Some thoughts about Batgirl #50

What's Batgirl future?

After the whole battle against both the Joker and her brother, Barbara knows she needs to focus on the best parts of her life and that includes Jason Bard.

Yeah, and for some reason that doesn't include her own father and Nightwing.

Ugh.

I don't know what happened... No, wait, I DO know what happened. Apparently Cecil Castellucci's first arc was just a fluke and her usual Female Furies-self started to get apparent right away after that, it's the Hope Larson effect people!

This sadly oversized issue is focused on a few aspects of Babs' life. The first one is about the aftermath of James Gordon Jr.'s death (again, waste of a character thanks to Castellucci) with both Jim and Barbara hating each other for stupid reasons that start to get pretty obvious now. The real explanation why Jim was portrayed in such an off and ignorant manner since Castellucci arrived is because of course, Cops = Bad! Seriously, that's the whole reason, you just have to check Babs' conversation with him here, about how because he's into the police he doesn't really know what happens to the people of Gotham which goes against pretty much everything Commissioner Gordon represents. Ruining a character is one thing but ruining a character just to push a political agenda is even worse.

Not the only problem though since Babs is portrayed highly unlikable for some reason, being really aggressive to her dad and even Nightwing because of what happened after his loss of memory (which I need to remind you, wasn't really his fault). The only person she's kind to is Jason which is so out of place that I can't believe this is the same character.

At least Emanuella Lupacchino's artwork gets better and better with an even more beautiful style.

There's also a segment where Batgirl is complaining about not having a Rogue's Gallery and Castelllucci's brilliant solution for that is to create the villain named, wait for it:

"Vi Ross".

"Virus".

I'm not f*cking kidding.

But hey, at least Marguerite Sauvage's art is pretty unique and gorgeous.

Finally there's a segment where most of the Birds of Prey are reunited playing Dungeons and Dragons and this could have been cool... if only they all sounded like their usual selves. In fact, they all sound the frikking same! There isn't a glance of Cassandra's stoic nature, Dinah's sarcastic personality, Helena's aggressive tendencies or Stephanie's silly behavior. For an author that is really trying to push a "progressive" direction, Castellucci really fails at writing women.

But again, Aneke's art is pretty solid at the very least.

And that's it. This is officially one of the worst books of the year now people. I miss Mairghread Scott.