Eighty miles outside of Gotham, Cassandra is on her own against The Unburied in the rescue of Lady Shiva! Check out our review of Batgirl #5.
Batgirl #5 main cover by David Talaski (DC Comics)
BATGIRL #5
Written by TATE BROMBAL
Art by TAKESHI MIYAZAWA
Main Cover: DAVID TALASKI
Variant Cover: KEVIN WADA
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: March 5, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Having planted a tracker on her mother, Batgirl #5 begins as Batgirl travels to the Nest of the Unburied some eighty miles north of Gotham City. Entering solo, she stealthily avoids the larger hub of Unburied populace (which includes women and children), and follows Nergui and Chodak, who eventually get the drop on her. With Shiva’s words ringing in her head throughout the fight, Cass manages to defeat every Unburied member who attacks her, before getting gassed by Nergui and falling unconscious.
Memories swirl of her time with Lady Shiva, from her birth to her first meeting of her “as” Batgirl, to each of them killing each other, to her time as Orphan. Eventually, Cass is met by the vision of Stephanie Brown – the other Batgirl and her best friend. “Stephanie” encourages Cass to vocalize all of her feelings since her reunion with Shiva and the battle with the Unburied. Cass recalls how her upbringing under David Cain led her to hate herself, and she sees in Shiva a perfect version of what she could become, which she despises. She wants to save Shiva, so she can save a part of herself that she views as bad. Steph congratulates her for getting everything off her chest, then hits her back awake, where Cassandra is hung upside down across from an equally suspended above ground Shiva, who’s determined to defeat the Unburied with her long lost daughter.
Analysis
Five months into this series, and I’m getting this theory that the odd-numbered issues are the best. With #5, this is the best in the series so far. The focus in entirely on Cassandra, as we see her on her own for the first time in her book. She’s not playing catch-up to a new plot, she’s not being introduced to enemies new and old. She’s on her own and she thrives, for a while anyway. I enjoyed everything this issue had to offer, but the first half where Batgirl infiltrates the Nest of The Unburied I loved.
In these reviews, I’ve been sparse on my praise of Takeshi Miyazawa, as there hadn’t been much for be to discuss beyond simple quality workmanship. I’ve always enjoyed Miyazawa’s work, but particularly his early style when he did Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. He had a more recognizable manga-inspired design work that appealed to me. These days, that design work is there if you squint, but mostly tamped down for more grounded, realistically rendered illustration. Still good, but not my favorite when comparing the two eras of his career.
This issue however, showcases Miyazawa at his best, and it’s all in how he depicts Cassandra. In presenting her entering the nest and stylishly moving from spot to spot undetected, he at once achieves a characterization of Cass that is far too unsung and recalls the heights of her best run during the Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott era – that being she’s as good at sneaking around as Batman. From the superhero landing to her pulling up her cape to blend in the shadows and hide her face, these are some details I’ve not seen in decades. Above all else, it just plain makes her look cool, which is how it should be at all times. In the recent past we’ve seen Cass as part of a Bat-Family ensemble and paired with Stephanie, so there’s not been many instances where we see her styling on the book on her own. With Brombal’s script and Miyazawa’s art, we’ve got vintage Batgirl in this first half of the book, doing her thing and being awesome at it. More of this please!
Throughout it all, Cassandra has Shiva’s words from previous issues replay in her head. I like this device as it shows an attention to detail in the overall character driven aspect of the story, and also keeps Cass silent, which is where she’s at her best. Mute or not, she is the Silent Knight, and her actions must always speak louder than her words. This also justifies the dump of emotional outpouring she gives to “Stephanie” later in Batgirl #5, as “Steph” gives her permission to, and she’s not much for speaking on how she feels to begin with.
In my previous reviews, I’ve already outlined what’s going on through Cassandra’s head throughout everything, so what she tells “Steph” in Batgirl #5 isn’t terribly revealing unless you’ve not been paying attention, or are unaware of Cassandra’s history. Brombal is flexing his fanboy bonafides by explicitly invoking the best of Cass’ continuity with the Batgirl/Shiva death duel (with exact dialogue from Batgirl #7), and even near the end of her original series with the very WLW dream sequence with Stephanie. This recalls not only Batgirl #72-#73 at the end of her last ongoing book, but also issue #62.
Basically, Cassandra loves to dream about Stephanie whenever she gets beaten up. While at first this rang a bit too hard into fanservice for my tastes, what I like about Steph’s integration in Cassandra’s head is that she’s presented a bit more like an older sister for Cassandra to vent her anxieties to. That’s not exactly how their relationship has been in the Batgirls title or elsewhere, but in terms of how Cassandra would view her, I buy it and I think it’s a perceptive level of characterization that Brombal has nailed in an unexpected way. Shippers can still ship, but there’s no distractive romance in “Steph’s” scenes, keeping the focus purely on how Cassandra is feeling at this point.
Two more points of interest: Much of the book has been on how Lady Shiva is bad and Cassandra is the good version of her. It’s a bit messy in terms of Shiva writing. Bryan Edward Hill during his Batman and the Outsiders book was far better in detailing how cool Shiva is on her own, and the evil dragon-mom version isn’t the best iteration of her. What I’m getting at is, with the way the book has been leading I’m expecting Shiva to die in a sacrifice to save Cass. I hope that’s not the case, the character is above that and it would feel not unexpected but at the same time shallow and unneeded. Shiva’s “died” before in James Tynion’s Detective Comics run, so it wouldn’t be unexplored territory.
Speaking of that run, point #2 in terms of Batgirl #5, is where we are with continuity. In Cassandra’s memories, she recalls her early adventures as Batgirl against Shiva, the original version of David Cain, but also her time as Orphan. How do these versions cohere? The character of Mother isn’t mentioned (which fine by me), but Cass being “Orphan” and not Batgirl was a very contentious point in time during her history. Her original run as Batgirl informs the best of her, but to keep Orphan in continuity is questionable. I recall the issue written where she and Steph saw that they were both Batgirls and of course the whole Dark Knights Metal Multiverse thing basically took the New 52 timeline out of pocket, but this is still a big question for me. It doesn’t ruin anything, merely confuses how Cass might see herself. Because the 2000s era and the Orphan era are distinctly opposed to one another, how might they coalesce?
Regardless, even that didn’t bother me too much. With so little talking, allowing for Miyazawa’s action to take center stage and Cassandra Cain at maximum aura, this is the best presentation of the character since Batgirls #14 in 2023. Where this first storyline goes will determine exactly how good Brombal is for the character, but this issue right here has presented his peak. I’m excited not only for the conclusion, but also what comes next after this.
