The Sins Of The Mother — Reviewing ‘Batgirl’ #6

Relationships are very complicated. This is especially true with people with familial ties, such as an absentee parent and their abandoned child.

In the face of a powerful foe, the relationship between Cassandra Cain and Lady Shiva comes to a head in Batgirl #6. The conclusion of the first story arc of this amazing series comes from Tate Brombal, Takeshi Miyazawa, Mike Spicer, and Tom Napolitano.

I will never tire of singing the praises of this series. The same is true for the character that rests at the heart of the tale.

Cassandra Cain is an amazing character. This creative team not only understands that, but proves that with each page and issue.

Hers is a world that rests between light and dark, much like her chosen father Batman/Bruce Wayne. It is a world that is sharp and rough but still has some lighter elements that come into play. Miyazawa is the right artist for this world, providing a style that is whimsical at its core but rife with the requisite rougher and sharper textures that are needed. It’s a style that I’ve come to really love on the various books that he has tackled over the years.

We have plenty of big action scenes here, mixed with more personal family confrontation pages. All of them feel bold, dynamic, and lively. Emotions are presented in real and powerful ways as the action scenes glide across the page. Panel choices bring us closer and further as appropriate, building a personal connection to the characters while reminding us the scope of the space or world around them.

Spicer’s color palette taps into these same spaces, bringing a lot of dark and shadowy colors to the page. Each of the portions of the palette declare the same rougher and sharper elements at the overall artwork. This gives the spaces a more lived-in and heavier feeling as the story moves along, which is fitting since much of this story takes place in a dark underground cavern.

Rounding that out is the way that Napolitano allows all of that energy to be heard. He crafts intricate voices for each of the characters on the page. Their emotions are raw as their ways of speech take control on the page. This shifts the fonts just slightly with modifications so that so much of what is on the page is unique but still similar enough. Much love to the staggered borders, lower sentence case, ragged bubbles, and other changes that really mix the voices up.

Lady Shiva is one of those characters that I’ve read stories about but never really cared about, even though Cassandra is one of my favorite characters. Their relationship has been played out before, but somehow it feels so raw and real here from Brombal. I care about what is happening here. I love the constant reminders that Cassandra has a family that she chose and that loves her, even as she struggles to come to terms to why she wants to even be around Shiva.

Hell, we’re about to get origin stories for Shiva in light of how this arc ended, which has me very intrigued.

This is a story that really showcases why Cassandra is such a dynamic and special character. It’s about time we had her taking such a spotlight again. Every time she slips back to more supporting it leaves me shaking my head. There is no time she shouldn’t be at the forefront of things.

Let’s hope this series has many fruitful issues/years ahead of it.

Batgirl #6 is now available from DC Comics.