In certain circles of the web, Batgirl is extremely important. And rightfully so: Cassandra Cain has spoken truly and deeply to a wide swathe of people since debuting in the fall of 1999. She’s a different kind of hero — what she may lack in charisma and witty banter, she more than makes up for with heart and depth, a person who tries to help others even when she’s not always so sure of herself.
It’s a lineage and significance that writer Tate Brombal was more than aware of when he (alongside artist Takeshi Miyazawa) launched the all-new Batgirl in November.
“It was definitely overwhelming and in all the best ways,” Brombal said during a recent Zoom call regarding issue #1’s reactions. “Because I know how big of a fanbase Cass has, and I’m part of them. So I knew how much people wanted a Cass Cain Batgirl series for, at this point, literal decades. So I knew there was pressure going into it, but I was confident in the character. I was confident in the story I wanted to tell. I was confident in how I wanted to format the series around her point of view.”
Courtesy of DC Comics.
Brombal went on to explain that, while the “Cass Army” can be daunting, he felt assured in what he was doing to add to the unique story of the second Batgirl.
“Obviously, there’s nerves, but I knew what we wanted to do, and I was confident in that,” said Brombal. “And as soon as the first issue came out, people specifically liked how much they felt like this was the Cass they had been missing. That was really meaningful. And specifically how people reacted to the narration and the point of view of the series. Those were the two big things that I was like, ‘I don’t want to let this down specifically.’ Like, the perspective was just so important to how Cass views the world. So seeing that, all it did was bolster how I’m feeling about the direction of the series and how I feel about my direction with Cass.”
In some ways, Brombal and Miyazawa already had a kind of north star: the Kelley Puckett-penned Batgirl series from the early 2000s.
“Well, that original series is a huge touchstone for me,” said Brombal. “I love so much of what they were able to do in that series. The big thing with that series is they had so much space back then to tell this long-running story. They were able to dedicate so many issues to her just figuring out her point of view of the world and how she would operate as Batgirl with minimal dialogue.”
It was the expert use of dialogue, sure, but that “OG” Batgirl series was also really good at using tension and confrontation to help grow and further Cass as both a hero and a person.
“They just were so good at setting up these conflicts for her,” said Brombal. “I knew going into this, I landed on wanting to do a narration, but it couldn’t just be a typical Batman narration because she’s not as verbose as a lot of Batman characters or eloquent like a lot of Batman narrations. So I was like, ‘Well, if she had a narration, what would it be?’ It would be how she views the world, and she would still keep her very stunted speech pattern. And playing off of her visual cues, like how she’s reading people, which is how I landed on those one-word narration things of what she’s picking up on whoever she’s reading.”
It’s that level of awareness and dedication to the character that has perhaps made this latest Batgirl series so compelling and effective even after just one issue.
“I always want the form of the comic to reflect the protagonist,” said Brombal. “I think Cass is such a unique character — her superpower is how she views the world. So, finding that formalist way to reflect that was like a big component of nailing this.”
At the same time, though, this Batgirl book isn’t just about Cass. This first arc, titled simply “Mother,” sees Cass reunite with her own mom, Lady Shiva, who warns of a pending danger that forces the pair to come together like never before.
“When I originally pitched this book, I wanted the first arc to be a definitive Cass and Shiva story because they’ve always orbited each other,” said Brombal. “They can’t stop coming back into each other’s lives. But I never felt like they got any form of closure or reconciliation. Or, even if there’s not going to be reconciliation, I want to tell that story. So I just wanted to do a story that’s just them versus the world.”
Courtesy of DC Comics.
Brombal added, “In the past, it’s either been an issue at a time, where they come into each other’s life, or maybe two issues. Or, it’s been cast within a supporting cast. So then Shiva’s also interacting with a whole cast and it’s not just her and Cass. So I wanted this to be Cass and Shiva almost together in every single scene, seeing how the world works around them and challenging the preconceptions of each other and the pair also constantly challenging each other. And then also an outside threat challenging them to either hopefully work together.”
While Brombal’s interest in Cass/Batgirl is clear enough, he also touched on his interest in Shiva. Yes, it’s about being a foil to her daughter, but Brombal is also a fan of Shiva and the unique journey she’s been embarked on over the years.
“I love Lady Shiva. I love Denny O’Neil’s Lady Shiva,” said Brombal. “It’s been so long that the exact version of the character can’t exist anymore. What I think changed is when Cass came into the world, and Shiva realized she had her daughter. Because Denny O’Neil’s…the timeline is weird, but I think there’s like a pre-Cass Cain in Shiva’s life and there’s a post-Cass Cain. And as soon as Cassandra showed up, Shiva started orbiting this girl and she can’t move on. She thought she had shed all worldly desires and had reached enlightenment. But there’s this one girl, her daughter, who she cannot move past.”
It’s that unique tension, then, that will allow both Batgirl and Shiva to ask some really vital questions about themselves and their relationship.
“So, the first arc, especially, it’s a Cass Cain book, but it’s just as much about Lady Shiva and their relationship,” said Brombal. “Cass has grown up so much since that original series, but every time Lady Shiva re-enters her life, she kind of falls apart. So I felt like there was potential to address that. But also potential to complicate it even further, because their relationship is already messy. They go back and forth between, ‘Do we care about each other?’ So I wanted to get in there and address all that and also complicate it even more, which is fun.”
And, to some extent, the resulting story offers messy family drama that a lot of just can’t get enough of these days. But at the same time, it’s also about revealing bigger ideas and layers of conflict, including those within Cass/Batgirl.
