Look Before You Leap — Reviewing ‘Batgirl’ #13

The path towards vengeance is an extremely rocky one littered with dangerous darkness, silky sweet half-truths, and blood soaked lies. Unfortunately for Cassandra Cain this has all come to roost at the exact, inopportune, time.

Flashes of truths buried come to light as the war of the shadows gets far more complicated in Batgirl #13 from Tate Brombal, Takeshi Miyazawa, Juan Castro, Mike Spicer, and Tom Napolitano.

Life has been a series of traumatizing, painful, and harsh moments for Cass. There hasn’t been a lot of time or space for her to truly find any healing. Even the time with the Bat-Family hasn’t closed all the emotional and mental wounds that she pushed to the back.

Brombal is doing a tremendous job at really delving into the character and her mindset. Placing her at a spot here, she is not just a seemingly invulnerable fighting machine, digging through those mental cracks in various ways and catching the character off guard. From so assured about her path to someone that is crumbling in the moment, the truth begins to stare her boldly in the face.

It would have been very easy to make either the Unburied or Nyssa al Ghul truly the full bad guys here with no nuance. That’s not what Brombal wanted to do though. Both sides have done things, and continue to do things, that are harmful but also have benefits to innocents in their midst. The legacy of the al Ghul’s and Lady Shiva are paved with rivers of blood, and this time is no exception.

Miyazawa’s artwork continues to be a large part of what makes this book work — a style that is both light and heavy at the exact same time. He gives a fluid motion to every bit of action, be it fighting or quieter moments, and a deep dense presence. Every panel feels alive, ready to spring into being before our very eyes.

It has a dash of a softer approach that plays well with the varied emotions displayed. Characters’ faces and bodies communicate everything we need to know with genuine ease, soaking up the inks from Castro to become even bolder along the way.

Naturally the color palette matches this, as Spicer knows how to also bring those dualities to the forefront. Really letting the world around the characters take on every natural tonal range that feels familiar and responsive and crafting the perfect foundational backdrop to allow other things to really pop against it. He mixes and matches in shadows and pops of color to fill out the rest of the scenes. Again, keeping it light but also firm as can be.

A lot of unique voices and moments are at play here. Napolitano gives each the grace, power, and focus that they deserve and require. He makes sure that they all have their own feeling, even when they share visual stability, giving words that are the same font or bubble shape different approaches so that the characters’ emotional beats are loud and clear in our minds and creating the atmosphere that befits this story and the sound elements found within.

Batgirl #13 is now available from DC Comics.