Ame-Comi Batgirl #1-3

Probably the first batch of comics based off statues of DC's women, followed closely by Bombshells and Gotham City Garage. When this first came out, I was so hyped about it because I love stories about women, anime, and Harley Quinn. What could go wrong?

Well, a lot of things. The story didn't exactly grab me, the art varied from issue to issue and for the most part, the characters never really seemed to mesh well together. Don't get me wrong, some did but it just read like someone had literally stuck all these characters together but didn't exactly figure out WHY they should be co-existing apart from NEW STATUES NEED TIE IN MERCHANDISE.

The other thing I need to mention is that pretty much the entire run was written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. Justin Gray has written a bunch of stuff for DC, mostly hand in hand with Palmiotti and Conner which brings me to the problem. I personally feel Palmiotti is a terrible writer.
His work is all the same, usually overstuffed with useless characters who are either bland or stereotypes of something and he's not funny.

Now, when I first read this series this name meant nothing to me but if you've read this blog at all you've probably read me cursing his name at least once for bringing such an obnoxious Hardly Quinn to life in her ridiculous solo. Of course, now I recognise the name it's easy to understand why I abandoned this series so early.

Mr Gray I have no opinion of apart from not minding the Catwoman Convergence and tossing aside the Power Girl/Harley Quinn nonsense. That and I honestly think he has sold his soul to Palmiotti because there is something else going on here. Maybe we should see if he's okay.

Still - I will sit through these again to review them but because the digital issues are honestly just a few panels held together with string, I'll do the entire Batgirl series in one hit. I'm skipping the Wonder Woman one because it's painful what they did to her character and has nothing to do with Harley Quinn.

Part I

So this universe has very few men in it, just forewarning you if you aren't familiar. Here we have Barbara obvious character Gordon and Carrie - the Robin III of Earth 31 and of The Dark Knight Returns fame. She talks about her junkie parents too but is wearing a Robin belt if that reference was too subtle for you. Not gonna lie, it bothers me how this is the second lot of comics after the Wonder Woman ones and there's so much focus on looks and being self absorbed. They lay out their plans for the evening to "Uncle Jimmy" who just rolls on into the bathroom. That's weird, even though they're fully dressed.

He warns about the dangers of Gotham after dark. Not sure why because the only danger out here is Poison Ivy and her extreme love hard on.

Yeah... you.. uh, read that right.
I get this is Elseworlds sort of and a different universe but damn, what the hell is wrong with this Ivy?

Luckily, Batgirl and Robin had no intention of going to a club, they have gone out to fight this ... whatever it is. And, thanks to the writer there's a truck load of bad villain dialogue about taunting little girls and a dodgy fight scene.

Poison Ivy even says 'Dontcha' and talks like she's supposed to be Harley Quinn, I think. Batgirl asks if Ivy's wearing a salad and it's supposed to be funny but it raises a good question about what Ivy IS wearing because it looks like Red Sonja gone native veggie patch.



Then for some reason, Batgirl uses a canary cry cooked up by Steel which takes Ivy out of the picture but invites Catwoman and Harley Quinn over. For some reason.

Sick burn, Catwoman. All joy is immediately detracted from the exploding cupcake when Robin asks if Catwoman and Harley are going to fight them or 'play boyfriend and girlfriend'. I.. don't even know what that means. I thought it meant stop paying attention to each other and come at me but it's just a really.. weird way of putting it. For another thing, why didn't Batgirl just 'Skreee!' at them immediately instead of waiting for them to squabble then throw a bomb at them?

Can't be because they really needed to draw another fight scene surely... 

After a horrifying vision of Catwoman with no face fighting elongated claw and far apart eyes Batgirl, it turns out that Duela Dent (Joker's Daughter) is watching this all on several monitors... all of which are showing different scenes and times of this current fight. 

Part II

Continuing on from the fight we just left - it's still bad artistically. Do Harley's lilliripes actually extend or is it just bad art? I mean, that can't be perspective, surely! Robin and Batgirl subdue their foes but then Ivy resurrects and then spews hallucinogenics in the Batgirl's face like a walking bad peer pressure warning sign. Robin is told to run away and she does, cursing herself. 

