"You were eight years old. You were raised in a bunker by a psychopath. You had no idea what you were doing. You were eight years old. The fact that you've tortured yourself over it ever since proves what kind of person you really are."
Review:
We continue down the story of DC's sadly under utilized Batgirl Cassandra Cain as we get to the second volume detailing her continuing adventure as Barbara Gordon's successor and becoming the person she wants to be instead of what she was bred and raised to do which is killing. I've seen some criticize Cassandra Cain as more or less a "Mary Sue" due to her abilities when yeah, okay she's a great fighter and remember this is a genre of super-powered, wishfulfilment characters everywhere including her father-figure and mentor BATMAN. The true appeal of her character, at least for me, has been the contradiction between her abilities and up-bringing to her almost limitless compassion and want to be a hero, honoring her new Bat-themed family.
One of the crucial elements of this part of her story is the death match she promised Lady Shiva in exchange for returning her skills to her and be allowed to fight as Batgirl by her mentors. It is fittingly reflected in this volume being referred to as "To the Death" but in these chapters of Cassandra's life we analyze her feelings towards death such as wanting to prevent as many killings as she can she breaks a guilty in-mate out of death row and risks her secret identity to save an assassin's life only for him to eventually be murdered anyway. Yet there's an interesting issue about a scientist experimenting on average citizens to make them into killers with them being left in a catatonic state until they constructed a reason to kill such as a veteran acting like he was at war or a priest doing "God's work" which could take up to an hour but when done on Batgirl there is an interesting wrinkle. The mentioned Battle to the Death ends in a way you expected to happen but is still nonetheless satisfying especially for Cassandra's character growth.
Cassandra's compassion is explored more throughout this volume as well. There's also looking more into Cassandra's difficult relationship with her father David Cain. Such as an issue where she thinks she may actually lose him and another about her helping and eventually consoling a boy with a criminal father. This also shows us bonding with her soon-to-be best friend Stephanie Brown, aka Spoiler, aka future Robin, aka future Batgirl after Cass. Like Cass, Steph has issues with her father a second-rate Riddler known as Cluemaster but a different outlook on life. Here we see the girls beginning to befriend one another as well as Steph offering to help Cass with reading if she teaches her a cool batarang trick. We even see Cass share a mission with Robin Tim Drake who finds her intimidating, not just for her skills but how she became a hero despite her assassin upbringing.
One of the few drawbacks of this book would be the art in some places. Damian Scott, who drew Cass's adventures in earlier issues, did bit of a design change as his art comes off too simplistic her and feels lessen in action scenes. Earlier, his art had a nice balance of animated/realistic proportions to it fitting Cass's character of dealing with darker subject matter and serious issues, to the lighter times when she wanted to be more than a killer. Here the art with its loss of anatomy and details is starting to remind me of his work on the Raven miniseries from awhile back where the characters looked liked Betty Spaghetti dolls.
Recommendation:
The re-prints of Cassandra Cain's Batgirl adventures continue to be interesting characters studies and also added bonus of having more content than the original trades did. It also fortunate as Cassandra has finally resurfaced in the new New 52/ DC You/Rebirth continuity with a lackluster codename of Orphan but she is written more true to her old self than she has in years in the twice-monthly Detective Comics. Doesn't hurt she's also reunited with old friends Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake as well as working with Batman again and also Batwoman. This volume continues to be a must for any dedicated Bat fan and YA shelves.
No comments:
Post a Comment