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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
dark
fast-paced
Cassandra Cain is not your average teenager. Raised at a young age by the assassin David Cain, Cassie is a unique killer, one who was trained to read boy movement as language. As such, she can predict her opponents' moves as they think them, making her almost unbeatable in a fight. Unfortunately this training stunted her verbal language skills. She can barely speak and only understands what others are saying by reading their body language.
In Silent Running, Cassie has been taken away from Cain and is living with Barbara Gordon (the original Batgirl). This arc focuses and Cassie's struggle to come to terms with her past and her transition as the new Batgirl. I did not know much about Cassie Cain before going into this and I found Silent Running to be a good primer on her origin story. It gives you a good look at Cassie's character and her struggle on how to live life now that she is no longer under her father's thumb. Gordon plays a mother figure and she and Cassie have to figure out how to relate to each other.
Batman plays a big part of the story as well. He's grooming Cassie as the new Batgirl and it is interesting to see how similar the two are. I did think Batman's reaction to a video of what could be a very young Cassie assassinating a bad guy to be a little odd. I might be wrong but I thought that he knew that Cassie had been trained to kill from a young age. While he might be shocked by the video, his outright denial that it could be real seems naive.
Cassie is non-verbal for most of the book, which did not bother me. It was pretty clear what was going on in the story and with her character, even without her verbalization. There was a point in the story where a psychic "helps" Cassie with her problem, which I thought felt out place. It was really quite sudden and seemed too much like a quick fix. I would have rather seen Cassie work through the language barrier instead of getting a magic cure-all. It was interesting to see though what happened to her fighting style once she had linguistic skills.
The artwork in this wasn't really my cup of tea. This was the early 2000s and the popular style was very exaggerated and overdrawn. Everything felt a bit too cartoon-y for me and, was it me, or did everyone have huge chins in this?
While I wasn't in love with the plot in this volume, I did enjoy learning more about Cassie Cain. She is definitely a fascinating character that I want to learn more about. As a relative Batgirl newbie, this volume gave me an intriguing look into the new Batgirl. I definitely want to read more about her and see where her character goes from here.
In Silent Running, Cassie has been taken away from Cain and is living with Barbara Gordon (the original Batgirl). This arc focuses and Cassie's struggle to come to terms with her past and her transition as the new Batgirl. I did not know much about Cassie Cain before going into this and I found Silent Running to be a good primer on her origin story. It gives you a good look at Cassie's character and her struggle on how to live life now that she is no longer under her father's thumb. Gordon plays a mother figure and she and Cassie have to figure out how to relate to each other.
Batman plays a big part of the story as well. He's grooming Cassie as the new Batgirl and it is interesting to see how similar the two are. I did think Batman's reaction to a video of what could be a very young Cassie assassinating a bad guy to be a little odd. I might be wrong but I thought that he knew that Cassie had been trained to kill from a young age. While he might be shocked by the video, his outright denial that it could be real seems naive.
Cassie is non-verbal for most of the book, which did not bother me. It was pretty clear what was going on in the story and with her character, even without her verbalization. There was a point in the story where a psychic "helps" Cassie with her problem, which I thought felt out place. It was really quite sudden and seemed too much like a quick fix. I would have rather seen Cassie work through the language barrier instead of getting a magic cure-all. It was interesting to see though what happened to her fighting style once she had linguistic skills.
The artwork in this wasn't really my cup of tea. This was the early 2000s and the popular style was very exaggerated and overdrawn. Everything felt a bit too cartoon-y for me and, was it me, or did everyone have huge chins in this?
While I wasn't in love with the plot in this volume, I did enjoy learning more about Cassie Cain. She is definitely a fascinating character that I want to learn more about. As a relative Batgirl newbie, this volume gave me an intriguing look into the new Batgirl. I definitely want to read more about her and see where her character goes from here.
The beginning felt a bit disjointed. Maybe that's because I missed out on some previous events. But even still I felt like it kind of jumped around a little awkwardly. Cassandra Cain makes a pretty interesting Batgirl though.
Niet slecht. Goed genoeg in elk geval om mij benieuwd te maken naar meer...
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
As someone who actually has "Batgirl enthusiast" written in her Twitter bio, I'm a bit embarassed to admit that this is my first foray into the chronicles of Cassandra Cain. However, by the time I had finished Silent Knight I had cemented that lingering inkling that I'm more a Barbara Gordon enthusiast than anything else (who features heavily here as Oracle).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a non-fan of Cassandra but she's a world removed from Babz who is considered ~default~ Batgirl. Raised as an assassin from birth her story is a lot darker, with even her outfit being creepy rather than fun. Her "father's" bizarre training methods means she can't communicate verbally, to the point where she even lacks inner monologue - making her a difficult character for comics writers to work with.
SO - slight spoiler ahead - they fix her. Instead of maybe trying to run with it and hire super-creative writers, they just decide to fix a disabled person with the help of a psychic who happens to stumble upon her (clearly an all night brainstorming session was needed for that story arc). The fact that Oracle, who is arguably one of the comic world's best representations of a disabled character, features premodinmently makes it a harder pill to swallow (obviously, I do know that later down the line DC gets a re-boot and Babs is miraculously cured too!).
All in all, this had potential but it just didn't get the proper development it needed.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a non-fan of Cassandra but she's a world removed from Babz who is considered ~default~ Batgirl. Raised as an assassin from birth her story is a lot darker, with even her outfit being creepy rather than fun. Her "father's" bizarre training methods means she can't communicate verbally, to the point where she even lacks inner monologue - making her a difficult character for comics writers to work with.
SO - slight spoiler ahead - they fix her. Instead of maybe trying to run with it and hire super-creative writers, they just decide to fix a disabled person with the help of a psychic who happens to stumble upon her (clearly an all night brainstorming session was needed for that story arc). The fact that Oracle, who is arguably one of the comic world's best representations of a disabled character, features premodinmently makes it a harder pill to swallow (obviously, I do know that later down the line DC gets a re-boot and Babs is miraculously cured too!).
All in all, this had potential but it just didn't get the proper development it needed.