwitney’s story starts pretty much where the previous issue stopped. With that in mind I am unsure how we can have a “past” and a “present”. Still part of the beauty of Kwitney’s issues has been how “Steph like” this Steph sounds. Granted her circumstances are different from those shown at the end of Brian Q Millar’s run. With the dome going up for a year then down and the subsequent challenge, Steph’s head must be swimming. To an extent, so is the readers with these major issues arriving kind of like bam, bam, bam, which is probably a hindrance of the two issue format. However despite the problems faced, both story wise and format wise, this Steph still retains her overall feeling of hope, despite begrudgingly being Bargirl again, this doubt then acts as a counter balance to that hope.  Whilst Kwitney may be spot on for Steph, her Tim and Cass may need a little work. I don’t remember Cass being so stand off-ish and Tim, well….. for those who have complained about his portrayal in Nu 52 may find this one equally exasperating.
Veteran Rick Leonardi is back on art duties and for the most part does an ok job. Somehow, it’s not as fresh as last issues art, some of the humour element that is missing from this issue, may impact on the sense of fun his art can generate. If anything, it looks like the Leonardi has tried to moved to a DC style of middle ground, which is a shame as a fully flowing Leonardi can produce some fantastic work.
I am not going to “spoil ” the ending for anyone. The title of the book, The Love Song of Stephanie Brown alludes to where the book is going. I am a little disappointed with the outcome, as I was hoping for a completely different outcome. Overall, as the first of the completed two issues I have read, I am a little lost. Despite Kwitney’s great start, the story flounders a little and I have to say, with her introduction into the Nu 52, the timing is a little of as the conclusion does seems a tad of a backward step for Steph. Still, I stand by comments on my last review, I would be very interested in reading more of Kwitney’s work.
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Author Profile
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I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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