Writers: Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher
Artist: Babs Tarr
It’s nice to see, right off the bat, that Babs can apply her inherent resourcefulness and quick thinking that keep her alive in her superhero career to being the hero of a wedding day and making sure things go smoothly. The wedding of Alysia and Jo is an important milestone for the Batgirl series and for mainstream comics in general. Alysia is one of the first openly trans characters in mainstream comics and it’s something that is almost never brought up, something that is simply accepted by the people in her life. She is a happy, successful character with a strong relationship and now a wedding to tie that all together. It’s a big moment and it’s handled well.
There are a lot of fans out there of Barbara and Dick Grayson as a couple and they are no doubt going to walk away from this issue disappointed. Anyone who’s been reading the Batgirl title has probably noticed that she’s been developing a relationship with Luke Fox. That’s definitely made official here as Dick comes back to pour his heart out to Barbara, saying a lot of things that fans—and probably even her, deep down—have been wanting him to say for awhile.
What I like about this inherently sappy wedding day moment is how Babs takes the situation away from Dick. This is not his moment, this is not his day, it’s not even her day. She has devoted her whole day just to make sure that her best friend’s wedding goes smoothly. And it does. The wedding itself surprisingly goes off without a hitch.
Luke also maintains a level head. He doesn’t get jealous, he doesn’t do the stereotypical new boyfriend who’s nervous about the guy from the past thing, he’s just glad that Babs comes back to the wedding and wants to ensure they have a good rest of their night together.
While most of the issue is handled very well, there are still some things that I wasn’t so sure about, mostly the amount of time Barbara spends in the Batgirl costume. There’s an unnecessary amount of action and costumed acrobatics in her discussion with Dick, all of which could have easily been traded for a simple discussion on the roof.
Still, it’s an important issue in the series, cements a few things about the comic and where it’s headed and has a pretty strong and unexpected cliffhanger ending.
