It’s spooky science when a ghost starts freaking out seniors at the Burnside YMCA Pool and Batgirl is called in to investigate. No, seriously.
Batgirl 12
Written by Hope Larson
Art by Eleonora Carlini and Christine Duart Peter
The creative team behind Batgirl keep taking me to the most interesting places since taking over the title for Rebirth. I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting a trip to the YMCA, and I certainly wasn’t expecting a senior water class to play a pivotal part of the plot. But that’s what I got with this issue – and it’s going to easily be one of my top moments of the week.
The Burnside YMCA brings not just Batgirl in to investigate a “ghost” haunting the pool, but also a TV paranormal investigator, who was quite willing to strip down to her bathing suit to try and attract/confront the ghost. But it wasn’t a flair for the dramatic that was going to save the day here.
Batgirl – and her secret identity of Barbara Gordon – investigates the matter at Burnside University and finds clues pointing to a brilliant graduate student who had her research stolen and her body sacrificed in the name of science. It was never a ghost, just a displaced person trying to find her way back home. So, she gathers everyone together – including the TV ghost hunter, which was a little weird – gets them in the pool and helps drag the body out of whatever weird place she was in.
I loved the fact that Babs has a tasteful one-piece bathing suit with the Batgirl logo on it. The members of the Bat-team really are prepared for everything. And the art from Carlini and Peter was just spot on all issue. It’s a perfect match for the story Larson is telling here.
The best part about this issue? It was a one-and-done. The story didn’t need a 6-issue arc to be told and it wasn’t stretched out further than it needed to be. The story was told in 22 pages, from start to finish. We need more issues like this across the board.