Never Forgetting What Matters — Reviewing ‘Batgirl’ #20

Death has followed Cassandra Cain since her earliest days, especially under the care of her assassin biological father David Cain.  

Now something from that past, a person and deaths forgotten, is beginning to surface. Throwing Cain’s modern life into a bit of chaos with Batgirl #20, the beginning of a new story arc from Tate Brombal, Stephen Segovia, Jason Paz, Rain Beredo, and Tom Napolitano.  

One of the things that this series continues to do beautifully is how it explores Cassandra’s past. She’s one of those characters, like Batman himself or a Wolverine, where their backstory has been mined to exhaustion over the years. Folks really poking at their specific trauma standpoints to scratch more at the surface and often retcon a bunch of things into existence.  

Some of them are good, some of them bad, and more often than not a lot of middle of the road stuff is quickly forgotten. Often because someone else comes in to smooth out or pave over them soon enough.  

Brombal is one of those writers who is digging in this well dug spot and still finding ways to strike gold. He’s adding depth and texture to the past with little adjustments here or there, without wholesale full retcons or revisitations. What we find of the past with Lady Shiva or the Blood or now David Cain just adds to the lore and further solidifies the present. It gives Cassandra room to develop and also take hold of her life and her presence in new ways, allowing her not to be beholden to or weighed down by the same past time and time again.  

There’s just enough in this issue to hint at an intriguing new foe or wrinkle, building off a murder mystery tied to Cassandra’s past and finding a way to bring Bronze Tiger back into the mix (though with his son a regular, it was only a matter of time).  

We get a bit of a mix up art wise for this arc as Segovia, Paz, and Beredo take up the visual reigns. It’s a return for Segovia & Beredo who tapped in for the 14th and 15th issues of this series, and a first time on the book for Paz.  

Keeping up with the overall feeling of the book’s artistic identity, Segovia comes out swinging with his very slick and kinetic style. It has just enough roughness baked into the process to fit the tone of the story and series as a whole. Paz’s inks bring more depth and weight to the already weighty artwork, giving it a denser and more textured appearance that works well with what Segovia has put down on the page.  

Together they are letting the world and moments unfold before us with a lifelike feeling. Segovia’s choices for paneling also increase the fludity and dramatic nature of some of the story’s important elements. It’s mesmerizing at times with the deployment of the flowers and the clear hypnosis element in play with the new player in Cassandra’s past.  

Some of that heaviness bleeds into the color choices that Beredo is making here. The darker elements are in play because of the murder mystery and hard past elements that we’re witnessing. At the same time, it’s very vibrant and flashy at times, really leaning into bolder light sources and framing colors that enhance the whole affair. The light allows the darkness to stand out even more, providing that solid contrast to one another. 

Still providing the voices, emotional depth, and visual wordplay is Napolitano. Here he’s really leaning into the shifts with the lettering here to give different voices, tones, utterances, and more as the characters deal with a variety of things here. Simultaneously he is making sure it flows across the page with the right direction, power, and cadence to stand alongside the other artwork. 

Great lettering not only gives us the voices and sounds of the world, but the overall tonal energy. This is something that Napolitano always delivers. Giving it all that little push, be it with colors or bubble shapes or font shifts, that takes it to the next level.  

Batgirl #20 is now available from DC Comics.