Hey, it’s entirely possible to do two pages of rape, brutality, dismemberment, and cannibalism, and make it genuinely good. I can’t actually name any examples, but in theory it can work.

I’d say exposition that’s badly done is easily worse than sleazy subject matter done well, at least from an aesthetic standpoint.

Needless to say, I’m terribly disappointed.

OK, I know the point is making fun of the terrible exposition here. But Batgirl’s terribly convoluted recent history isn’t this issue’s fault, it’s the fault of the editors for being unable to get their act together (another sign of wrong things going on in DC these days.) Sure, they could’ve come up with a more believable explanation (not to mention better dialog) but honestly at this point I don’t care. I just said “DC f*ked up Batgirl, just like everything else. Give me a call when it’s fixed.”

There are at least 239723487 ways this could have been done better. What you see above is either laziness or petulance – or, flatly, the best someone who doesn’t comprehend the form can do. This is sequential art; the art should tell at least as much of the story as the writing. When you have too much writing, you have a problem. But that’s a bit of a digression, because the problem here is that the writer tried to “just” get the whole thing out of the way and move on – which is why my vote is for petulance.

It reads like the editors told him to fix it and he got mad and decided to do it as in-your-face and fast as possible so he could get it out of the way and get on with the story he wants to tell, which is apparently not one anyone cares to hear. Maybe he does “get” why Batgirl shouldn’t kill, he just disagrees with it?

But what a great story examining these feelings could have been! Maybe BG had just gotten older and more jaded, or maybe her time On Dope altered her perception so that she saw the merits in her father’s way, or maybe some villain(s) down the line pushed her buttons once too often and she just snapped and realized how good it felt? Any or all of these could have made a great issue or three, or could have continued to filter down, peppered throughout continuing titles and discussions – discussions she doesn’t even have to be part of!

This is just plain BAD.

I agree that something HAD to be done. We’ve been moaning and screaming about that for a long time.

That said, there are ways to do it where the exposition is more natural, and certainly not this cold. While Cassandra isn’t typically the most demonstrative of characters, this would have worked a dozen times better if there’d been a confrontation between her and Dick, she’d gotten upset and marched off, and Robin or Alfred (both even better choices for the task than Batman) had filled in the blanks in a little one-on-one on the side. And instead of being one big dump, the explanation could have been split into pieces. Part we’d hear as Dick got it explained to him, and part would follow Cassandra around as an internal monologue of hers after she left.

But that’s all details. There’s a point that’s been brought up that explaining what happened isn’t nearly as important as simply undoing it–once and for all. And insisting that Batgirl’s big dilemma now is a broken promise, rather than the actual moral pain we know she should actually feel about knowing she killed, is what’s still ruining this.

As a fan of Cassandra, I’d love to think that’s the case, but I don’t really think so. This is a nearly completely unhyped mini with a no-name creative team; I doubt it is anything more than an attempt to appease the die-hard fans and maybe test the waters to see if the controversy over all this has produced enough interest to make it worth their time to relaunch a Batgirl ongoing. (Which I doubt will prove to be the case given that this book is a year or more too late to strike when the furor was at its height.)

Batwoman still has the quasi-announced, sure-to-be-hyped ongoing by a popular creative team coming, and Batwoman #1 is almost sure to outsell this by a large margin, even if it also suffers the problem of being far too late to take advantage of her initial hype.

Having Nightwing, who spent the better part of a year’s worth of comics trying to reform Ravager, bitch out Batman for basically doing the exact same thing with someone who, let’s face it, should have at least earned the benefit of the doubt with the crew is reeeeeallly bad writing.

Geez, remember when we were all “Beechen is kicking ass on JLU, move him onto higher-profile stuff!” Proves that we’re not right all the time, I guess.

Considering that the ending to the Supergirl story might have been a dream, I’m surprised that encounter was mentioned.

This scene is a textbook example of BAD COMICS.

I agree… with a small caveat.

This scene is a textbook explanation of how to kill a franchise character! And it wasn’t just one thing… No! It was a progressive string of bad ideas compounded by even worst ideas!

And to think that the first 50 issues of Batgirl (and their corresponding Trades) were some of the best selling/critically acclaimed bat-books of this era’s “earlier years”.

My favorite part is her line at the end. “And then I came home.” I don’t know why I find it so funny, but I do.