It's been a good year for confounding expectations in comic books. The indie publishers continue to push boundaries in terms of the stories they tell and the creative teams they look to provide them, and the Big Two have started to take notice of their success. Diversity of content and talent has turned out to be one of the big priorities for comics in 2014, with one of the biggest benefactors of this renewed attitude being the Bat Books at DC. Batgirl got a total overhaul, with Barbara Gordon moving to Gotham's equivalent of Manhattan and becoming a much more modern, progressive and fun character. She's like an actual young woman in 2014! Much of that has been down to young artist Babs Tarr, a newbie to the medium but one who has brought a fresh new perspective to the rather staid world of superhero comics. She's been eased into the industry by veterans writing team Brendan Fletcher and Cameron Stewart, with Stewart providing rough layouts for Tarr to work over. It's Stewart who was also responsible for Batgirl's vintage-clothing costume redesign, as well as the covers for the relaunched series so far. The first issue's cover was a certain statement of intent, with Barbara taking a selfie in a crowded girls' bathroom. That's not something you see in superhero comics often, right? Neither do you see a member of the Bat Family clad in a costume that looks more like Beyonce than Batman, but that's exactly the cover of #37, and it's not only confounding expectations but it's, well, a totally rad cover. The best of the year, in fact.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
