THIS MONTH'S REVIEW: Batman--Batgirl (Girlfrenzy)

This book had smooth art, and a flowing style. The martial arts action was more prevelant than the actually storyline--but even though still manages to show the duality of vigilante existance. On the part of both Batgirl and Mr. Zsasz. Batgirl has to struggle between the death of her friend, and the death of many other people courtesy of Zsasz. She definately kicks butt in this book--without using a single bat-gadget. I enjoyed it.

This book had my hopes up--until half way through. It starts with Batgirl and Black Canary teamed up to stop Mad Hatter and his thugs.  Barbara continuously has traumatic flashbacks of the Killing Joke, and Black Canary keeps asking her to tell her real identity--even though Barbara knows that she knows that. They are really good action wise--she even rides the Batcycle!  However, she gets captured by all of the villains, until Black Canary sneaks in when they leave.  She asks Barbara Batman's address--she tells her a false one.  Then the woman reveals that she is not really Canary--she is merely "Spellbinder" a female villain who causes illusions in the mind. She's been hired to do this.  When she leaves to find the hideout, Barbara breaks out of her chair and crawls.  She manages to subdue Spellbinder and doesn't have a problem anymore. She doesn't feel as "helpless" as she did before.

I was really ticked off. They could have at least warned that it was not really going to happen.

Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin

The Sixties TV series. Barbara Gordon is a new librarian (after finishing 4 years of college) at the Gotham Public Library, and daughter of police Commisioner Gordon. When she gets on the elevator to her apartment, she is kidnapped by Penguin.  Penguin has kidnapped her because he wants to force her to marry him. Barbara agrees only after Penguin's "Plan B":  "Now you make up your mind! Either you become my bride or you become an orphan, which is it?" He kidnapps Alfred (mistaking him for a minister) and throws him in a locked room with Barbara.  Barbara escapes and goes to her own apartment window (he was hiding out in a vacant apartment in her building).  Then she goes into her bedroom and activates that rotating wall, and the rest is history. I won't tell the rest--you'll have to see it for yourself!

This was the first time I had watched the TV series in a long, long time. Yvonne Craig was graceful and elegant, and always managed to throw the Dynamic Duo more suprises than even they expected. This was also the debut of the Batgirl Cycle.  This episode's idea was very fun and whimsical.  Batgirl has a more convincing secret identity than Batman and Robin--she even changes her hair color and style. The only thing that was truly, truly unbelieveable about Batgirl was the fact that her apartment happened to have a rotating wall, a hidden room, freight elevator, and a purple motorcycle and NO ONE notices this?  I don't think so!

Holiday Knights

It's the holidays and Barbara Gordon, Harvey, and Montoya are steaking out a building.  They eventually discover that the "little boys" who are shoplifting merge into Clayface!  Batgirl saved the day just when Montoya and Harvey were about to get killed. Then they sort of save her.  This part of the episode was so short, I can't make an accurate judgement on her character--but she seemed great.  Her voice is definately more juvinile. Cool costume too.

Batman: Batgirl shows Batgirl as an almost complete ameteur.  At the beginning how it shows her commanding squad cars and helping catch a crook, it's OK but her character kind of goes downhill from there. The closest thing to physical combat that she does is jump on a guy. All she does is hit people in the head with various objects. And one scene that really disturbed me was when she looked like she killed a man with a fire poker. But I guess the book did like it said it would: "Batgirl's first meeting with the Joker helps her know how dangerous this game she plays really is." It does show her as intelligent (at times), but fails to show her as resourceful as we know her today. She eventually captures the Joker by appealing to his insanity. While I did have some objections to this book, some good did come out of it. Batman: Batgirl outsold Batman: Bane, Batman: Poison Ivy, and Batman: Mr. Freeze.  Pretty cool, huh?

Batgirl Returns

The episode starts with Barbara Gordon's fantasy...Batman has been captured by the Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face who are ready to deliver the finishing blow. Batgirl tripple sommersalts onto the scene and easily K.O.'s the villains. Then she and Batman fall in love and kiss. She has this fantasy at Gotham State University while she is studying, but has given up her double life as Batgirl.  Until she hears about how a jade cat statue was stolen from her school's museam. When she gets there, she sees Catwoman and confronts her.  Catwoman tries to sweep her, but Batgirl backflips. She slashes her whip, but Batgirl's batarrang cuts it in half. She convinces that Batgirl she didn't do it.  Eventually they team up to find the theif, with Robin tagging along to keep Batgirl out of trouble (as if she needed him!)

This is (in my opinion) the greatest episode of BTAS. It is visually stunning from the very first second.  Batgirl is shown as a very strong, capable character (able to fight even with both of her hands tied!) It shows every aspect of her--her intelligence, detective abilities, martial arts skill, and gymnastics. I hope WB makes a video tape of it VERY VERY soon.