Batgirl is holding her throat and then passes out so who even knows what was in that spore cloud, OHHH much like real drugs! This has been your PSA courtesy of imitation anime from DC!

Robin recalls she put a tracer on Harley - which is a very Batman thing to do considering they were just about to call the cops when Ivy attacked them. What was she going to be tracing exactly?

Duela Dent has also busted Cheetah from somewhere and they all bitch about Wonder Woman, managing to be both sexist, inane and homophobic at the same time. 

Yeah, imagine a world without men - how freaky would that be.. OH WAIT AME-COMI!!

They check on Batgirl who's like this place smells funny guys, but it totally wasn't me. Both cat girls are like this place is unnatural, yet the natural plant monster says nothing.

Duela monologues for a while before trying to kill Batgirl. She's in a smelly clear box that Duela fills with water, shoots spikes into and also fires lasers into.

She would be great at actually trying to kill the protagonist if not for the fact that she IMMEDIATELY turns and walks off to sort out the children she's baby-sitting. 

Aaand let's cram in some more jokes about female hormones. Aren't women just CRAZY?

You know, with their estrogen and being teenagers and stuff? 

Crazy maybe, getting angry definitely. 

Part III

This issue mostly focuses on Batgirl escaping. Now she was incredibly confident that she had a way out of this death trap last time and that appears to be because she did a Batman - arranging some obscure tech into some part of the costume that wasn't the utility belt and never mentioning it until now. 

In her case it's det-wire woven into her hair. See, fashion accessories can be useful... I guess. It does something, whatever it is and she gets out and discovers she's on a space ship. This would be a surprise I guess except that literally two pages ago the announcer told us that Batgirl was on a space ship of unknown origin. 

Robin sneaks into Steel's lab - oh sorry, her messy bedroom where she welds in her singlet and teeny goggles. Robin's like yo don't kill me Batgirl needs help and Steel's all I'm not going to play tea parties with you I'm developing some gibberish technological sounding thing. 

Robin's impassioned cry for aid

In the few panels they have together, Steel manages to tell Robin that she's playing tea parties and not doing anything useful, calls Duela a fashion puppet, mocks their petty high school rivalries, derides Batgirl's imminent death and calls Robin little one, telling her she's soo much faster at processing things than she is, a mere human. We also get a blatant upskirt shot of Robin's crotch. 

I'm already feeling uncomfortable about the level of girl bashing in this girl only comic but this is getting creepy. 

Meanwhile, Batgirl discovers beams of light are attacking other alien worlds and stuff and is totally, like, going to help until the villains come back seemingly so Duela can monologue some more and Harley can silently point at Batgirl one more time for some reason. 

I think your contact lens fell out, Harley.

To be continued in the Duela Dent solo! .... Also for some reason. 

Wotta Comedian! 

Harley: Man, who pooped in your litter box? 

Harley: I guess Robin should change her name to chicken. 

Batgirl: She probably thinks she can control the situation in whatever deal she's made... ...but people with the power to build fancy spaceships are smarter than crazy chicks in top hats. That's a fact. 

Batgirl: Maybe it's a good idea to hand up that tail and get a day job.

The Short End of the Jester Schtick

It's a vaguely interesting story but loses it's potential pretty early. I get the spaceships are a tie in to the other worlds and aliens and Braniac and what not but it just seems like the writer decided to throw aliens in here for the wackiness factor (like a certain solo comic featuring Harley Quinn, right?) and then failed to give us any backstory about the characters like why Harley's talking to the back of her head, why Steel appears to be half robot or something but looks human, how long Batgirl and Robin have been in operation, how old are they anyway, and so far it hasn't competently explained the need for a team up between the villains apart from these tweenagers are totally wrecking our really weird crime sprees!

I think the best design in the series is Duela Dent. Catwoman's costume never made sense to me, and while I like Harley's costume is pretty good I prefer her Volume II Ame-Comi outfit. Batgirl's costume is kinda generic and looks like she was birthed out by Speed Racer complete with helmet. Robin's costume is okay but kinda busy. Poison Ivy looks like shit.