‘Batgirl Annual #2’ (review)

Written by Mairghread Scott
Illustrated by Elena Casagrande
Published by DC Comics

This is the better of the two Batgirl stories written by Mairghread Scott this week(the other being Batgirl #26). I preferred this issue more than that one. It’s a pretty decent story overall that holds no surprises but at least it manages to be entertaining enough.

There has a murder in Burnside.

Batgirl comes onto the scene. It seems like a pretty standard crime scene until something seems familiar to her.

A little too familiar, in fact. This leads her to recognize something in it that is similar to how her brother, James, used to murder his victims.

So Barbara decides that it is time to visit her brother James in prison!

They have a conversation that shows what led James to become the killer that he is today! This also leads James to “help” Barbara solve who might be behind the current murder. There’s a little bit of The Silence of the Lambs going on here but I just went with it because why not?

This leads Batgirl on her way.

She follows the clues and that leads her into a fight. The fight is wonderfully drawn by Elena Casagrande. It’s choreographed nicely and is full of energy. The whole issue is nicely drawn, but that particular scene is very well done.

The whole thing leads us to a “surprise” ending that is anything but a surprise. I don’t know, it brought the whole thing down a bit for me. It could be interesting if you’ve never read a comic book before.

But for me, it fell flat. Ah, well.

Here’s hoping Mairghread Scott can make something out of her Batgirl run.

To do so, she has to write from the heart and come up with better stories. This could have been great. Instead it’s just standard. I want better than that.

RATING: C+