Work/Life (Im)balance: Batgirl #45

The following is my review of Batgirl #45, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

When it comes to work/life balance, too many people see it as an either/or proposition. You work for 30 hours a day, toiling endlessly in the reckless pursuit of advancing a career that may or may not have room to advance. Or you can work with the same spirit as a Dilbert cartoon, seeing it only as a chore that gets in the way of whatever your true interests might be. There's a vast gray area in which most people operate, but it's also an area that is ill-suited for Batman and others like him.

In that sense, Barbara Gordon makes the most concerted effort of the Batman family to balance work and life. She doesn't dedicate three-fourths of her day to living in a cave, analyzing crime patterns, and endlessly debating with Superman. She actually tries to have a functioning personal life in addition to being Batgirl. She's a college student now, trying to live off a diet of lattes and Ramen Noodle while fighting crime. For the most part, Barbara has managed to avoid having the kind of nervous breakdown that most ordinary college students have during midterms. But like tuition hikes and overpriced textbooks, there are bound to be complications.

These complications in Barbara Gordona's life, both in and out of the mask, have been slowly developing. Batgirl #45 attempts to accelerate that development. While the pace isn't going to be hazardous to anyone with a heart condition, it at least develops the parts of her life that usually get overlooked. It might not be as exciting as a fist-fight with the Joker, but it's still refreshing and meaningful.

There's no crime to fight in this issue. This isn't a case of Peter Parker getting a pay cut because the Hobgoblin attacked him on the way to work. The most pressing concern for Barbara and Batgirl in this issue is her friend Alysia's wedding. On the surface, it's mundane by Batman standards. Unless the wedding is subject to a random attack by Clayface, it doesn't seem like an event worth exploring. But Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher make the case that there is something compelling here.

Usually, when there's a wedding involving superheroes, it's only compelling if it coincides with a disaster that makes the first two Hangover movies look tame by comparison. We've come to expect the life of a superhero to make major events like weddings a magnet for super-villains, assassins, and the occasional killer robot. None of those threats show up at Alysia's wedding, but someone disruptive does enter the picture. And his name is Dick Grayson.

This is where the tone of the Batgirl series as a whole sets itself apart. Rather than put Barbara in a situation where her superhero life gets in the way of her personal life, Stewart and Fletcher blur the line between those lives. They put Barbara in a position where she has to deal with someone who was and still is part of both lives. It's an awkward position to be in, even when it's not on a friend's wedding day. But it's that awkwardness that makes it compelling and not in the same mold as a typical Jennifer Anniston movie.

While there's no major crime for Batgirl to fight, she does don her costume. She does end up chasing Dick in a way that helps them relive their history together. It's a history where major complications have kept them from developing a serious relationship. And Dick being "dead" is hardly the biggest complication.

Throughout the course of the Batgirl series, Barbara has focused on moving forward with her life. She's established herself as both a superhero and a college student. She even managed to find time to make new friends, some of which act as de-facto allies to the Batman family. She also has a new love interest in her life in Luke Fox. These are the new facets of her life. Dick Grayson is one of those old facets. He's not one of those bitter exes that would post embarrassing pictures on Facebook, but he makes clear that he still has an impact on Barbara.

It's this impact that gives the issue meaning. It provides a unique context to the progress Barbara has made with her life at this point. She's trying to move forward, but her behavior around Dick Grayson shows that a part of her is still clinging to the past. And it's not just because Dick Grayson has a way of making women weak in the knees. He and Barbara have a much richer history than Barbara and Luke Fox. And it's not like that history became tainted by a deal with Mephisto. It still has emotional weight.

In some ways, that's the biggest shortcoming of Batgirl #45. As meaningful as the interaction is between Barbara and Dick, there's never a sense of closure. It has emotional depth, but it doesn't give the impression that anything has changed. Barbara and Dick still can't be part of each other's lives. There's still an emotional connection between them. But beyond that, there isn't much progress in terms of character development. And what little there is certainly doesn't give the impression that Barbara Gordon and Luke Wilson will be DC's next power couple.

As a part of the story in Barbara Gordon's new life, this issue acts as a meaningful connection between the past and present. It lacks action in that this is one of those rare comic book weddings where the ceremony isn't ruined by a super-villain, alien invasion, or something of the sort. It's not meant to be the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones.

As such, it's not going to generate a lot of excitement or a lot of outrage from One Million Moms. It tries to do something different. It succeeds in part, but lacks the impact to make it feel complete. It's still another step forward in this new life for Barbara Gordon. The fact that she could make it through her friend's wedding without someone being abducted puts her way ahead of Peter Parker.

