Vengeance Road Is Paved With Blood — Reviewing ‘Batgirl’ #8

The painful tragic tale of Lady Shiva continues. Meanwhile, the dangerous, manipulative, and extremely calculating David Cain enters the picture. It’s a family affair as Batgirl #8 wraps up the unexpectedly deep origin story chapter of this ongoing series.

Another beyond solid issue is brought to us by Tate Brombal, Isaac Goodhart, Mike Spicer, and Tom Napolitano.

Taking older stories, some told in pieces, and finding ways to not only modernize but flesh them out isn’t always the easiest. Story tone, presentation, and what we expect from that medium change over time. Comparing a comic book of today to one of any decades of the old century would be silly. Each has their own positives and negatives, respectively.

This two-part story has done a great job at stitching Lady Shiva and her sister’s stories together and meets the tonal challenge in this one. Much of that comes from the artistic side.

There is a rougher, angular feeling to what Goodhart puts on the page. Overall, it has a solid flow, dynamic energy, and the framing choices are spot on. This allows characters and moments room to breathe and truly emote for the audience, especially when many of the moments in question are quieter or are montage in style.

There are moments where the more seventies or so aesthetic tied to the publishing origins of these characters is on display. This ranges from the presentation to the garb to some of the adventures depicted. None of it feels dated though or out of place, though. Goodhart gives it all just the right amount of push to make it feel older but not out of place to our current mindset.

Things having a more vibrant palette from Spicer helps with that. Many of the ‘normal’ moments are done with things dialed down somewhat. So that when the flashier (the aforementioned montage like scenes) moments come there is easily room for the palette to jump up several notches. Spicer sprinkles in the darker tones for good measure to keep the heavier tone of the series present.

Even the lettering helps play into these feelings, subtly and noticeably shifting as the times change. During the moments of the group first forming to do good, there is a scene with this Mantis figure they fight. Napolitano gives the Mantis speech bubbles this strange spreading feeling with the font greatly shifting. It really gives off an almost campy sort of feeling perfect for the feeling of the 70s born of this moment of story.

This is in addition to holding down the volume, tone, and overall feeling of all the lettering present. Letting the words wash over the reader and give the punch they need to as the story moves along.

That punch really comes hard in what Brombal has written. DC Continuity can be shaky with all the different resets and changes born of the various Crises and Flashpoint style stories. Deftly, he weaves it all together to create a modern and very fitting version of events for Shiva and the others in her orbit. Many of them were pieces barely connected together in the past that now feel as if it was just a given, they should be together.

Mainly, I love the way he writes both Shiva and Batgirl.

There is more nuance and depth to the character of Shiva in this book. Sure, she’s the cold calculating killer she’s always been, but there is more there. It’s through this book that I can see more about her and even genuinely feel that her feelings for her daughter are realer than we gave credit. Not that she didn’t cause that credit loss herself.

I’m invested in this book, beyond Cassandra just being one of my favorite characters. I cannot wait to see what is next and beyond.

Batgirl #8 is now available from DC Comics.