BATGIRL VOL. 1: BATGIRL OF BURNSIDE

Brendan Fletcher & Cameron Stewart (Authors) Babs Tarr (Illustrator) DC Comics (Publisher)

> Review by JOE TELL

Batgirl of Burnside updates the classic character in its delivery of a very hip and trendy Batgirl. Barbara Gordon and a friend from her physical rehabilitation class move into an apartment in Burnside, the newest suburb of Gotham. Barbara falls into all the trappings of college life, such as excessive partying and relying on online devices to communicate with her new friends. The latest version of Batgirl takes selfies and is glued to her cell phone when she isn’t fighting crime. The narrative seems geared toward the twenty-something, co-ed crowd. Barbara Gordon has learned to use the Internet to her advantage when hunting down tech-savvy criminals as Batgirl—a trend that will come back to haunt her later in the story. With a homemade new costume, Batgirl battles baddies like an online gossip king who has a flash drive implanted into his brain; a pair of deadly, motorbike-riding assassins; and even a glittering Batgirl impostor. The evil Batgirl impostor turns out to be an attention-seeking cross dresser that has a murderous mean streak. There is plenty of action, the colors are bright and the tone of the story is light. Dinah Lance (Black Canary) is also featured in this book. After losing everything in a fire, she rooms with Barbara and, in a move that makes perfect sense, joins a kick-ass rock band. In an interesting plot twist that explains the transition from her former identity as the Oracle, Batgirl battles a malicious computer code that uses her own intelligence against her. In the end, Batgirl, Black Canary and all of her high-tech friends band together to battle the evil force that plans to destroy Gotham.