Batgirl #7

[superfangirl1]

Barbara Gordon Sr finally visits Commissioner Gordon, having not spoken to him since she walked out a decade previously. We see a surprisingly vulnerable Jim Gordon, and learn something of why, in his wife's eyes she had to leave.






Later Batgirl fights a new villain named Grotesque again and does better the second encounter.

Comments

[sadoeuphemist]

"Dr. Hurt"

[mrstatham]

I never particularly liked Hurt, but point taken, yeah.

The only difference here is that Hurt was actually built up as a mastermind. Even if he's only used for one story - mission accomplished. This guy isn't nearly memorable or interesting enough to be a recurring foe - even his mask looks like that of the henchmen to one of the Club of Villains guys. This is just contributing to Simone's bizarre approach to the Killing Joke in that every villain she's used so far has been some sort of weird mirror of Barbara - and this guy is the most blatant example.

[icon_uk]

I'd say Hurt wasn't really built up as a mastermind, we were TOLD he was one, repeatedly (One of my many issues with the character, especially given how little actual evidence of it in his actual endeavours).

Surely Bat-villains being reflections of Batman is a long established trope - Joker is chaos to Batman's order. The Riddler is his deductive brilliance gone sour. Two-Face is his dual-personality warped into madness. Ra's Al Ghul is his weallth and power channelled into controlling people rather than aiding them.

This isn't a particularly good example to be sure, but it's in keeping with many Batclan foes.

[sadoeuphemist]

This guy isn't a reflection. This is when you look in a mirror, and you half-notice this dude standing in the background of your reflection but you don't pay any attention to him because he's just a guy who happened to be standing there at the moment. This is that dude.

[icon_uk]

Until you remember that you're alone in the house and there's no way there should have been someone standing there at all!

But that's another story (and probably another genre too)

[mrstatham]

As I say, I was never a huge fan of Hurt, and yes, Morrison did tell, rather than show, what Hurt was capable of; As it was, to me Hurt was just some schmuck at the right place at the right time.

And maybe I am just being a little unfair because I pretty much loathe this book, but it just feels lazy to have three villains in a row who all reflect some manner of Batgirl; Joker aside, all of the villains have things going on that define them outside of their relationship to Batman, and all of them seem to have better staying power than Simone's three creations.

That said, perhaps I'm falling into the trap I occasionally point out about fans not being particularly receptive to new villains. But I still felt, say, Slipstream, I think it was, from later on in Steph's Batgirl run was a more interesting concept than any Simone has laid down so far, and the only connecting element to Steph was that they shared a class at Uni.

I also just.. Don't get this fascination with the Killing Joke. For a book that Simone apparently reviles, she just seems awfully hung up on it. If I were her, I would've done my best to barter with DC to get rid of the story from continuity, because it is just a crutch here, and we know that DC is never going to build up the Joker's comeback after his appearance in Detective Comics #1 just to have Barbara Gordon take him down when he's back. We just know it.

[jaybee3]

Not to defend Morrison (since I was never a fan of the Hurt storyline myself) but I think it was clear that Hurt wasn't much of a villain. He just thought he was. When he came across someone like the Joker he was out of his league.

[mrstatham]

Well, I don't know. Morrison is either being really tongue in cheek in his interviews or he's deadly serious, because I remember reading stuff and he seemed to think Doctor Hurt was basically a solid supervillain. To be fair, to some degree he absolutely is, even if he is partially empowered by Darkseid which gives him an unfair advantage.

That said, the best part of Hurt's appearances was seeing him get dismantled by the Joker on both occasions. The finale of RIP with the Joker clearly understanding the name of the game when it comes to Batman (and himself) just shows Hurt was so out of his league.