This Road Was Paved With Blood — Reviewing ‘Batgirl’ #14

Insert something here about the best laid plans and how they oft go awry especially when villains are dramatically involved. Secrets, betrayals, miscommunications, and more has brought everything crashing down for Cassandra Cain and her kind of but not really allies.

It’s a messy affair in Batgirl #14 as the “War of Shadows” continues from Tate Brombal, Stephen Segovia, Rain Beredo, and Tom Napolitano.

This is an issue that is zero-to-sixty pretty much from start to finish. Yet, there is still plenty of the deep characterization and connecting beats that have served it so well. This leaves many of the fast-paced falls, naturally, on the artistic side of the team to really deliver on. And deliver they do.

Segovia and Beredo stepped in for this issue and they’re a really solid duo. I’ve witnessed and reviewed their shared work in the past and it’s still as good as ever. While the art on this book shifts for issues mid-arc at times, it’s never an art style that detracts from the normal work that Takeshi Miyazawa and Mike Spicer create.

There is a slickness to Segovia’s work that is more felt in the overall kinetic movement aspect. He delivers a rougher texture that befits the tone of the story and plays contrastingly well with the aforementioned slicker smoother elements. I love paneling choices that let the action bounce around the page from traditional horizontal style to slashing diagonal ones. All of it has depth and life to it in the way that Segovia keeps things fluid.

There is a heaviness to everything, both in the spaces and how the characters exist. We feel that in the tone bleeding into the color choices. Beredo incorporates those rougher textures into the color palette as well. As darker colors run rampant with the cave spaces and the actions of the characters, plenty of more vibrant popping beats are there to lighten things and play into the fantastical nature of this world.

Cassandra’s struggles with her emotions and the clear forces trying to corrupt her is very much felt.

Through the way her words are heard and delivered to how her emotional energy is depicted upon the page. All the visuals are doing a grand job of making sure we aren’t missing anything that is weighing upon our protagonist. Much is felt in the power Napolitano infuses into all the lettering that is across the pages, keeping the feeling in them and adding little flashes to up the visual dynamic as well as the emotional depth.

There is just enough from what Brombal is adding story wise to figure something is a bit off for the title hero. As violence and the visions of her mother, demanding her to be violent, are something eerie and not usual for the version of Cassandra that we know. Things are getting a big messy with the double crosses and betrayals and all sides not being great. Something is lost in translation when it comes to the innocents on both sides of the heated conflict.

I’ve come this far and still enjoy this series, and can’t wait to see where it’s all going. There is a slight feeling of wheels spinning and little movement in regard to this conflict, especially for a story with war in the title. The character element remains strong, which is just enough to ward off any other minor, for the moment, quibbles.

Batgirl #14 is now available from DC Comics.