Can’t Forget What You Didn’t Know — Reviewing ‘Batgirl’ #21

Solving crimes and being detectives is what most of the Bat-family trained for, and they’re pretty good at it. It’s hard not to, when they work under the wing of someone often coined to be the world’s greatest detective.

Cassandra Cain finds her detective abilities greatly hampered as she takes a deadly trip down memory lane in Batgirl #21. Another chapter of this amazing ongoing saga comes from Tate Brombal, Stephen Segovia, Rain Beredo, and Tom Napolitano.

-Spoilers Follow-

What a really compelling and intriguing angle to take for this series.

Brombal has been doing a lot of work to delve into Cassandra’s backstory in new and innovative ways. He takes the usual trappings (David Cain, Lady Shiva, Assassins, etc) and turns them on their head a bit. This extracts more emotional range and depth out of the character and define her beyond the scope of those aspects of her timeline.

Doctor Forget-Me-Not is already a villain that jumps above others just out of the sheer uniqueness his “traps” bring. Triggered mental trips down memory lane that become permanent if a case isn’t solved is not a normal thing for the Bats to deal with. Big hat tip to Brombal for the forethought to have it be harder for Cassandra to solve since she learned how to read words and understand speech much later. Can’t have information in your memories that you didn’t have the skill or ability to collect at the time.

I love the way that we travel through the memories, being given the same breadcrumbs as Cassandra and the same imperative to come to a conclusion. This is interspersed with the information we’re given to flesh out who the mysterious murdered girl was thanks to Bronze Tiger in the real world.

Speaking of the way it’s laid out, this is stupendous work by Segovia. The paneling alone is just top notch quality that really heightens the impending danger and need to solve the crime. It gives us bits and pieces, while unfolding all the moments across the page, eschewing standard panel style and setup to maximize the space usage on any given page. It also lets us see Cassandra appear in and traverse the memories at the same time, moving across panels like she’s bursting out of the fourth wall is a small but monumental thing to see played out visually.

A lot of this is darkness. The set spaces are a dark factory in the real world and the sparse underground “Basement” where the assassins are training. Nothing is very bold or colorful, and Beredo handles it so smoothly, setting the world tone right away and letting the brighter splashes of color exist in their own time and space. Splashes of darker and heftier color tones are utilized to not only showcase how dark the story angle is but how dark and hefty Cassandra’s uncovered past was. Flashes of red and black really strike as much as the more muted colors that move to almost desensitize and remove her and the viewer from a moment.

Cassandra’s way of speaking is very intentional, to the point, and brief. Both because of how she had to learn to even speak but just because of her personality. Napolitano nails delivering that month after month, while also making sure it drips with emotional range. It spreads across the page like flowing water to match with the rest of the artwork, giving it just the right twist of rapid fire heart-pounding energy it needs. It’s the same with the sounds of the world, which are utilized brilliantly in the right moments to really drive home the points.

Batgirl #21 is now available from DC Comics.