It’s election season! Barbara decides to volunteer for Luciana Alejo’s campaign as she runs for a Senate seat. Unfortunately, that puts her at odds with her own father, Commissioner Gordon. The biggest promise Alejo has made on her campaign trail is to clean up the corruption in the GCPD. While Barbara thinks that’s a good idea, Batgirl has ulterior motives for joining Alejo’s volunteer army. Politics in Gotham are dangerous under the best of circumstances, and someone is really gunning for Alejo. Ex-cop Jason Bard, whom Barbara has a history with, serves as Alejo’s campaign manager. He is willing to work with Batgirl to keep the hopeful Senator safe, but Batgirl isn’t too sure. Can they cooperate long enough to get Luciana elected?

I was reminded of some of the Batgirl comics from the ’70s that were featured in her Bronze Age omnibus. Barbara actually did run for the House of Representatives during the ’70s, to serve as the start of her character retirement. One of the issues featured in the omnibus showed Batgirl and Robin working on her campaign (and on official Bat business ;D ) in Washington, D.C. This story was a great throwback.

Something that was distracting for me were the exaggerated features in some characters, but only from a certain angle. It was just when a character was in profile that their lips and noses were just too big. The style was otherwise pretty standard comic book-y and reminded me a bit of the old Batman animated series.

One last thing… I still hate this new mask!!!

– Kathleen

Scott, Mairghread, Paul Pelletier, and Norm Rapmund. Batgirl (Rebirth, Vol. 6): Old Enemies. 2019.