Customer Reviews

Batgirl Vol. 2: A Knight Alone

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Cassandra Cain, the young woman that inherited the Batgirl mantle from Barbara Gordon, rose from the cataclysmic upheaval of NO MAN'S LAND. During the aftermath of the earthquake that leveled so much of Gotham City, she became a hero and caught the eye of the city's fiercest protector: Batman. Her origins were mysterious, and-upon discovery-just as debilitating as the murder of her mentor's own parents. Raised to be the world's most dangerous assassin, Cassandra was trained never to speak, never to think, only to act and react. In the second graphic novel of her adventures, Cassandra is dealing with the fall-out of having been given the "gift" of speech. Bereft of her usual fighting ability, she trains and trains, trying to get back what she once had and accepted so casually. Batman counsels Cassandra, and Barbara Gordon counsels her, but only when Batgirl steps into the field of fire of the dangerous living legend, Shiva, does she begin to come to terms with what she is, what she was, and what she wants to be. Only by agreeing to Shiva's terms can Batgirl reclaim what she lost-and those terms could mean the death of her. Even as Cassandra regains her old skills, they're immediately put to the test in the rest of the collected stories. David Cain, the man who raised Cassandra, steps back into her life as well, bringing more pain and tragedy as he tries to recover tapes of Cassandra's aberrant childhood and the training he forced on her. The last arc brings Cassandra under the watchful eyes of a government agency dedicated to bringing her down.

Kelley Puckett has been the regular BATGIRL monthly writer for years, with only a few time-outs for fill-in issues. He's also written for BATMAN ADVENTURES, GREEN ARROW, and LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE. Damion Scott has drawn for DETECTIVE COMICS and BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT.

Kelley Puckett's script work for BATGIRL: A KNIGHT ALONE is excellent. The story flows quickly through the action and meat of the plot. Driven along by razor-edged, lean dialogue and first-person narrative that adds tension, insight, and immediacy. Puckett has created a very savvy new heroine, yet at the same time gifted her with a vulnerability that draws the reader's interest. Cassandra Cain has basically been plucked from everything she's known and plopped down in an alien world. With the addition of the speech ability, she lost much of the nature of herself. Of course, having constant stories without the character speaking would become impossible after a time, and the way that Puckett chose to deal with the issue was good, solid work that comes from the character herself rather than the writer's need to erase a problematic point. Damion Scott's pencil work is a beautiful blend of reality and manga. He works with intricate backgrounds or with no background at all, drawing the eye naturally through the story and pushing the action scenes into sequences that explode from the pages. When someone gets hit in the book, Scott puts the reader into that impact, on both the delivering and receiving ends with equal skill. Most of all Cassandra Cain comes off as a real character, even when literally dodging bullets sprayed at her from an automatic weapon. Her relationships with Batman and Barbara Gordon have a familiar feel to them, adding layers to those characters as well as her own. Scott renders Cassandra as very human and very compassionate. She has wide, knowing yet innocent eyes, and can smirk in disdain or smile with real humor at the drop of a hat-just as the young woman she's written to be can. She wins and she loses fights in the graphic novel, and neither of those comes without a price. Batgirl is an endearing character, and one that has much to learn about herself and the world she's chosen to inhabit.

BATGIRL: A KNIGHT ALONE is recommended for any fan of Batman. And Kelly Puckett's authorial skills rank right up there with Chuck Dixon, Devin Grayson, and Denny O'Neill.