“Cass doesn’t fully understand the threat as much as Shiva does, and she does not trust her mother enough to believe the threat,” said Brombal. “So then as soon as she’s actually faced with what the threat means, she realizes she may have no choice but to trust her mother even though everything says that she shouldn’t. So I really wanted them to be forced into working together or not, and what that means for them and what it takes to make them get to that point to accept each other and to work alongside each other. And it will continue to be challenged — even if in issue #2, Cass is starting to lean one way, she’s not happy with how the events of issue #2 carried out and she blames her mom more than anything. But, of course, beneath that she probably blames herself just as much.”
Inevitably, exploring all these deep-seated family issues means that Brombal is tapping into his own feelings and personal history.
“I really want to tap into the messy relationship stuff between children and their parents,” said Brombal. “Because I will blame my parents for things, but deep down, so much of it is just my own resentment or weird messy feelings that I won’t deal with. So there’s just so much potential between these two. It’s just making it into this big superhero martial arts saga.”
But given the specific configuration of the Shiva-Batgirl relationship, some of that aspect is complicated, but ultimately in a way that’s still decidedly personal.
“I obviously have my mother, but I’m not a daughter,” said Brombal. “So there’s that component that I can only pull from friends or loved ones and their experiences with their mothers and that unique relationship. But I am the child of a parent, so it definitely is me tapping into just a heightened version of these messy feelings of resentment and also just this blame game of ‘I’m the way I am because of how I was raised this thing.’ And I’m still dealing with it well into adulthood.”
Courtesy of DC Comics.
The relationship issues at the heart of this Batgirl story go deeper than just mother and daughter. In some ways, the creative team are also exploring larger, generational trauma and other concerns around Batgirl’s lineage/canon.
“For Cass, it’s just this extreme version. Her dad raised her as a mute assassin. Her mom gave her up as a child, as a baby,” said Brombal. “Then you can step that back a generation and go, ‘Well, David Cain’s messed up. We don’t need to talk about him.’ But for Shiva, she was forced into that pregnancy and then her daughter was taken from her. So how much can Cass blame her mother for this? Because Shiva, in a way, was also a victim of this horrible man. We often forget that we’re part of generations of a family tree, and it’s going back to how trauma can carry on to another generation.”
Still, it’s not all drama galore. In issue #2, Brombal and the team introduce Ba Bao and her family, all of whom share a deep but formerly unknown relationship with Cass.
“The big reason for introducing Ba Bao and her family was to challenge Lady Shiva’s preconceptions of her daughter, but then also hopefully the reader’s perceptions, because Cass hasn’t had much opportunity to foster a supporting cast of her own,” said Brombal. “We don’t really see her life outside of being Batgirl. And even then she only interacts as Batgirl. But I wanted her to have relationships in Gotham because I do think that even though she doesn’t talk much, she really does love people. And when she finds her people, and when she trusts her people, she is the most loyal person to those people. Like, she will always have your back.”
Brombal added, “So I wanted to showcase a family or just a friendship that she has cultivated on her own outside of the Bat Family. I think Cass is capable of that. And I don’t think that’s been spotlighted enough. She can’t give much to people, but what she can give is what she knows, which is why I wanted her to be teaching Ba Bao’s grandsons martial arts.”
And Ba Bao and her kin have so much to offer not only this story but both Shiva and Batgirl. For the former, it’s seeing a different side of the daughter she’s burdened with far too many assumptions.
“So it was important to challenge how Shiva sees her daughter, because Shiva just thinks she dresses up like a bat and beats people up and is actually resisting being who she should be,” said Brombal. “Shiva sees so much of herself in Cass and is constantly challenging her daughter to just embrace her darker traits. But then Shiva is face-to-face with this altruistic, super sweet girl and this warm relationship she has with this family.”
Cass, meanwhile, is further caught up in her mother’s personal arc, and must face hard truths as Shiva realigns her own understandings and approaches to the world.
“And that’s why Cass doesn’t want to just abandon Gotham,” said Brombal. “She has a life here and her mother doesn’t understand what she’s giving up because her mother has given up all earthly desires and relationships. So, again, Shiva is forced to confront how other people view the world and interact with the world, which doesn’t line up with how she sees the world.”
Brombal added, “I think Cass (in issue #2) finally has come face-to-face with the threat that her mother’s been warning her about — this isn’t just a couple of ninjas that she can beat up and everything will go back to normal. So she sees the threat and what it means for her. And how (issue #2) ends, I don’t think that Cass has gone through something like that in a very long time. She’s never had to really lean on her mother. So she’s suddenly in a position where she might need help, especially from someone like her mother, and she’s going to resist that.”
Courtesy of DC Comics.
But the second issue is still just the beginning of the latest chapter of the Batgirl-Shiva saga. Heading into issue #3 and beyond, their relationship will remain on rocky ground.
“Into issue #3, (Batgirl) is not happy with how issue #2 ended,” said Brombal. “So even if it looks like she might be warming up to her mother, she will have some pointed words to say to her mother in issue #3.”
But no matter what happens with this story (and it takes some truly juicy turns), one thing is clear: it will push Cass/Batgirl like never before, and honor the beloved character in a way that actually means something. It’ll be just another reason why Batgirl is such a vital hero, this profound instance of how we can all transcend our own trauma and shortcomings and be truly great for ourselves and others.
“And then, going forward, it’s this constant push and pull of can she trust her mother? Is this threat valid enough to be overturning her life and injuring people in her life? And, again, it’s a threat that originates from something Shiva did or is tied to Shiva,” said Brombal. “And now it’s passed down to (Cass), which she does not find fair at all. Like, ‘Just because I’m born and just because I’m related to this woman, I’m now having to deal with these threats of death on my family that I’ve chosen.’ But she can’t escape it and she’s forced to confront it.”