  This is such a great comic book. It starts when Commisioner Gordon goes to Arkham Asylum to visit the Riddler who has left the unaswered riddle for him--"Why is a raven like a writing desk?  It will drive you to madness".  Riddler threatens everyone there with a nerve toxin--and kidnapps the Commisioner. Batman and Robin are apparently not around--and Batgirl has to solve all of the riddles on her own. This issue shows every side of Batgirl: her intelligence, her detective skills, her fighting and gymnastic skills (she beats up a man twice her size, and another one a little bit shorter), and also her riding the Batgirl Cycle!! Even if you don't like Batgirl, her resourcefullness is enough to distract from the absence of Batman himself. And the ending is an incredible suprise.  I'd run to your local comic book shop and buy it at this very moment.

BATMAN AND ROBIN

Date Released: June 20, 1997

• George Clooney--Batman/Bruce Wayne
• Chris O'Donnell--Robin/Dick Grayson
• Alicia Silverstone--Batgirl/Barbara Wilson
• Uma Thurman--Poison Ivy/Pamella Lillian Isley
• Arnold Schwartzenager--Mister Freeze/Victor Fries

RATING: ***

3/5

This was somewhat disappointing. It had its good and bad points, but it wasn't so great overall.

George Clooney was a better Batman than Val Kilmer, but he talked and smiled too much for Batman. I hated his costume.  Why'd they ditch the yellow oval? He was a better Batman than a Bruce Wayne. Bruce was kind of annoying.

Chris O' Donnell was a better Robin than last time, but his constant whining and arguing with Batman got on my nerves.  At least he didn't say any "Holy _______, Batman" anecdotes. But he had the worst lines of anyone.

Batgirl wasn't portrayed right at all. Alicia Silverstone played her well--but her origin was a little bit too much like Robin's. And her character wasn't as signifigant to plot as it should have been. Not like how Robin's character was woven into the whole plot of Batman Forever.  Barbara Wilson just sort of showed up at the doorstep. She's been living in England all of her life with no trace of an accent.  The fastest transition from schoolgirl to biker chick to superhero that I've ever seen.  She was a pretty good fighter. But she needed to have been in the film more often--she couldn't have been in it for more than 10-20 minutes. They seemed to put "parts" of Barbara Gordon in her character.  Like being a computer expert, a motorcycle rider, and a judo practitioner. I wondered why they didn't just call and make her Barbara Gordon.

Onto the villains. Bane was a very underated character.  In the comics he had great intelligence--although personally I don't like him and couldn't care less if he was part of the cast. But they ceratainly got down the physical side of him. Jeep Swenson was 6'5" tall and he played the part of the bodyguard very well.  He was big, tall, and silent except for his grunts. If you want to see this movie because you admire Bane's character, you're probably going to be disappointed. All he does is grunt Poison Ivy's commands.  He is her puppet.

 Uma Thurman was the flora femme fatale, Poison Ivy. She was very pretty, and played the part of a deranged botanist very well.  She was very reminiscent of Michelle Phipher as Catwoman, although not quite as good (but pretty good).  Uma overacted.  She contunously delivers speaches when no one is there. Hmmm....Poison Ivy was a terrible fighter--and as shown with Batgirl--wasn't too tough when it came down to one on one.  She depended totally on Bane, her love "phermone dust" (As if), and her kisses. As Pamella Isley she was intelligent, but really nerdy and she looked really bad.  As Poison Ivy she seemed to be not much more than a tramp. And Uma really over-acted.

Arnold Schwartzenager had a lot of one-liners (like in most of his films) and had more actual one-on-one action scenes than I've ever seen him have (Mr. Freeze I mean--NOT Arnold). It was a new twist to the character. Mr. Freeze was more of a joke than anything else. Just some dork who steals diamonds, freezes people, laughs, and has a personal hockey team.  The only thing that was really good about him was his wife--Arnold got the sympathy down.

Elle McPherson as Julie Madison could've very well not been in the film. She appeared in two or three scenes for about ten seconds. Ditto for Vivica Fox as Ms. B. Haven.

The visual effects were stunning--but very unrealistic.  Between the freezing gun, the love dust, the creation of Bane and Ivy's flowers, and of course--the sky surfing--the effects were great. But the sky surfing was ridiculous. Some of the fights were actually quite good, but some were ridiculous.  The first one was the worst and I think Batgirl's was the best. The scenery was also well done--my favorites are the Batcave, Poison Ivy's lair, and frozen Gotham. The drag race should've been ditched. That was an extremely stupid scene.  I would've prefered Batgirl's sixties Batcycle over that race. The actors did pretty good for what they were given to work with (can you blame Arnold for not being able to do 'Take two of these and call me in the morning'?), and even if Batman was campy like the TV series they didn't do the jokes right.

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