Batgirl #25 // Review
She's bleeding in the rain. Her mask is nearly off. There's blood splattered on a statue. And there's an internal monologue going off. She's being very philosophical about the moment. It's totally understandable. After all, it is the case that she's in a position to kill her own father. Everything is exposed. The face. The blood. The flesh. The bone. It's all there. The only question: who will she be if she kills her father? This and so much more are explored in Batgirl #25. Writer Tate Brombal explores the big milestone issue with artist Takeshi Miyazawa and colorist Mike Spicer.
And then there was a conversation between her and her friends at a diner at some point in the past. It was sunny out. Not raining or anything like that. There was a philosophical question. Probably something quite common in Gotham City. Their version of going back in time to kill baby Hitler or whatever. The simple question.: given the chance, shouldn’t Batman just kill The Joker? Csss didn’t think so. Things are pretty bad with the criminal justice system in Gotham city. Especially in recent memory. But that's no reason to just decide to kill someone. Even if it could save a whole bunch of lives. Of course, now she's considering killing her own father. That's another story altogether, though...
Brombal’s run with Cass hasn't always been the most inspired. However, there's a real dedication to her. There's a real respect for her as a person. There's a real respect for her as an evolving person as well. It's not often that a title is allowed to get this far into the personality and motivations of a title character that allows her to actually have evolving opinions and things like that. All too often superheroes are altruistic archetypes that aren't really allowed to do much changing in the course of any given year. It's nice to see Brombal taking a look at Cass’ evolution at the beginning of the third year of her current series.
Miyazawa deliverance a few different prominently contrasting moods in the course of the big milestone issue. Spicer does a really good job of amplifying the atmosphere. Rainy night in Gotham city is contrasted against some relatively a sunny point in the past. Colors can sometimes be exaggerated. And that's absolutely necessary in order to amplify the reality of what's being put on the page emotionally. There's a lot of interesting framing with respect to the drama of the moment. The atmosphere feels like it's reaching off the page quite well as well.
Cass’ first series ran for six years and 75 issues. It's nice to see the current version of her series having run for at least a third of that length of time. She really is a genuinely interested in character. And she's come along way since her first series debuted over a quarter century ago. She's gone from being someone who wasn't able to speak to being a very complex character who still manages to maintain a certain amount of mystery in spite of years and years of deep dives on her psyche.
