Looking forward reading Batgirl #1.

Batgirl #1

2.50 USD @ April 2000 (Cover Page and 23 net pages)

Plot: Scott Peterson & Kelley Puckett
Script: Kelley Puckett
Pencils: Damion Scott
Inks: Robert Campanella
Letters: John Costanza
Separations: Jamison
Associate editor: Joseph Illidge
Editor: Darren Vincenzo

Cover page blurb: Sensational first issue!

Notable quote(s): "David Cain had some unusual ideas about combat. He experimented with infants. Trained them in isolation and deprived them of human speech. The goal was to adapt the language center of the brain to interpret physical movement as a language. She can "read" you. Your body. That's why she understands what you're saying when she doesn't know the words. It's why in combat, she knows what you're going to do before you do it." - Batman

"We started practicing escrima together and her skill, speed... it's like unconscious for her." - Barbara Gordon

Synopsis: The story opens up with a little girl in a black bodysuit putting together a puzzle of a rose. Her activity is interrupted by the arrival of 5 goons in a dojo-like setting. They were instructed by a man with high grade video camera to remove their blindfolds, and he started filming. The five muscled goons looked confused. The little girl stuck a vicious looking Rambo knife on the floor right in front of her. Her mentor instructed the five imposing goons to take the knife and cut her. That's all they had to do. Easy money. The head goon refused to take the knife and slice the little girl. And the next thing we know he is grounded and bloodied. And then she proceeded to go after the rest.

We fast forward to a teenaged girl sparring with a wheel-chaired Barbara Gordon utilizing escrima hardwood sticks. It ended when Barbara disarmed one of the sticks right off her hand, when the young teenaged girl wasn't looking at her, but looking behind her at a picture of Batgirl. Barbara said that's enough training for now and that Cassandra had to do some studying. Later on, Barbara was at her computer and created the new profile of the new Batgirl. There was very little information. All that she knew was that Cassandra was acquired or kidnapped at birth by the master assassin David Cain, and raised in isolation while being trained day and night in lethal combat. That's how this teenaged girl grew up. She escaped about nine years ago and just drifted, and because of her childhood is almost totally incapable of language. Other than that, Cassandra Cain, the new Batgirl, is highly intelligent, and knows at best, ten words. In a flashback sequence we are then taken back in time to the streets of Hong Kong and a middle aged man beat up and took a bottle of alcohol from a homeless man. He was surprised to see a little girl with Asian features. He broke the bottle in half and threatened the little girl to stay back. The little girl did not even pay attention to his threat and just stared at the beaten up homeless man. Then the girl looked back at the middle aged man, and with a less threatening gesture to stay away from him, and she just looked at him indifferently. She then turned around one hundred eighty degrees and ran the other way. The middle aged man dropped to his knees and cried. We fast forward to the current time and we see a mugging in progress. We just see a shadow spin the goon and placed in an arm lock. The victim is somewhat shocked and still in tears. The woman victim ran away as the mugger is held helplessly in an arm lock rather easily by Batgirl. And then we see the silhouette of Batman. And the goon gets a couple of pounding and we see the mugger begging not to get hit again. We just see the figure of Batgirl with hands open as Batman told the mugger to say sorry, which the mugger proceeded to say sorry to Batgirl and the victim who is already far away. Batgirl had the body language of confusion.

We then move on where Cassandra is on the rooftop of a building and holding a red flower petal by its stem. She removed the stem from the petal and let the flower petal be blown away by the air, thus setting it free. She watched it float down on the side of the building heading towards the ground. Then the roof door opened up and a wheelchair bound Barbara Gordon greeted her and suggested to go somewhere. They went to the park and sat down at one of the benches. As people in the city park were going about their way, Barbara turned her attention to Cassandra and asked her how she's feeling and what she's going through? Cassandra closed her eyes as if in emotional pain, and then opened them up and told her no, and ran away from Barbara. Those were Cassandra's first and perhaps only uttered words in this issue. Barbara was upset with herself calling herself an idiot and suddenly realizing that Cassandra cannot tell her how she felt because Cassandra for all intents and purposes is mute at this point and cannot communicate by verbally talking. Then later that night we see that Barbara Gordon and Batman are by the entrance door of Cassandra's bedroom. We see her struggling in bed in the middle of the nightmare. Barbara confided to Batman that it has been like this with Cassandra, nightmares every night and that she's concerned they are moving Cassandra along quickly to be Batgirl. Batman asked her who Cassandra reminded her off, and Barbara replied him. And Batman turned to her saying that Cassandra is just one strong moment away from making sense of it all as to who she was and as to who she is now. They talked about the psychotic assassin, David Cain's unorthodox and lethal ideas about experimenting and training infants with isolation and deprivation to make them into lethal killers. They talked about Cassandra's uncanny natural abilities in combat. Batman told Barbara that he taught Cassandra the escrima form of combat the previous week, and Cassandra learned it in five minutes. Barbara couldn't believe it.

