Simone's addition to The Night of the Owls stands on its own without any other Bat-titles, and given its high quality, readers would be sorely missing out for not picking it up. Read Full Review

With as much as there is going on, Simone actually does a very nice job of providing all of the information and critical elements to this chapter of the story from Scott Snyder's outline in the main Batman title, while simultaneously making the story fresh enough to stand on its own. That's why she's one of the best writers working in comics today. Read Full Review

There are a lot of lovely parts of this issue, and the back story has a lot of emotional resonance, especially when the Talon finally explains her actions to Barbara, but overall there's just a bit too much mystery for my taste. Batgirl looks phenomenal, as Ardian Syaf delivers some excellent sequences throughout the issue, but things never quite come together as beautifully as the opening would have made me hope it could. Batgirl #9 is a good one, though, don't get me wrong, and it handles the crossover well (and ends with an effective gut-punch) earning 3.5 out of 5 stars overall. It has done what a good crossover needs to do, as well, sending me out to seek the rest of the Night Of The Owls and see what's up in Gotham... Read Full Review

All the same, Simone joins the crossover, defines the threat in terms relevant to Batgirl and even gives a little more definition to the impact "Night of the Owls" is having on Commissioner Gordon. One need not stray from this title in order to understand the danger Batgirl faces and to enjoy the story Gail Simone and company deliver. Read Full Review

I understand that this issue is a one-shot tie-in, but the quality of this series has been degrading for a long time, regardless. I'll stick it out a while longer because Simone's attached to it, but I might as well say right here I don't have much confidence she can turn things around. Read Full Review

It's sooooooooooooo melodramatic. Gail Simone seems to think this sappy ridiculousness is good and it's not. I wish I had better words to use, but it's trite and this issue doesn't do anything to inspire a desire to read any more of Batgirl.The art was decent. Read Full Review

This... this was very disappointing. There are just so many "wait, why, why is this happening moments?" Why did the Court guy freak the fuck out over seeing Mary's face, like it would impede her ability to be a Talon (her face looked fine at the end, by the way.) What the hell did Mary's message to Babs even mean? What was with the convoluted plan to get Gordon to light the signal, he would have done it regardless of being provoked or not. I mean, there were some bright spots... but with the "wait, what?" sort of elements, along with it feeling a bit rushed (after the three page intro in Japan, with characters that didn't really seem to matter) it was just disappointing. Read Full Review

This is the first ever comic Gail Simone has wrote in which I found hard to follow. My first complaint is if Mary is that young girl, how the heck did the young girl get to America and why were their eyes different? I was greatly confused by that, and then the talon turns out to be that young girl from Japan when the young girl named Mary chosen to be a talon seemed to be African-American. Whatever. The writing was confusing, and it seemed Mrs. Simone was trying to do too much. Ardian Syaf however goes to town with this issue. As always, his art is great but Mrs. Simone really lets Mr. Syaf go to town illustrating this issue. This is the best work he has done on the series thus far. However, its unfortunate it is Ms. Simones worst work on the series Read Full Review

If you don't question any of the action on these pages, you'll have an alright experience. It's well drawn, vividly colored, and action packed. But if you think about what you're reading for just a little bit I don't see how you could enjoy this. “Batgirl” #9 should have been the very best of all of the Night of the Owl crossover issues but instead it's one big missed opportunity. I will say that the origins of the Talon in this issue are kind of interesting. It's a story that dates back to 1944 and shows us how yet another child was taken under the wing of The Court of Owls. Those 4 pages however, are not worth $2.99 and the characters in those pages didn't even matter to the greater story being told. At all. I say skip this one and if Batgirl doesn't clean up its act soon– drop the series from your pull-list entirely. Read Full Review