This last two issue by Ray Fawkes have really been great. Barbara's brother, James Jr. is one of the creepiest most fulfilling villains she's had to face in the New 52. Read Full Review

Daniel Sampere continues to improve with each issue and this one is his best yet. His facial expressions and clean, traditional style is refreshing and his action scenes flow well. The four inkers helping him out do a lot to improve the look of the pencils and add just the right touches, as it all could have easily gone wrong. The colorist, Blond, also does a phenomenal job, balancing just the right amount of shadows and hues. I was fully prepared to hate Fawkes' brief run in Simone's absence, but he's actually managed to fill in quite nicely, creating a compelling and fascinating story. He's a writer to watch and his two issues on this title should get him noticed even more. 8/10 Read Full Review

Visually strong, Batgirl #18 is still held back by narrative uncertainty " one that I hope will pass soon. Read Full Review

And because of this, the news feels shoehorned in. It's an ok issue, definitely suffering from now having regular writer Gail Simone, who I can't help but think would of given the issue the humanity it misses. Read Full Review

The This was a solid, well told issue, which was personally bogged down for me with my James Jr. fatigue, and feeling that the style of story telling doesn't quite fit the title.  Overall, I wouldn't say anything is wrong with it, I just don't think it was a great fit. I will say though that I genuinely enjoyed how strong of a character Fawkes portrays Babs as, intelligence is key to her, and he definitely showed that off in his two issues. Read Full Review

Ray Fawkes takes over and we get to see Batgirl thrown into some heated action. As she takes on Firebug, her brother, James Jr, continues to plot her demise. It's a crazy game of cat-and-mouse mixed in with some fallout from BATMAN INCORPORATED #8. We get a nice outside view of the tragic events which leaves you craving more. It's great seeing a superhero comic where the hero actually shows signs of being in a fight. With Firebug being the main threat in the issue, it almost feels like his story is getting in the way as we want to see more on James Jr or on the fallout. The stage is being set and we should have an interesting showdown next issue. Read Full Review

Batgirl #18 is just another reason why Gail Simone should have kept writing it. The intense characterization is gone, the inside perspective of Babs is gone, and the writer shows no connection to the story with only two issues. If DC can't get someone dedicated to keeping Batgirl a great, strong and dark character this title is going to slip very quickly. Read Full Review

Batgirl #18 was an improvement over the previous month's issue but not by a lot. Ray Fawkes does a good job continuing the rivalry between Barbara and James but the story is starting to feel as though we are running around in circles. There needs to be more to the story between the two siblings than what we have been shown so far. The addition of Robin's death to this issue was unnecessarily shoehorned in and only broke up the momentum of the main story in a negative way. Hopefully Batgirl can find her identity once Gail Simone returns to series. Read Full Review

I don't recommend picking it up. The art by Sampere, Hunter, and BiOND is good and the final three pages are important for what's to come, but overall this felt like filler to me. The narration was a chore to read, the villain Firebug was very uninteresting, and if you're picking it up for some sentimentality due to “REQUIEM” being written on the cover you're going to be very disappointed. Read Full Review

Batgirl deserves better than this. Hurry back, Gail. Read Full Review