Title: Batgirl: A Knight Alone
Publisher: DC
Writer: Kelley Pucket
Artists: Damion Scott, Coy Turnbull
Collects: Batgirl #7-11,13,14
Price: $12.95

This is the second volume collecting the adventures of the new Batgirl, Cassandra Cain. This volume picks up where the first one left off - with Cassandra learning to speak, now, but with greatly reduced fighting prowess. Batman refuses to let Cassandra go out in costume because he does not believe she can handle it anymore. Cassandra, of course, believes differently, and goes out in black attire with face paint on to continue fighting crime. Eventually, she meets up with super assassin Lady Shiva Woo San, and the two tangle. After Lady Shiva effortlessly beats her to a pulp, Cassie wakes up in an ambulance. Cassie flees the medics, and, after a brief recovery, goes out looking for Lady Shiva again. She hopes that Shiva can retrain her more quickly than Batman can. After a meeting of the two, Shiva agrees to train Cassie if she will agree to a fight to the death in one year. Cassie agrees, and Shiva brings her skills back up to their former level. After this, Batman gives Cassie her costume and title back, and she's back on the streets.

A second part of this volume focuses on Cassie's attempts to rescue a government agent from a governmental conspiracy. This storyline seemed to be a bit disjointed from the previous one - kind of like filler material between larger stories. Maybe I'm too used to reading a single storyline in a single volume, because this second story made the entire volume a bit too broken up for me and made the overall volume less enjoyable. I enjoyed seeing Batman pay back Cain for his abuse of young Cassie, and it was also enjoyable to watch Cain struggling to recover the broken shards of his life after Batman takes him down. I wish I could have seen more of this part of the story, as it was some of the best stuff, but I guess this book IS called Batgirl and not Batman.

I would definitely recommend that any new readers of Batgirl read the first volume before reading the second. That may seem like common sense, but some books are pretty accessible no matter where you pick them up at in the span of their continuity. This is not one of those books. A new reader could deduce most of what came before this volume, but would still be left wondering at the character's origins, motivations, and relationship to Batman.

Art on the book was quite adequate. It was not stellar, but above average. The inks and colors were very well done, which does make a big difference in the overall look of a book. Again, the two different artists working on one title inside one volume doesn't really agree with me, but art chores on comic titles change so rapidly that I know this is unavoidable at times.

All in all, not a bad read. The writer on this title makes Batgirl a very likeable character that you can empathize with, and that's an achievement some writers have a hard time with. Batman is appropriately dark, powerful, and near-perfect in every way. Batgirl, his protégé, is appropriately younger, less experienced, willful, and dangerous. The two characters play very well off of each other, and Cassandra Cain is easily as likeable as Batgirl as Barbara Gordon ever was, and much more likeable than Huntress.

Writing: 7/10
Artwork: 7/10
Cool Factor: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

I've been reading the name Kelly Pucket since he used to answer various DC letter columns. The first time I saw his name credited as a writer was towards the end of the last Green Arrow series. I approached his work with skepticism, but his writing proved more than adequate.

I approached the first Batgirl trade Silent Running with even more skepticism because I had read so many bad things about the series, mostly from the DC Commics message boarders. I was pleasantly surprised when I actually read the book that it was much better than I was led to believe. And in this second trade A Knight Alone, Puckett does even better.

Without giving anything away, I didn't like the way the last trade ended because it seemed like he took the easy way out after writing himself into a corner (this is regarding Batgirl's speach problems). But this trade proves that maybe I was wrong because rather than just wiping out her problem, her story is developed and now she has entirely new and more difficult issues to deal with.

The only thing I didn't like about this trade was the treatment of Cain, Batgirl's father. His portrayal here seems to turn him into a caricature of his former self. There seems little or no more menace about him anymore whereas previously he was portrayed as a very serious threat. This approach has ruined many characters in the past and I hope it doesn't happen here too.

The art is very suitable for the comic and Batgirl has one of the coolest costumes of any heroine in comics (even though it does cover her from head to toe!) I look forward to reading the third trade Death Wish soon.

This incarnation of Batgirl is bad but I'm afraid this book is. Cassandra Cain has an interesting back story but has no personality or reason to read about her other than watching her mindlessly fight. She has the slightest of supporting cast and they both serve the same purpose. Puckett is rushing Batgirl along and readers have no time to get to know her or why we should care. The art is serviceable but too cartoony for me. Overall, a book worth skipping.