Batgirl #55
War Games: Act One Part 6
Writer: Dylan Horrocks
Pencils: Sean Phillips
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $2.50

This review contains spoilers.

Two Russian Mob hitmen are walking through a playground looking for some of the family members of the Aquista Mob to kidnap. As they are walking through the gates and towards one of the children playing, the remarks by one of the men sums up the new vision of all of the Gotham gangs, “Old rules are finished. From now on, we hit our enemies where it hurts most.” The men unsheathe their guns from the holsters and lock in on the kid right as Batgirl swoops down with a nice flying kick to the head. In a few seconds, she’s dispatches those two men easily and leaves them unconscious and is headed away towards the next trouble spot.

In mid-flight, Batgirl asks Oracle where she should go and she is told to stop a squabble between foot soldiers from the Yakuza and the Escabedo Cartel. As Batgirl arrives upon the scene, she tells Oracle about her confrontation with the Odessa Mob and who their target was. While Batgirl proceeds to beat both sides senseless, Oracle puts two and two together and makes the connection to all of the intel that she’s recently monitored from the Odessa Mob’s communications. “Oh my God, Cass– If this War seemed bad enough before…”, states Oracle, “…It’s about to get a whole lot worse.”

After resolving the Yakuza/Escabedo fight, she launches herself (with the aid of the decel line) into the air and asks Oracle where Spoiler is. Oracle responds sarcastically that Stephanie is no longer on the team anymore. Batgirl yells back at her telling oracle not to talk to her like an idiot. Oracle apologizes to Batgirl and tells her that 30 hours without sleep is the reason for the sarcastic remark. Then, Oracle tries to redirect Batgirl’s attention by telling her to go to another problem area.

Even while fighting the gunmen, Batgirl keeps after Oracle about the location of Spoiler. Oracle says that she doesn’t know where Stephanie is and that she hasn’t had the time to find out. Just then, an alert message comes in over the police scanner describing the action that has transpired at Grieve Memorial High.

Oracle quickly calls Batman to inform him of the possible hostage situation over the school and who attends that school, namely the former Robin, Tim Drake. Batman quickly takes flight so he can better assess the incident. Meanwhile, Batgirl goes by Spoiler’s house to see her. Bu as she peers into Spoiler’s bedroom window, she only finds a neatly made bed. Realizing that this scene can’t be good, Batgirl decides to back into the War Zone to find Spoiler.

Next, we find Spoiler overseeing a battle in the streets below and she drops into action. Spoiler knocks a couple of thugs around that throws a concussion grenade. But as she tries to escape the blast, a piece of shrapnel tags Spoiler in the arm and has her leaning against a brick wall for safety. After tending to her wound, she looks up and sees that a gunman has the drop on her with his gun pointed right at her. At the last second, a well placed Batarang strikes the crook’s temple and knocks him out cold. Spoiler then sees Batgirl who is staring right back at her with a very disapproving glare.

After asking Spoiler if she’s OK, Batgirl gets angry and tells Spoiler that she shouldn’t be around the fighting and that she should go home. Spoiler timidly agrees and leaves. Batgirl looks like she regrets talking to Spoiler so harshly and chases her up to a rooftop to talk. Batgirl gets her target’s attention then looks at her body language and realizes something. She asks Spoiler, “Are you lying to me?” Spoiler doesn’t say anything then drops out of sight just as a GCPD copter appears. Batgirl tries to give chase but is interrupted by Oracle telling her about the emergency at the high school. Batgirl lunges for the ‘copter to hitch a ride to the school while Oracle fills her in on the details.

Batman has already arrived at the scene and is relaying his procedures for the Bat-team to Oracle. She takes offense to Batman’s orders and states that with all of the information about the school and the surrounding areas at her fingertips, she can coordinate everything from her command bunker. Batman ignores her request and tells her that everyone needs to keep radio silence in the school area. He then disconnects his radio channel.

Batgirl and the helicopter arrive at the high school. Batgirl spots a point to jump off of her ride and does so. But not without some of the passengers noticing the slight shift in weight on the aircraft and they look out to see what happened. A news reporter sees a small part of her cape and starts yell at his cameraman to get a shot of the elusive Batman but to no avail.

Oracle gets in contact with Batgirl and relays to her of Batman’s plan as well as the need to keep out of sight while trying to get to the rendezvous site. Batgirl doesn’t initially respond but after being asked a second time by Oracle, she says “Shhh.”

As Batgirl makes her way to the site, she notices a chalk outline and next to it, a backpack and an old school Chuck on the ground. Worried, Batgirl uses all of the available shadows and distractions to her advantage as she quickly gets moving towards Batman. Just as she gets to the school, a loud “BLAM” was heard by everyone in the general vicinity, which can be good news at all.

Again, not a whole lot going in this issue; other than to advance the storyline. But what I liked about this one was Horrocks’ use of frustration by the lead players. From Batgirl’s and Oracle’s exchanges to Oracle’s and Batman’s heated discussion, you got a sense that with even all of the preparation that all of the Bat-team has trained for, they still react to stress the same way that the rest of us do. And based on how the events of this War are transpiring, I think that you might see more actions or reactions out of frustration by the lead characters as it continues on. Next week, Catwoman #34 and Batman #631 round out the first act. Stay tuned.

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