As always; Spoilers.

Damian and Stephanie are running across rooftops as Stephanie’s thought-boxes recap the situation.  Batman’s been injured, Roulette is taking bets on who can kill him, and both Batgirl and Robin are miles away.  Damian taunts Stephanie and ditches her for his bike while she gripes about how this is what she gets when she works with a ten-year-old.  Look on the bright side, Stephanie.  If you had worked with that ten-year-old a few months ago, you would have gotten either decapitated or tossed of a dinosaur so he could run around in your outfit. 

Oracle tells her to let it go, and directs her to a secret garage, where Stephanie finds . . .

Something.

Um.

It’s definitely something.

I know it’s supposed to be a bike that looks different, and it does.  But it looks like a cross between a wheeled pez dispenser and that thing they stuffed Spock in at the end of Wrath of Khan .  Stephanie seems to like it though, and it gets her where she’s going, which is past Damian with a big smirk on her face.

Meanwhile, Roulette, knowing that the jig is, if not up, then definitely heading in that direction, instructs her computer-geek to keep up the firewalls and tells Roxy Rocket, Doctor Phosphorus, and Riot that whoever kills Batman, ‘gets a percentage of the DVD sales.’  Ha.  I like Roulette, and I’ll tell you why.  She doesn’t have a grudge, or an obsession, or anything like that.  She wants money.  A lot of money.  And she has certain skills that will let her get it.  I like a villain that makes sense.

Batman is set upon by both Doctor Phosphorus and Roxy Rocket.  Stephanie takes the high road, and Damian takes the low road, and Damian gets to Batman before her.  He leaps off of his bike and lets it crash into Doctor P.

Meanwhile, Stephanie shows me why I was wrong to pre-judge the bike.  It stops.  The front of the capsule opens up.  And it fires her into the air.  And?  It says ‘Goodbye,’ to her while it’s doing it.  That is clearly the most awesome thing ever, and I’m sorry I associated it with The Wrath of Khan.

Stephanie steers the rocket down to where Doctor Phosphorus had Damian by the throat, and BAM!.  I don’t see how she could possibly know that Phosphorus would survive a hit with a rocket.  It seems to me that would basically turn his bones to mush, making that little stunt at least attempted murder.  But I don’t really care.  It looked coooooool.

Meanwhile, Riot is being an idiot and stopping to taunt Batman before he beats him to death.  That bit of arrogance costs him the fight, as Stephanie and Damian arrive and proceed to kick his ass.  Asses.  Whatever.

Roulette sees that things are not going as well as she’d hoped, and gets ready to go.  Oracle’s face-mask fills her screens, and she furiously points a gun at her hacker.

Only to be stopped by The Batsquad.  Damian says, “Game Over.”  Stephanie mocks him, but is chastened by Dick, how appreciates the attempt at a one-liner.

Back at the Batcave, Damian and Stephanie speak semi-civilly to each other, while Barbara and Dick break up.  It’s an unspoken break-up, a friendly break-up, and a sweet break-up, but it’s a break up.  I can see it working, in the comic.  They’ve already set up a love interest for Barbara.  Who knows where Dick is going to be in a few issues.  The couple won’t work in the DCU, as it stands.  At the same time, no other couple will work for either of the characters, at least not forever.  There was a time when Kory and Dick might have been together, but that was before she became a peripheral character and Barbara was absorbed into the Bat mythos.  The two won’t work with anyone else.  But right now, they don’t work with each other, and there are stories to tell, so I’m okay with it.

The next morning Stephanie watches from the rooftops as Francisco meets up with his friends.  He says he’s his own man, now, separate from his criminal father, and I get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.  Then?  Jordanna runs into his arms and hugs him, while Stephanie thinks, “Ah . . young love.”  And I feel better.  Then he hugs his male friend and . . . Stephanie and I both go ‘Um.’  I don’t understand.  Is this meant to imply that he and Jordanna are just friends, like he and the guy are friends?  Are he and the guy an item?  What’s going on?

But I can put aside my confusion as Stephanie Brown gets into the BatgirlCanonBike and rides off into Gotham, with the Batsignal illuminating the sky behind her.  Nice!

Conclusions:

Random Irrelevant Detail:  Doctor Phosphorus appears to be wearing both fire-proof pants *and* a fireproof belt.  But how does he keep the buckle from melting?

Suckiness Advisory Warning:  Um.  Yes.  The Um.

Overall Awesomeness Level:  High!  High and steady.  The team structure that’s sprung up in the book.  The sense of fun.  The good, clear, art.  The BatgirlCanonBike.  These are all wonderful things that need to keep happening.

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Posted in Batgirl Play-by-Plays, comic books, reviews by Esther Inglis-Arkell |