Finding Healing Through Strife: Reviewing ‘Batgirl’ #2

Lady Shiva is one of the most dangerous people in the world. Where she goes, pain and suffering will follow. Sometimes, though, that pain and suffering comes not from her hands but the hands of others even more powerful than she is.

As the threat of the ancient Unburied reveals itself, mother and daughter find themselves beaten and in search of help in Batgirl #2. The second chapter in Cassandra Cain’s return to solo stories from Tate Brombal, Takeshi Miyazawa, Mike Spicer, and Tom Napolitano.

Some series need an arc, sometimes two, for them to really get going in a way that sparks full interest. Others just need an issue or two to really sell themselves and make their presence felt. With Batgirl, it’s very much the latter.

Everything about Cassandra Cain is full and realized in these pages. Brombal pens a story that has so many fun layers, despite the overall concept being simple. It’s a parent figure and child story where they have to face an overwhelming threat. Boilerplate for most story mediums, especially in many superhero or similar genre cases. Yet, it’s the intricacies and the time spent on character and other elements that really makes it work.

Each of the Batgirls is truly unique, and so dissimilar from Batman in many respects. Cassandra is probably the closest of the Batfamily to Bruce in many respects, yet she retains her own identity. Just the basic nature of her relationship with Bà Bao and her family adds more layers to the already complicated onion that is Cassandra. In just these handful of pages, the impact of this grandmother and her boys and how they touch Cassandra and Shiva makes their loss by the end hit harder than most just-introduced characters.

Mixed through all the emotional character developing beats are these really slick, and quite brutal, beats of action.

Miyazawa has a solid artistic style. It works for both the quieter and action heavy moments. It fits well within that space where rough and smooth come together, creating a very whimsical detailed style with powerful heft and weight to it. Sharp edges are not just for the swords and other bladed weapons on the page, but for the angular cut to various figures on the page. This gives everyone their own unique visual energy, while allowing their features to shift with whatever emotional or body language energy is needed in the moment.

Much of the lightness within the artwork allows it to still have some small levity, even amongst the tough story beats. This contrast helps to make both elements of the story work even better because their opposing natures actually make them more complimentary by the end. This also reflects the way Cassandra and Stephanie Brown work so well as friends and Batgirls. This contrasting duality while making something great together is what it’s all about.

Once more, Spicer rises to the challenge of finding the balance within the color palette. Darks and lights swirl around together, playing into both emotional flavors of the story. This gives all the spaces and the backgrounds a well-lived in, heavier touch. There aren’t a lot of flashy colors here, since mother and daughter are clothed in black and there aren’t any real superheroic styles in play.

Cassandra’s voice remains a high point of the stories. While she isn’t the verbose type physically, the captions tell us just as much as her body language. It’s so precise and well formed, as Napolitano makes them move around the page as deftly as their speaker. All the words and letters carry great emphasis, power, and personality at all times. Those colorful caption boxes and the other modifiers in play are so juicy.

“I am Batgirl. I write the fortunes of my enemies. No matter the hand I was dealt. I make my future. And I always will.”

I mean, come on, how can you not read those words in the way they are laid out and not want to leap up and cheer? That’s some badass poetry right there.

Batgirl #2 is now available from DC Comics.