Final Score: 7 out of 10

Excessively Bad Days and Bad Moods: Batgirl #32

The following is my review of Batgirl #32, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

We’ve all had bad days that have put us in bad moods. It doesn’t how rich someone is, how attractive they are, or how much power they wield. Sooner or later, they’re going to have a day where it feels like the universe is conspiring against them. On those days, we are all in our own Jason Bourne movie and the CIA is way more competent. We’re constantly on the brink of tearing our hair out and punching the nearest brick wall. From high school to retirement, these are the kinds of days where we wish we could crawl back into our mother’s womb and get away from it all. In that respect, we can all relate to the day Barbara Gordon is having in Batgirl #32.

Since regaining the use of her legs and becoming Batgirl again, Barbara Gordon’s have has been in flux. She has had her share of good days and bad days. She became close friends with her roommate, Alysia. She reconnected with her mother. She even found time to turn a former car thief into a boyfriend in Ricky Gutierrez. But lately, the bad days have been outnumbering the good by an increasingly wide margin. Between her brother dying, her father going to jail, and her boyfriend suing her father, she’s on a bit of a losing streak to say the least. Short of losing her cell phone, Batgirl is on the brink and Batgirl #32 promises to give her a violent shove.

She deals with many sources of frustration, as is to be expected of anyone in the Batman family, but the most pressing comes from Knightfall. By most standards, it’s a standard crime syndicate. By Gotham City standards, it’s the most dangerous kind of crime syndicate in that they’re more competent than those that rely on freeze rays, poisonous plants, and laughing gas. Their competence has allowed them to evade Batgirl, staying a step ahead of her no matter what she does. It’s like running a race where every other runner has a head start. Needless to say, this leaves Batgirl pretty frustrated.

But beyond her work as Batgirl, she also has some very different kinds of frustration adding to that violent shove. In addition to her father being in jail, her boyfriend, Ricky, is suing him for shooting him in a horribly mismanaged raid that occurred several issues ago. Any kind of frustration is difficult to deal with, but it can always be made worse when lawyers are involved. It’s an effective one-two punch for Batgirl, her personal life and her professional life working against her in ways that no amount of spa trips could hope to alleviate.

These are some big, heart-wrenching issues that are attacking Barbara Gordon on all fronts. Yet it doesn’t stop there. Even the little things are adding to her frustration. She comes home hoping to unwind, or at least get away from anymore brick walls to punch, only to walk in on her roommate getting intimate with her girlfriend. On any ordinary day, it would be one of those things that she could probably laugh off. But on a bad day like this, it might as well be an extra punch to the jaw after she has already lost a few teeth.

At this point, Batgirl’s life is more than just a string of unfortunate events. Bad luck only goes so far. Even casino owners understand that. But it starts to get a little excessive when one of Barbara’s old friends, Munira Khairuddin, tracks her down while she’s out for a morning jog to clear her head. She’s not looking to catch up over a cappuccino and a beagle either. She actually drugs Barbara, abducts her, and tries to recruit her into some elite counter-terrorism squad that requires that she sever all ties to her family and become a ghost. It’s like someone having their identity stolen and being forced to work for the identity thieves.

Munira claims she wants to enlist Barbara because she’s they were college friends who respected each other’s skills. She also warns her that Knightfall is about to launch some massive attack on Gotham that would be on par of Pablo Escobar taking hostages at the White House. Her sales pitch is pretty lousy. She basically asks Barbara to join a version of the NSA with guns and even less accountability. She even warns her that refusing this offer has consequences, which gives the impression it’s not much of an offer. Maybe Barbara would have actually considered it if she weren’t having such a lousy day. To be fair, Munira has no idea how rotten her luck has been lately. But the damage is done.

At this point, the plot has gone beyond Batgirl just having a string of bad days to piling on. She’s having a rough time. There’s no need to reinforce it anymore. It’s expected that superheroes have more bad days than most people and some of their worst days make for great stories. This issue did a nice job building on Batgirl’s recent hardships, but the level of torment inflicted upon her just becomes excessive, so much so that it loses its impact. People can only relate so much to bad days that involve abductions, lawsuits, and promiscuous roommates. Like football team that gets blown out for nine straight games, it eventually loses its impact.

To Batgirl’s credit, she deals with this uninterrupted string of bad luck better than most people could ever hope to manage. That’s why she’s part of the Batman family. Dealing with bad days isn’t just part of the job. It’s as useful as any grappling hook. She eventually enlists help from other female heroines, including Black Canary and Huntress. Most people in bad moods are content punching more walls rather than seeking help from friends. It offers at least some hope that Batgirl’s string of bad days will end at some point.

Batgirl #32 succeeded in taking Barbara Gordon to as low a point as she could have without another visit from the Joker. It added both personal and professional struggles, sometimes excessively. While the impact of those struggles became muted at times, it still strikes all the right chords. Now anyone who has a bad day has much less reason to complain. If Barbara Gordon can get through this issue without punching any brick walls, then nobody has any excuses.

Final Score: 8 out of 10