The new DC All In Batgirl was a series that did not make it through the three-issue test I give to all new comic books. With the comic book market filled with many great comic books it has created constant tough choices of what will be on my pull list being made. There were flashes of potential shown in Tate Brombal and Takeshi Miyazawa’s new Cassandra Cain-led series. Unfortunately, there were enough things that didn’t click with the new Batgirl series under the DC All In banner.
Recently, six months after dropping the series, I caught up with Cassandra Cain’s Batgirl series through my DC Universe Infinite subscription. And I am happy to say that I was wrong about the series. There are specific things about Brombal, Miyazawa, and Isaac Goodhart run that caught me happily off-guard with how they tapped into the flashes of potential the series showed early on.
CASSANDRA CAIN IS THE BATGIRL I GREW UP WITH
Cassandra Cain is a character that falls in the Tim Drake camp for me. By the time I started reading comic books Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon had long been known as Nightwing and Oracle, respectively. I certainly knew about their time as Robin and Batgirl thanks to Batman: The Animated Series.
But when I really got into comic books the No Man’s Land storyline was middle of taking place across all the Batman comics. That introduced me to a world where Tim Drake and Cassandra Cain were already Robin and Batgirl, respectively. It was particularly great timing to jump on as Cassandra Cain had just become Batgirl during this period. This would turn into Cassandra Cain being the first Batgirl to get an ongoing series.
DC Comics committed to her as Batgirl with her series that ran six years showed her coming into her own. Like Tim with Robin, we really saw how she made Batgirl more than another sidekick or guest character. Everything from her background as the daughter of David Cane and Lady Shiva to her dynamic with different Batman Family members really made her stand out. That was on top of how she was established as one of the best fighters in the DC Universe that made. It was through this that Cassandra thought of Batgirl her version that always comes to mind first.
RENEWED FOCUS ON CASSANDRA CAIN & LADY SHIVA
The first story arc of Cassandra Cain’s new Batgirl series under the DC All In banner focused on her relationship with Lady Shiva. We see throughout this story arc we see that Cassandra has a complicated relationship with her mother. While they have a lot of comic book specific aspects to their relationship at its core they are still family. And like many parental relationships Lady Shiva brings a side out of Cassandra that no one else does.
It is there that we see the second half of the story be where this major aspect of the story goes forward. Yes, the animosity between Cassandra and Lady Shiva is still prevalent. But the second half really goes into how Cassandra deals with her mother being back in her life. It isn’t a simple thing of Cassandra walking away and ignoring her mom. She and Shiva are placed in a position where they have to deal with the state of their relationship.
Best of all is that Brombal and Miyazawa do not try to simply erase Cassandra’s history with her mom. She straight up talks about it openly when she is a dream like state. It’s were having Stephanie Brown there in spirit really helps. Cassandra is able to give voice to all the feelings she was having as she and Lady Shiva dealt with the assassins chasing her. Stephanie, even a dream version, helped Cassandra mentally reset to be more in the present.
This in turn allowed Cassandra’s interactions with Lady Shiva in the finale be about both moving forward. They each have decisions that are looking out for each other. At the same time, its made clear that the past isn’t simply behind them but something they’ll deal with if they survive. Which ultimately makes what appeared to be Lady Shiva sacrificing her life so her daughter could escape hit as intended. We were just getting to the point where it seemed a mother and daughter could improve their relationship.
CASSANDRA CAIN GROWTH THROUGH FAMILY HISTORY
The latest Batgirl series follows a greater trend of bringing in the members of the Batman Family’s history back to the present. Specifically, the connections Bruce Wayne, Dick Grason, Barbara Gordon, and Damian Wayne have with their own family relationships. With Bruce and Dick in particular we’ve seen an expansion of their family history for things that they didn’t know about.
Cassandra Cain is now going through something similar. After her relationship with Lady Shiva appeared to be improving it opened the door for Cassandra to learn about her family history. This is happening through a journal Lady Shiva left for Cassandra detailing her early years of becoming the badass she eventually became.
The journal has shown that Lady Shiva led her own life with a found family similar to her daughter. The relationship she shared with these people showed there were tight bonds that Lady Shiva grew up having. It is a different side that Cassandra didn’t know about her mother that will hopefully help her grow in the process.
GIVING NEW CREATIVE TEAMS TIME
We’ve seen DC Comics bring in a lot of new talent to write in their brand of characters. Because of that we’ve seen teams learning through the process of writing not just the characters they are given but also the DC Universe. Tate Brombal is one of those new writers who has recently been brought in not only Batgirl but Green Lantern Dark.
This opportunity has been earned as Brombal is an Eisner- and GLAAD-Award Nominated comic book writer. Brombal has also had the chance to work alongside Jeff Lemire and James Tynion, who each have long creative runs for DC Comics and Marvel. So he has certainly had the chance to learn from others while building his resume over the last five to six years in the industry.
But as shown with Batgirl’s first story arc it is going to take time for Brombal to learn to not just write Cassandra Cain but also in the DC Universe. Going with the typical six-chapter structure for this first story arc made the weaknesses more apparent. He was getting used to what Cassandra’s voice needed to be. Having six issues for the first story arc helped provide that time that by then end we could see he has a firm grasp on writing the character. Which has resulted to the second story arc being more refined with its story structure.
It highlights where DC Comics is as a company right now. They need to give new talent time to get used to writing their supehero characters. But because of the monthly release structure time is something that is tough to get. We see that with how many series get have a tough time attracting fans and getting canceled. Brombal and Miyazawa’s Batgirl is an example that giving creative team time to develop a good direction for a series is a key to success. It is time that he hopefully gets.
POWER OF THE DC UNIVERSE INFINITE SERVICE
Getting back into the DC All In Batgirl series is a reminder of how important DC Universe Infinite is. As mentioned at the beginning, the comic book market is incredibly competitive. There are so many great comic books right now that it makes keeping a tight pull list tough with so many titles to read. It is why a title that I don’t connect with in the first three issues are the ones that have to get the tough cut, like what happened with Brombal and Miyazawa’s Batgirl.
That circles back to why it is great to have a DC Universe Infinite subscription. It opened the door to give the current Batgirl series a second chance once it wrapped up its first story arc. I was able to see how Brombal and Miyazawa’s grow as a creative team.
Giving a creative team a second chance is something that would’ve been honestly hard to justify. Unless the comic book gets overwhelming positive critical and fan reactions it likely is not to happen. But with the DC Universe Infinite service and the commitment to releasing comics a month after their sale date it’s made second or third chances more likely.
That is ultimately the power and importance of the DC Universe Infinite and other comic book streaming services. The DC brand’s mainstream appeal is hopefully regained with James Gunn’s Superman and other live-action DCU movies. With it better promoting the DC Universe Infinite service will help with all of that.
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