Batgirl: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1

Batgirl: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1 by Various
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Batgirl: The Bronze Age Omnibus Volume 1 collects Batgirl stories from DETECTIVE COMICS #359, #363, #369, #371, #384, #385, #388, #389, #392, #393, #396, #397, #400, #401, #404-424; BATMAN #197; and BATMAN FAMILY #1, #3-7, #9-11.

These days, I'm more interested in the rest of the Batman Family than Batman himself. I had some rewards points from my credit card to burn and saw this available for around $50, quite a bit lower than its normal $100 price tag. I'm not sure it was a worthwhile purchase, free or not.

I'll get the good parts out of the way first. This feature had top notch art in every issue: Don Heck, Mike Grell, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Bob Brown, Joe Luis Garcia Lopez, Gil Kane, Curt Swan, and others had penciling duties. Dick Giordano and Murphy Anderson headlined the inking team. Needless to say, Batgirl had some great artists at the helm and the end result looked great.

The stories range from good to almost terrible. Some of them are worthy of Batman and others read like a group of guys were sitting in a smoke filled office saying things like "Broads like fashion. Let's do a story around that." This was a solid two-star read until Barbara Gordon became a Congresswoman. Things kicked into high gear as Babs and Robin had adventures around Washington. Who would have thought political stories would save the day?

Up until the last third of the book, I was planning on passing on Volume 2. Now, I'll probably end up reading it but it's not a high priority. The Huntress stories I read earlier were so much better than most of these.

One last thing that I found interesting: Batgirl is 25 while Robin is in his late teens. Isn't Dick older in the current continuity?

While the art is spectacular, the stories in Batgirl: The Bronze Age Omnibus leave something to be desired. Three out of five batarangs.


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