Batgirls #2 - DC Comics

BATGIRLS No.2, March 2022

Sporting a dynamically-drawn cover illustration of the titular characters' “new secret muscle car” by Jorge Corona and Sarah Stern, as well as a rip-roaring fight-fest between Barbara Gordon’s young protégés and the super-villainous Saints, the start to Issue Two of “Batgirls” certainly must have had many a bibliophile snatching the comic straight off of the spinner-rack in excitement. Indeed, the twenty-two page periodical’s opening quarter is arguably a virtuoso in how to hook an audience and carry them along with a narrative which genuinely looks set to maim or even kill one of its leading cast members; “The main thing here is to not engage head-on. If we’re going to face them, it’ll require strategy, planning, and preparation.”

Sadly however, once Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown have escaped their would-be killers by the skin of their teeth, “One Way Or Another” debatably peters out into a rather sedentary experience, where the most adventurous incident to occur is “the fourth Batgirl” getting her ears pierced so she can “wear her newly upgraded” communications device. Admittedly, this disappointing drop in pace as oracle chops up some food with a kitchen knife is somewhat salvaged later on when Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad pen the ‘dynamic duo’ going back outside to “attach a signal suppressor to the roof”, but by the time this occurs the book has disappointingly almost concluded.

Possibly more successful is the writing team’s ability to maintain this ongoing series’ secondary plot thread of mind-controlled Gothamites being used to construct some bizarre “shrine to the Gods of Stolen Goods” in the docklands. This intriguing notion that someone is able to manipulate both the obnoxious Hill’s Angels and Police into doing their nefarious bidding even seemingly affects “Spoiler", and provides this publication with an excellent cliff-hanger of a conclusion.

Sequential artist Corona also needs a ‘pat on the back’ for helping make even this comic’s more mundane moments palatable, courtesy of Cain’s wonderful facial expressions and the Venezuelan’s attention to minor details like Mister Dhaliwal noticing Cassandra whenever she is out and about in her civilian attire. In addition, the Russ Manning Award-winner provides the Batgirls’ battle against Tarsus, Valentine and Assisi with some breath-taking action sequences, most notably when “Orphan” is temporarily incapacitated by her own bat-wire yet still manages to evade serious injury.

Story: Becky Cloonan & Michael Conrad, Art: Jorge Corona, and Colors: Sarah Stern