Review: Batgirl Vol. 2- Family Business

Quick Summary

Pros: Some of the storylines still have a nice level of excitement and fun. The series is still impressive and unique in terms of visuals.

Cons: The book’s subplots are generally poor. One of the chapters is uninteresting overall.

Overall: There are some moments where this collection appears to be trending upward but, unfortunately, these moments are outweighed by a number of negatives. The subplots are lackluster, an entire chapter is uninteresting, and none of the book’s larger stories are developed enough to be worth it on their own. Some of the arcs are still good, which should appeal to fans of the first volume. Only pick this one up if you love the concept behind this new take on Batgirl and want to read more about her.

Story

Though the previous volume started with a lot of promise, Batgirl Vol. 2: Family Business, by Cameron Stewart and Branden Fletcher, fails to establish the same level of interest. It is still a passable book, if you are ok with the young adult genre, but it has a number of problems preventing it from being as good as its predecessor. These problems range from small ones regarding lackluster subplots to larger ones regarding entire chapters that are simply not interesting. The book starts to recover in the second half, where plotlines and characters are better, but is not quite enough to save the book as a whole.

(spoilers start here)

This volume opens with Batgirl facing off against/teaming up with the new Batman, who she discovers is actually her father. This story is moderately exciting and has a few touching moments between Barbara and her father. However, it is too short to establish a serious threat or develop a meaningful dialogue between the Gordons. It still reads alright but is decidedly average.

The chapter after this is an Annual that sees Batgirl team up with various characters in the Bat-family. Each of these team-ups is designed as a piece to a larger mystery, yet this mystery is never resolved or fully explained in any way. In addition, the interactions all feel incredibly shallow and add little to any character participating in them. This entire chapter has little going for it and is a big strike on the book in general.

Family Business closes with one of its strongest storylines. In it, Batgirl takes on a case involving a mysterious instance of corporate sabotage and several deadly tigers. This story has enough excitement and mystery to hold readers’ attention and is balanced with some solid actions from Barbara’s former roommate, Alysia. The only problem is that this arc is rather short and could have been better if it were extended for another chapter or two.

Through most of these larger stories range in overall quality, the subplots running through each of them are consistently poor. Many revolve around forced instances of romantic tension, which are so plentiful that they become annoying. This is especially noticable in the final chapter, where Batgirl’s tenuous relationship with Luke Fox is threatened by someone she was incredibly mad at only moments earlier. The other major subplot involves Frankie’s desire to be a superhero. This could have been interesting if it was centered around someone with more character development, like Alysia, but Frankie is simply too new to headline a character arc like this. These subplots stretch through most of the book and bring down what is already an average volume.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Luckily, the artwork in the majority of Family Business maintains the fresh style and solid quality level seen in the previous volume. Babs Tarr, once again, brings her unique take on Batgirl to the book, giving her adventures plenty of energy and character. Creative locations and awesome costume design are the standout features here and add additional flair to an already good looking book. In our review of Batgirl Vol. 1 (Found here) we discussed how this particular art style is perfect for this kind of book; this remains true in this volume as well.

Continuity

Batgirl Vol. 2: Family Business continues the story started in Batgirl Vol. 1: Batgirl of Burnside (Review).

The story here continues in Batgirl Vol. 3: Mindfields (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• Commissioner Gordon’s role as Batman is explained in Batman Vol. 8: Superheavy (Review).
• Batgirl thinks Dick Grayson is dead because of the events of Forever Evil (Review). However, Dick actually became an undercover spy in Grayson Vol. 1: Agents of Spyral (Review).
  • Barbara learns about this later on, in Grayson Vol. 3: Nemesis (Review).
• Spoiler states that her father was Cluemaster. This was revealed back in Batman Eternal Vol. 1 (Review).
• Alysia started dating Jo in Batgirl #31, collected in Batgirl Vol. 5: Deadline (Review).
• The characters at Gotham Academy are introduced in Gotham Academy Vol. 1: Welcome to Gotham Academy. However, Maps gets her Batarang at the very beginning of Gotham Academy Vol. 2: Calamity.