Batgirl, Vol. 8: The Joker War

This collection begins with a story in which Batgirl fights a villain who kills people using liquid gold and... actually that's about it. There's some attempt to tie it in with Barbara's ideals, but basically, it's a fight with the odd one-liner thrown in here and there and little more than that. It's followed by the obligatory Joker War tie-in, which is little more than a do-over of The Killing Joke with a different outcome and a hint at long-term consequences that are unlikely to be followed up. The third part is the best, dealing with the creepy idea of a serial killer who dresses his victims up after killing them. The ending of that is good, putting Barbara in a difficult position... but it's also an ending that's been done before, with the same characters. And then we get a more reflective piece that shows how Batgirl is different from the rest of the Bat-family, contrasting the nature of her beliefs with theirs.

There's nothing really bad in this, and there are some good bits here and there, but there's nothing standout either. Castellucci's run seems to have been trying hard to find what makes Barbara tick, but it lacks the freshness of its predecessors in the series, and, in this volume, spends too much time rehashing the past.