After learning about her mother’s mysterious past and fighting a war against the Unburied half a world away, Cassandra has finally returned to Gotham in Batgirl #17, which is good because her adventure was starting to feel a little drawn out. Realizing her blood family is, well, a lot to handle, she internally appreciates her chosen family, the bat-family, when she starts vomiting an unnatural amount of blood. Hell, some might even call it, a supernatural amount of blood.
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Batgirl’s new condition prompts her to find her even smaller family for help. She finds Tenji, her half-brother (son of Shiva and Bronze Tiger), and Jaya, a former member of Nyssa Al Guhl’s reformed League of Shadows. It feels like there should’ve been more tension when she said “I can’t let them see me like this” but it doesn’t hang on the air long enough to seem like a problem.
They’re quickly off to Gotham’s Fi-Di to the grand opening of Wucorp Tower, a place that Cassandra believes is connected to the assassin Wu Bing, someone with ties to her mother, and appeared earlier in the series. It looks a lot like blood bending from the Avatar the Last Airbender cartoon in that it looks slick as hell seeing tendrils explode from Cass but there’s something that violates nature every time you look at it and you can’t help but feel empathetic to the pain she’s clearly in.
Once at Wucorp, we’re treated to what’s easily the highlight of the book. The three heroes are in an elevator making their way to the top of the building. The elevators are shut down and they make their way out. One panel takes up a quarter of the page on the left and they bust through a door that leads them to a stairwell on the bottom of the right page, and they make their way up stairs, towards the top right of the page. All the while carrying a clear conversation and breaking noses.
What’s most enjoyable about this book, besides that wonderfully choreographed chase sequence, is how many plates are spinning at once. Batgirl is worried about her bat-family so she turns to her immediate family, all the while being hounded by people who are quite literally related to her by blood magic.
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Cassandra’s narration reinforces the struggle she’s felt since she debuted 26 years ago. Being torn between the expectations of what you come from and the ambition of who you think you want to be. Writer Tate Brombal hits these themes without beating you over the head with them, but it’s close, I’ll admit.
While this is extremely familiar ground for the character, having blood magically and violently explode from your body makes me want to give Batgirl a pass for having the same “I come from monsters but I choose not to be one” conversation again, even if it is a literal representation of her internal struggle.
Artist Takeshi Miyazawa drew the absolute crap out of this book (along with inker Juan Castro and colorist Mike Spicer). Even when Batgirl’s face is covered by her suit the body language on display shows she’s clearly in pain but firmly resilient to her troubles. The looks of joy and later concern on Tenji and Jaya’s face with the arrogance on Wu Zhi and her lackeys is supremely fun melodrama.
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Batgirl has had a few appearances in recent years through various miniseries and other ongoings, and the final page reintroduces an element from one that I was happy to see again. It’s nice that DC has made efforts to give Cass a bigger world and this Batgirl#17 is not just acknowledging those books but expanding on them.
Batgirl’s return to Gotham happened at just the right time. She brought back elements of her globetrotting adventure that make Gotham feel both bigger and more personal all at once. Her supporting cast continues to develop and even well-worn wrinkles of her past are presented in new and entertaining ways that make them feel more fresh than familiar.
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