Reviewer: Chris Delloiacono
Story Title: Little Bat
Written by: Dylan Horrocks
Penciled by: Adrian Sibar
Inked by: Andy Owens
Colored by: Jason Wright
Lettered by: John Costanza
Editor: Michael Wright
Publisher: DC Comics
BATGIRL has consistently been one of my favorite reads each month. After being with the book from launch, Kelley Puckett recently departed as writer. Normally when a change in writer occurs on an outstanding book, there’s cause for some alarm. This time though I had little worries as Dylan Horrocks arrived last issue. I’m familiar with Horrocks from his excellent work on the soon to be cancelled Vertigo series HUNTER: THE AGE OF MAGIC. Horrocks has a gift for dialogue, and while that may not seem important with a laconic character like Cassandra Cain (Batgirl), it’s the type of thing any comic can benefit from.
Horrocks began his run by introducing the Black Wind, who it appears will serve as both a love interest and a foil, much like Catwoman to Batman. Black Wind is made infinitely more interesting because he may actually be superior to Batgirl in the fighting arts. Between her training under assassin David Cain as a child, and her instruction by Batman, Cassandra is one of the best hand-to-hand fighters in the DC Universe. In fact she defeated Lady Shiva not long ago, proving herself how no other before her has done.
With this new character in place, Horrocks then sent Cassandra somewhere she’s never been before…on vacation! Cassandra loves to do two things, fight crime and train, so she finds the cruise with Oracle awful. It seems Batman, who sent the girls on vacation, had an ulterior motive for the gift. The Black Wind, who is a rebel in his country of Tarakstan, is aboard to kill Vlom Namali, the leader of the country, a tyrant who’s committed many atrocities in his homeland.
Superboy is also aboard ship, leading to a fantastic confrontation with all parties involved. Horrocks hilariously has Black Wind sum up Superboy in one sentence, “He looks like a cartoon version of Superman.†Horrocks blend of humor; action packed fights, and plotting advances Cassandra’s character masterfully in these two issues. While we’ve learned so much about the character of Batgirl in the past 40 odd issues, Cassandra herself has largely been left unexplored. This seems to be changing, as Cassandra will be gaining a love interest, if even for a short time, as a budding romance with Superboy will continue next issue.
The artwork last issue was a little disappointing. BATGIRL has always had beautiful, cartoony, anime styled artwork, thanks largely to the efforts of Damion Scott. In his first outing Adrian Sibar’s characters were too oddly shaped for my tastes, especially the ovoid heads. The hiccups in the art were glazed over this issue, and I see great potential in Sibar and Owens as the new regular team.
This is a great opportunity to jump onboard BATGIRL. It appears Dylan Horrocks will really begin exploring this character in some new and exciting ways. It’s high time for Batgirl to move away from the streets of Gotham, and her trip to Smallville next month should be full of surprises. I’m very excited for what the future has to hold with the new direction of this book.