We are then taken to the next scene where Cassandra Cain is dressed in her Batrgirl costume and training with Batman. Batman ordered her to hit him. She does so, and he blocked it so easily. He pulled her mask to reveal her face and told her not to hold back against him, as he reassured her she doesn't have to against him, and to show him what she can do. A stern faced Cassandra Cain did as ordered. We didn't see their actual combat training. The next page we just see a winded Cassandra hunched sitting down and Batman standing up telling her she's out of shape. Cassandra shot him a rebellious look and Batman coughed up blood. And Cassandra just stared at him as if mockingly telling him, "Are you kidding me?" Batman had a semblance of a smirk and smile at her after that. Then a commotion outside took their attention. They headed out and they were in the night street with an dead security guard slumped against an emptied armored money truck. Cassandra looked downwards at the dead security guard while Batman chased someone in the opposite direction. A gunman emerged with the pistol pointed at Batgirl. She quickly disarmed him and slammed him against the wall of one of the tenement buildings. Something against the building drew her attention while the disarmed robber ran away. We get a splash page that she was looking at her shadow that for the reader would have recognized as a shadow of Batman. And then we see her catch up to the robber and smacks him around easily. As the robber tries to ask who she is, Cassandra utters her second word in the issue, "Shut up." And she knocks him out with a kick in the face.

Afterwards high above in the rooftops of some building, Batman instructs Batgirl the rules. No costumed criminals, and that Oracle will tell her about that. But the rest of the criminals is hers. And while she's in the streets, she is representing Batman. Cassandra reached to her mentor and held the palm of her hand against his face as if she understood who she is now. And at that she leapt from the roof and went patrolling the city as the new Batgirl.

Comments: The best part about this issue and the issues to come in the beginning of the series is that the main protagonist, Cassandra Cain is "mute." The illustrator has the great task of conveying her inner dialogue into a visual storytelling mode. Every panel Cassandra Cain is in, is almost basically a visual storytelling medium that relies more heavily on the pencil duties of Damion Scott. I am not disregarding or belittling the input of the plotters and scripter on this issue. Looking back, I love the consecutive pages of silent issue style moments of this comic book. It reminded me of a comic book from around three decades ago, the first ever complete silent issue comic book, G.I. Joe A Real American Hero issue #21. Snake Eyes was a mute soldier who was an ass kicker. Cassandra Cain while not the same, is one lethal ass kicker, and with the added dark costume with a fully covered face adds levels of someone whom the reader knows will open a can of whoop ass on someone. They then ended up talking about how a psychopathic David Cain experimented with infants. He trained them in isolation and deprived them of human speech. You can see then anger on Barbara's face as to what the child went through.

I loved the back and forth flashback sequences after every few pages. The young innocent Cassandra Cain being trained as a lethal killer by a man who appeared to be her mentor at that young age. And then fast forwarding back to our current time where years later as a young lady she is training in combat with Barbara Gordon, and when she's in the bat-suit, she's training with a Batman that's penciled to be more menacing. It's almost three different mentors.

You can't just help but love the portrayal of Barbara Gordon as the mother hen to a teenaged Cassandra Cain here. You can actually feel in this comic book how much she cared about Cassandra in the little things she does to show that she cared about her. For example cutting the sparring short so that Cassandra can study. She was concerned that she and Batman were moving Cassandra along and pushing her to be Batgirl too soon.

Finally, the defining moment in the issue is towards the end where there is a splash page of Batgirl's enlarged shadow against the side of the building took her attention. Her shadow was resembled that of Batman and at that point she realized who she is in the now, as opposed to who she was before. She is a crimefighter. She is Batgirl.

Thanks. Glad you liked it. I just realized I had over 1,000+ comic books, trades, etc on just the Batman Universe comic books alone that I might as well start devouring them. I do get to read a lot of them, I'm just not going to be able to post a review of each one of them.

Chuck Dixon had been doing Birds of Prey one shots and mini series before the ongoing series started, so he has a good handle on the characters already and the series gets off to a strong start. This is my favorite era of art for Greg Land. Dixon's first three years on this title is my favorite era for Birds of Prey.

Batman Adventures (and its descendants) is easily the best ongoing Batman series of the 1990s.

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