The Babsgirl of Burnside is something I would rather forget. 30-something issues into the New 52, DC went all silly with Barbara Gordon, and it took a long time for her to get anywhere close to serious again. Don’t get me wrong—I like fun; but DC had turned Barbara into something of a caricature of a stereotype of a type of person she had never been (even back in her first appearance in Detective Comics #359).
It’s easy to lump everything in that run into one pile of disdain, including the costume—which was also a major shift and was much more “youthful” than what had come before. But in truth, I don’t hate it. When everything got Rebirth’d in 2016 and Babs was keeping it real in Japan for a bit, I felt like the suit really worked. It looked especially good in the daytime and early evenings, and writer Hope Larson and artist Rafael Albuquerque gave Babs plenty of time in the sun.
So when I saw that Diamond was putting out a comics version of Jim Gordon’s non-psycho offspring, I was actually happy to see Babs in her Burnside gear. So how does the new Gallery stack up?
Sculptacular
It looks great! I love the dynamic pose, like something right out of a comic book. The cape flairs out to her right, as her stance and punching right hand suggest rotation and movement toward her left side. I’m a big fan of good balance in a statue, and I think this one nails it. The rest of the costume is sculpted quite well, too, as is Barbara’s face and hair.
The base? The base kind of sucks. It is somewhat suggestive of rooftops, but it is very abstract and vague. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the molding is pretty sloppy, so there aren’t many clean lines. If this were much more angular—like the bases in Diamond’s Animated Series resin busts—I think I might like it more.
Paintastic—well, not really
The paint isn’t bad, but it isn’t a standout job, either. The lines on the face aren’t the cleanest I’ve seen—though, to be fair, they aren’t the worst, either. The most egregious error is on the Bat emblem—it’s pretty sloppily painted, and if you could choose one thing to get right, one thing to make super-clean so it pops, it should be the Bat.
Batisfaction
Overall, though, it’s a pretty good take. If you dig the colorful Burnside garb, I can’t see you not liking this one. And at current Amazon prices, it’s a pretty good sub-$40 deal. Don’t expect a flawless, laser-straight paint job, and you won’t be disappointed.
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