Batgirl #3

Writer: Hope Larson
Artist: Rafael Albuquerque
Colorist: Dave McCaig
Letters: Deron Bennett
Publisher: DC
 

Comic book readers love to complain about decompression, the approach to storytelling that has dominated serialized comics for the past decade and a half. Decompression refers to the practice of reducing the amount of words on each page and focusing on telling a story over several issues. American cape comics took that approach mainly from manga, which relies a lot on visual gags.

I bring this up because Batgirl is probably the most decompressed book I've read in a while. There's very little dialogue overall and a huge emphasis on visuals over text. Which is fine by me, comics is a visual medium after all. But decompressed storytelling relies on having strong characters and Larson hasn't really found a compelling voice for her Batgirl. There's flashes of it but I think the short fight scenes interspeded through this first arc almost detract from the comic. There is no balance between the more humorous parts of the book and the more melodramatic ones, whether it is Barbara and Kai arguing or Batgirl fighting with unremarkable, nameless goons.

Nevertheless, the book looks great. The design of new characters has been lacking (one of them is just a construction worker!) but Rafael Albuquerque's lines and layouts have been very good and Deron Bennett is doing great work seamlessly incorporating his lettering with Alburqueque's art. McCaig's coloring is very unique. The use of different background patterns does a lot to make the book feel coherent and the borderless paneling helps McCaig's coloring convey the many moods of Batgirl on each page. While it's great to see how well each page works as a unit, there's still not a lot of cohesion between scenes. Ultimately, the pacing of the story makes no sense whatsoever because we are being whiplashed between all these different beats and locations.

The other problem I have with this (and it might be oversight or a faulty memory) is how detached from the stakes I am while reading it. There's no need to have every superhero fight whichever of the many evil-personified characters there are but I don't really know who she's fighting against or why, it's all shrouded in mystery to the point where I don't really care about what's happening. There's no reason for Barbara and the bad guys (?) to antagonize each other. And it's the same with Kai, who's an interesting character, but Babs distrust of him makes their relationship less interesting.

Even though this is one of the most visually accomplished books coming out at the moment, it doesn't work well at all in a monthly format. It remains to be seen whether this first arc reads better when collected but its flaws are amplified when reading it on an issue-by-issue basis.