Batgirl, Vol. 1: Beyond Burnside

this is probably the best DC stuff ive read all year ( minus some parts of action comics stuff ) .

Ehhhhh I dunno. It read really young. I still miss Simone's New 52 Batgirl and while I like Batgirl's costume since the redo this super young, trendy Babs isn't doing it for me.

I love this Bat Girl so much. I've been very impressed with Batgirl, Volume 1: The Batgirl of Burnside series and I'm glad they are continuing with this one. You really take a journey with her as she is visiting Asia to learn some more things about herself including some martial arts. I love the idea of Fruit Bat but I wish they did some more background stuff on her because she's quite the mystery and they just kinda put her in there. She's believable as a wise teacher character with a very similar sounding history to batman. Honestly, with her even getting special training reminds me of batman and now with her having her own company I'm hoping that's where they take her. This book has a lot of characterization on Babs and is a great read.

The couple of things that bother me...
Some characters I think either need more work or not to be there at all. Like, I NEED to know more about fruit bat. Instead of having her in there for a brief moment they could have made the whole book with her instead of this Kai nonsense. A fresh young superhero pairing with a elderly one that has the skill to teach but needs the help would be amazing. I can even imagine her having moments with her family that they have no idea she's still doing hero stuff thinking she's a helpless young lady now vs. her being a hero and teaming up with bat-girl...GIVE ME THAT!

I like the villain in Batgirl, Volume 3: Mindfields because when a character you don't know arrives out of no where that we don't know but Babs claims they were friends as kids comes in you kinda have to take it on her word. Later you find out this out of the blue character is the villain who altered Babs mind and the Villain is actually crashing in our heroes' apartment was really unique and good...Kai is a childhood friend who happens to be the criminal she's after. It's kinda the same formula except bad because Kai is POINTLESS. Who cares about him? Throw him away and bring in Fruit Bat! Seriously, I also feel it's out of character for bat-girl to be I'm suspicious of this dude then I think I'm in love with him. Boo!

The art is good...but I really really really miss Babs Tarr. ~Ashley