Originally published on Patreon
The mystery of the Hill Ripper deepens in this issue of Batgirls as the team tries to crack the mysterious message left behind at the scene of the latest murder, hidden inside a fake eye.
So, a good portion of this issue is given over to the cracking of the eye code, with Steph and Cass spending pages and pages in the library and in their loft pouring over any book that has anything to do with eyes, or the letter I, in hopes that one of them will be connected to the cipher. It feels a lot like a shot in the dark, and it's no surprise when it doesn't work out for them. But, Steph does manage to meet a cute boy and get his phone number, so it's not all bad.
Meanwhile, Babs tries to get help from the GCPD from commissioner Montoya. Whilst the conversation doesn't end up with the cops agreeing to help the Batgirls, it is still a nice scene, especially in the way that Montoya addresses the fact that nothing can keep Oracle out of their systems. It seems like she's perhaps caused a lot of grief for the GCPD IT department over the years. It's also great to have Rene acknowledge her time as The Question.
The Batgirls also get in a small fight with Killer Moth this issue, and whilst it's nothing spectacular it does break up the monotony of trying to crack the code quite nicely, and gives the more action oriented reader something to enjoy.
This issue also reveals that Killer Moth isn't alone in his crimes, and that he's working with someone else who's masterminding all of the murders and puzzles. Now, in the first scene where we see him there's a green suit in the background, and later on Babs mentions a villain they know who likes puzzles, so I was thinking this has to be The Riddler. However, thanks to the fact that every artist draws the characters differently and if they're out of their costumes you don't always know who they are, I'm not sure it this is him or not. Especially when he describes himself as 'Mr Fun'.
The next issue could reveal that this is the Riddler, that this is all some big elaborate game for him and it would make sense. But, it could also just be introducing a whole new villain, and we've been made to think of The Riddler as a fake-out. I wouldn't be surprised with either one. Whichever it is, I'm looking forward to finding out, as it's definitely the better story in the series so far.
The book's art is provided by Neil Googe and Rico Renzi, and for the most part looks really good. There are a few scenes where I didn't really enjoy it so much, especially when drawing the girls out of costume and just hanging out. They look a bit weird at times, and I'm not sure if I completely like the style.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable issue, and it's looking like the mystery is deepening.
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