Batgirl #6 // Review
Mother and daughter are both tied-up. They’re both strung-up. Daughter is hanging from her ankles. Mother are is hanging from her wrists. They’re both facing each other. Mother is hanging right-side up. Daughter is hanging upside-down...like a bat. This is kind of fitting given her alter ego. That doesn’t make it any less stressful for either of them as Batgirl #6 opens. Writer Tate Brombal and artist Takeshi Miyazawa continue their journey with the current Batgirl in another issue that explores ridiculously strained family relations under the pressure of overwhelmingly dramatic life-or-death conflicts.
They’re both trapped, but neither one of them is going to be trapped for long. It’s going to be a bit of a challenge for both of them, but they won’t be alone. There are many other elements which will come into play. Not every ally walks on two feet and there’s a hell of a lot of danger everywhere. Every now and then a sacrifice must be made in order for stability to emerge from the chaos. And maybe there is a stronger connection in family than Cass might expect. There will be bloodshed. There will be release. A story will come to an end.
On one level, the story is very much about a mother and a daughter, but on another level it’s really more a stroy about a Batgirl and the Lady Shiva who is her mother...which makes it more of a hero and ant-hero story that feels like it’s been echoing through comic books for a very long time. The issue is that while Lady Shiva HAS been an interesting character in the past, Brombal’s treatment of her hasn’t really een all that interesting. The Batgirl Cass IS interesting, but as the story hinges so much on Shiva...about half of what’s going on feels pretty vacant.
And then there’s the fact that a good portion of the early going on in the issue is a lot of empty drama that doesn’t really embrace the visual all that well. Miyazawa does a prety good job of embracing the visual end of the drama that IS there. A conversation between two people inverted in different directions is actually kind of fun, but Brombal bogs it down in so much dialogue that it might as well be a meeting over videoconferencing. The visuals DO step-up once the action sets-in, however. There are some very powerful moments in and around the edges of the action that Miyazawa is able to bring to the page quite brilliantly.
And with a major, extended plot arc in the rear view, Brombal is free to frame Cass’ story in a direction that’s going to have the opportunity to be something much more interesting. It will remain to be seen if the series IS ble to harness those aspects of Cass that make her such an interesting character, though. As it is, he IS casting her in a light that continues to be really, really appealing. It’s just a matter of throwing her into a confolcit that feels a bit more interesting than that which she might manage with her mother.
