With the rise in popularity of superheroes in mainstream media, it only makes sense to talk about where superheroes came from: comic books. Comic books are a great medium for readers because they’re a marriage of literature and graphic art. They’re able to tell stories in interesting and creative ways. While all gender superheroes are popular, there’s a bit of a divide. There is more popularity in male superheroes than female superheroes.

To say there aren’t female-led superhero books is an overstatement. There’s books like Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Black Widow, Captain Marvel, and World’s Finest. However, there seems to be no general push on the books in advertising. For example, DC Comics released Sword of Sorcery featuring Amethyst in 2012. After only a year in publication, the book was canceled. Why? It seems to be a lack of advertising and no real push to make the book known to a general audience.
Is it because of the lack of a wide audience? Is it because some publishing companies try to attract a male demographic? I don’t know, but hopefully, this will get turned around in the future.

Anyway, out of the female-led superhero books I mentioned, my favorite is Batgirl. The Batgirl comics are some of the best superhero comics I’ve read. Batgirl Volume 1: The Darkest Reflection is not only a great introduction to the character but a generally good read.

Batgirl Volume 1: The Darkest Reflection, written by Gail Simone with art by both Adam Hughes and Ardian Syaf, takes place in DC Comics alternate timeline, The New 52. The New 52 was a line of 52 comic books that were published starting all the way back in 2011. Since then, the line has had a lot of successful titles as well as failed canceled titles. (Kind of weird that DC carried that name on their books when only this year they’ve started to take the name off. Plus there’s been more than 52 comic books. Don’t you just love it when a company is unable to count?) The New 52 was supposed to be a gateway for both old and new readers to jump on board with new interpretations of these beloved characters. While there’s not much change with the character of Batgirl and some of her general history. What makes up for it is its story.

The Darkest Reflection reintroduces Barbara Gordon — Commissioner Gordon’s daughter — as the crime-fighting superhero, Batgirl again after being paralyzed for three years after The Joker shot her. With Batgirl back in Gotham City, new villains start to pop up for Barbara. There’s Mirror, the first villain who kills people who receive miracles when others don’t. The second villain is Gretel, who in many ways is like a twisted version of Barbara. Both are similar it’s just the different paths both chose that make them stand out from each other. Will Batgirl be able to stop both of them? Or will this put the returned crime fighter down for good.

Writer Gail Simone, whose previous works include beloved titles such as Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman, and Secret Six returns to write Batgirl. Ms. Simone does a great job writing Barbara. She’s been writing the character for many years in Birds of Prey. She knows the character inside and out. So it would only make sense for her to return to write Barbara again. The story shows Barbara’s character arc as well as what it’s like to be unparalyzed. The villains are great too; they’re just as developed as Barbara but also have tragic backstories like many Batman villains. The side characters are also great, like Commissioner Gordon, Barbara’s roommate, Detective McKenna, Barbara’s mother. It’s well-written, but what can be said about the art?

The artwork is amazing! Both the cover artwork and in-page artwork are presented with so much detail. Like I mentioned before, the in-page artwork was done by Adrian Syaf, while the cover artwork was done by Adam Hughes. The cover artwork is gorgeous. The covers work because they not only give a general idea to the reader of what could happen in the story but also catch the reader’s interest. The art has that 50’s or 60’s type of painted feeling due to the look of Batgirl on the various covers — it’s detailed and classy. The in-page artwork is really good. The characters are drawn to convey a lot of emotion. Even in silent scenes where there is no dialogue you can tell a lot of what’s going on without explicitly explaining to the reader how the character is feeling. The panel layouts are well-done. They are a bit simple,e but they don’t need to be complex — that way it will make it easier for the reader to jump from the current panel to the next.

Overall, this is a great start for anyone who’s not only interested in reading Batgirl comics but it’s also a good title that stands out on its own and doesn’t need to explain the previous history of the character or Batman to support the book. Batman is in the book, but he’s not the focus. Batgirl is, as well as her continuing story arc. Batgirl Volume 1: The Darkest Reflection is a good introduction to female-led superhero books, a good introduction to the character of Batgirl, and a good read as a whole.